Ganja, grass, dope, hash, reefer, but most commonly known as marijuana. It has been federally prohibited in our country since 1937. Today it is considered the country's most popular illicit drug; making it the most controversial. In recent years there has been momentum in our country to end the prohibition on marijuana and make it legal in the eyes of the federally government. But many people are opposed to the legalization of marijuana and I have to ask why?
Thousands of people die every year from the use of tobacco and alcohol and these substances are perfectly legal in our country. Yet nobody has ever died from the use of marijuana and it is viewed by the government as a schedule I substance, making it medically useless and a highly abused drug just like heroin and ecstasy. Yet despite the negative response marijuana receives, there are plenty of benefits it can offer: alleviation of pain, treatment of nausea, it can be used as an anti-inflammatory medicine, seeds can be used as a food for people, livestock, and birds, hempseed oil is a renewable fuel source, and hemp can also make consumer goods such as paper, canvas, rope, and clothing. There is also the fact that marijuana could be a valuable cash crop, bringing in loads of money if taxed. In California alone, marijuana brings in $14 billion in annual revenues, times that by 50 and that's a lot of money created from one plant.
Marijuana was one of the first drugs to be criminalized and remains the number one target for the war on drugs. This so called war on drugs was just recently announced a failure by the Global Commission on Drug Policy in an report released in June. In this report the commission stated that the efforts to stop supply and consumption has wasted millions of dollars and in turn created a bigger drug crime ring. Instead of wasting money on incarcerating people for victimless crimes, in fact we spend close to $68 billion per year on corrections, one-third of those being corrected are serving time for non-violent drug crimes, we should be finding a way to reform our drug policies. There is no better time than now to change the way we view and use marijuana.From the use of this blog, I would hope to show in more detail than I have already the benefits of legalizing marijuana. As well as its possible medical uses, and explain why it should not be a schedule I substance.
What I find to be one of the most compelling arguments is the fact that over 500,000 people die a year due to alcohol and tobacco related causes. However, research suggest that weed is as harmful as caffeine. Lets also not forget that as a country, we spend billions of dollars a year on health care for alcohol and tobacco related problems while the cost of marijuana is a infinitesimal fraction of of that. Why do we, as a country, spend billions of dollars in legal fees and prison costs fighting a substance that is no worse than caffeine? I look forward to more discussion on this widely debated topic.
ReplyDeleteThe topic of legalizing marijuana is certainly a very controversial one at present. Although clearly supporting the argument in favor of its legalization, your post seems to not waver to one of the two extremes in this ongoing debate. Personally, I feel that you have done an amazing job of making points logically by citing statistical evidence which should lead a read to garner that legalizing weed is not only a way to make money for the country by taxing the proceeds, but it could potentially save over 60 million in corrections. I did learn that the war on drugs was officially a bust from your post, and I find that yet another reason why readers should be proponents of this particular course of action. As your post alludes to, if the government choosing to remain on this course couldn’t rehash more failure in the way of handling marijuana’s legalization. I feel that you have made the argument for this move by the government by very effectively appealing to the readers’ logic and ultimately common sense. As this is somewhat of a personal blog done in an academic medium, motivation behind doing feeling so strongly about this cause could help built ethos as well. If readers have some faith in you then they will more likely to be persuaded to your way of viewing the legalization of marijuana. hope to see these points elaborated on in subsequent posts.
ReplyDeleteI can understand and concede many points you have brought forth. For example, there are definitely commercial uses. What I do not agree with is an outright legalization of this plant in all forms and for all uses. I am not completely convinced this is the right way to approach it. 100% legalization is a steep maneuver away from how marijuana is handled by our nation.
ReplyDeleteWhen considering your argument about industrial uses, one realizes that full legalization is not needed to satisfy this sound argument. All we need are reforms to laws concerning hemp that allow for the cultivation of (http://www.industrialhemp.net) industrial hemp.[/url] This hemp is low in THC and mostly useless as a drug. Currently, hemp products have to be imported from countries such as Canada and the UK (http://brokensecrets.com/2010/06/01/you-cant-grow-hemp-in-the-us-but-you-can-import-it/) where industrial hemp cultivation is legal and regulated.
