Legalization_of_Marijuana

Marijuana, a member of the cannabis family, is the most commonly used illegal drug in the United States. Who would imagine that such a widely used substance is illegal' Until 1937, marijuana was legal in all U.S states, but these laws were rarely enforced, and marijuana remained widely used throughout the 1960's 70's 80's and 90's. In fact it is still widely used today. However, none of this has gone unnoticed by the government. In the 1970's, the "War on Drugs" campaign was initiated. The government began to advertise negative information about marijuana (a lot of which was untested, and later proven to be false) to lower drug usage. But is it all bad' Marijuana has been shown to have medicinal benefits, as well as a wide range of other benefits. The information the government distributed about it has been tested and retested and is losing its authority quickly. But now the question has been raised: should marijuana be illegal at all' The answer is that all forms of marijuana usage should be legalized. The start of the marijuana ban was on the assumption that the negative information about marijuana distributed by the government was accurate. The fact is that the dangers of marijuana use have been greatly exaggerated. The government said that marijuana use, over time, can cause loss of brain cells. They said it can cause infertility. They even said that, in high enough doses, it could be directly responsible for death. The only problem was the source of all this information. The government received its information from lab reports, but most of these lab reports were from experiments that never took place, and were based on scientists' opinions on what the effects of long term use could be. This gave marijuana a lingering bad reputation, which eventually led to the marijuana ban. Until the 1990's came along, these claims were never tested. Before then, anyone who wanted to conduct a study had to register it with the government to receive government funding. The problem with this was that if the government thought information received from a study would create conflict with their own information on marijuana, they would deny funding, and the study would never take place. Because of this, anyone who wished to prove the government wrong was kept quiet. This strategy held up until the 1990's, when private universities funded research programs on marijuana, and the results they found were staggering. Almost every claim made earlier was contradicted. Lab studies show that it is impossible to overdose on marijuana and that increased potency does not increase the risk of death. In fact, there is no risk of death at all. There has never been a documented case of death caused directly by THC, otherwise known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the active chemical in marijuana. Other studies show that marijuana has very little or no effect on fertility either. All in all, marijuana has little or no negative long term effects and is no more dangerous than a cigarette. Even the Drug Enforcement Administration's own administrative-law judge, Francis Young, concluded that marijuana "in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." Legalizing marijuana would not only benefit marijuana smokers, but other aspects of society as well. Unfortunately John P. Walters thinks otherwise. "The legalization scheme is unworkable. A government-sanctioned program to produce, distribute, and tax an addictive intoxicant creates more problems than it solves. First, drug use would increase. No student of supply-and-demand curves can doubt that marijuana would become cheaper, more readily available, and more widespread than it currently is when all legal risk is removed and demand is increased by marketing." (Walters) This claim is partially true. Marijuana cost would go down, it would be more readily available, all legal risk would be removed, and most likely drug use would increase. But if it is going to be legal anyway, increase in its use would not be a problem. Furthermore, if marijuana was legal, with proper age restrictions, it could actually be kept away from children. A prime example of this is in Amsterdam, where after legalization, drug use among teens dropped a substantial eight percent. There are numerous other ways in which legalization would benefit society; for instance, if marijuana was legalized, the government would collect tax on every sale. With this in mind, if the potential marijuana industry became anywhere near as profitable as the tobacco industry, then the government would be raking in billions of extra tax dollars each year. Not only that, but marijuana could be distributed directly from the government, bringing in huge profits along with the tax dollars. On top of all of this, there are even more reasons why legalization would be beneficial. If marijuana was legalized, users would know exactly what they were using and the exact potency of it. Doing so eliminates the current risk of receiving marijuana possibly laced with other drugs put there to intensify the high. In addition to these benefits, no more tax payer dollars would be spent prosecuting offenders of the prior laws because the possession of and distribution of marijuana would be legal. Considering it costs $30,000+ per year to house an inmate, which is a tremendous amount of tax dollars being spent that could be better used for numerous other resources. It is for these reasons that the positive aspects of legalizing marijuana far outweigh the few drawbacks. Possibly, the greatest benefit of marijuana lays in its medicinal value. For example, glaucoma patients can use it for anti-nausea treatment. Marijuana is also an appetite inducer, therefore, it can be used to help cancer patients, as well as anorexics, overcome their loss of appetite. Along with these benefits, marijuana is also a powerful relaxant that has been shown to help relieve pain and suffering of those that have fallen ill to diseases such as multiple sclerosis. When used with such a disease, it can lessen spasms and muscle cramps, as well as relieve shaking and other effects of ways of walking. Recent statistics show that the leading cause of neurological disability among people ages 16-40 in the United States is multiple sclerosis. Such a remedy, no matter how brief, can greatly reduce the suffering and pain from which multiple sclerosis patients fall victim. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Because of the marijuana ban, it has become increasingly more difficult to conduct studies on marijuana, restricting further research of other possible medicinal benefits. If it was legalized everywhere, even if only medically, there is no doubt that more beneficial uses would be discovered. After reviewing both sides of this issue, it is an obvious conclusion that marijuana should be legalized in order to increase tax revenues, decrease the amount of "bad" marijuana, and help people suffering from diseases such as glaucoma and even cancer. The ban of marijuana, over the past several years, has not reduced demand or availability in the U.S. On the contrary, marijuana use has dramatically increased due to the widespread publicity given to the drug by music artists, movies, and television, as well as the health benefits that are becoming more known as colleges do independent studies challenging assumptions from old government "facts", most of which were not actually studied at all. There was a time when alcohol was looked down at, and considering how many have died from it, it would seem to be a great deal more dangerous than marijuana. Then factor in all of the benefits of marijuana, and the fact that no fatalities have ever occurred from a marijuana overdose; legalization is just a matter of time.