I have a hard time believing your argument that marijuana has not killed anyone. I do realize many attempted studies prior to the year 2000 could not find correlations to lung cancer, however newer studies have shown a positive, and in many case doubling chance, correlation between smoking cannabis and lung cancer.(http://lungcancer.about.com/od/causesoflungcance1/f/marijuana.htm) The reasoning for such contrasting results is due to the fact that the drug is illegal and controlled studies cannot be performed. The fact is that pot smoke contains many of the same carcinogens as tobacco smoke. This fact is what makes it hard for me to believe there is no connection.
In the grand scheme, I agree that marijuana does not bring the same devastating, and often violent, drawbacks that other substances bring to society. For this I propose a compromise with baby steps. I believe the U.S. needs to move toward decriminalizing possession of the drug the way many other countries have successfully done. This step will allow for more data collection to help argue this issue on either side.
Indeed, the public has continually been lied to about marijuana and its effects by people in power who are looking out for their own interests. You are right. There have been absolutely no reported lethal overdoses of marijuana. In other words, no one has died from abusing weed.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the public is not necessarily concerned about dying from this drug; rather, they are interested in its side effects. For example, many people argue against marijuana prohibition because of the supposed brain damage marijuana causes, and many people believe that this brain damage is an actual result of smoking the drug. Perhaps the most famous experiment to date linking marijuana use to brain damage is the Heath/Tulane Study conducted in 1973. In this experiment, Dr. Health tested the effects of marijuana use on rhesus monkeys, pumping 63 joints worth of marijuana through a gas mask covering the monkeys’ mouths. This process lasted five minutes and was performed every day for three months—-brain cells begin to die after four minutes without oxygen.
Of course, many of these monkeys experienced brain cell death, they were suffocated, and suffocation causes brain cell death. It was not the substance distributed to the monkeys that cause their brain cell death, it was the method through which it was distributed that produced the death. The Health/Tulane Study is only one of the many forms of misinformation presented to the public.
Recently though, a glimmer of hope for the legalization of marijuana has appeared. In 2005, an article published in The Journal of Clinical Research entitled, “Cannabinoids promote embryonic and adult hippocampus neurogenesis and produce anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects.” In other words, marijuana can actually stimulate brain cell growth.I like the way you point out the benefits marijuana can offer economically as well (the production of hemp etc).
Undoubtedly, the truth about marijuana and its medicinal and potential economic benefits should be known to the public. Unfortunately, the truth about marijuana is often skewed and convoluted by institutions like pharmaceutical companies who do not want marijuana legalized for egocentric reasons.
I agree that cannabis does not pose a threat to the safety, health, or well-being of anyone greater or even equal with that of the threat of tobacco or alcohol. I would even take it one step further and say that drug laws themselves lead to more waste and harm than good. Senator Ron Paul put it well in a recent presidential debate when he asked if heroin were legal if use of the drug would rise. Would you start using heroin if it were legal? I seriously doubt it. Furthermore, billions on dollars are wasted annually on the War on Drugs, yet we really see little reduction in the availability or use of drugs. I don't believe that it is laws that stop people from over-using drugs, it is common sense. If someone wants to use drugs enough to become addicted to them, a law will most likely not stop them. I think the billions of dollars would be better spent educating on how to use drugs responsibly rather than on a global game of whack-a-mole.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the exorbitant amount of government resources spent in the punishment of victimless, marijuana related crimes, are stubbornly wasted. In an economy that has suffered a metaphoric beatdown, it is just short of foolish to stand against a crop revered around the world. With it's curative effects in the background for a moment, let's think economics. In 1995, marijuana brought in for the Dutch economy of Amesterdam 1.4 billion euros (then 1.36 billion dollars) (http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n2098.a02.html). In a very realistic way, marijauna's curative effects, given the chance, may even be extended to the sickly economy of the U.S. 100% legalization would only backfire, but alleviated possession and distribution laws would go miles in providing much needed economic growth. Taxation in Amsterdam can be as high as 52% in some areas. That speaks billions to countries with cities such as New York, which spend anywhere between 300 and 700 million dollars to incarcerate low-level marijuana crimes (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/20/legalisation-marijuana-war-on-drugs?CMP=twt_gu).
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