The Arizona Republic newspaper ran a story about medical marijuana and the push to decriminalize its use in Arizona by sick and debilitated people. While overwhelming majorities support medical marijuana, there are still some people who buy in to the reefer madness. Witness this one letter to the editor:
Marijuana dangerous; don’t legalize it
Marijuana should not be legalized and it is not medicine. It is a dangerous, addictive substance, which can cause physical and mental-health problems, traffic accidents, and can lead to worse addictions, such as heroin.If people want to cure cancer, they should look elsewhere and not try to legalize marijuana, even for such purposes. – Susan Bengston, Phoenix
Got it? Even if marijuana turns out to be the cure for cancer, it shouldn’t be legalized, because people might get addicted to heroin. Sorry, cancer patients, you’re just going to have to die, because we don’t want there to be any traffic accidents. Here, have a beer instead!
This is the mindset we are up against. Good luck, reformers!
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Marijuana is a completely natural resource. It is just a mixture of dried, shredded flowers and leaves that comes from the hemp plant and yet it is against the law to grow and use it in this country. There are many uses for Cannabis other than for the relaxation or pain relief associated with the recreational use of marijuana. There is virtually no health risks associated with smoking marijuana. Taxing the sale of marijuana could provide needed money for the government during this financial crisis. Also, imprisonment of marijuana users and sellers is costing the government a fortune, and is overflowing the prisons instead of having room for violent criminals in there. For these reasons, marijuana should be decriminalized.
After the Mexican Revolution in 1910, Mexican immigrants poured into the United States, which introduced Americans to the recreational use of marijuana. As the drug started to become connected with immigrants, the apprehension and intolerance for the Spanish-speaking foreigners came along with it. Anti-drug campaigns warned against the horrible “Marijuana Menace,” and the awful crimes that were accredited to marijuana and the immigrants who used it.
Hemp is the name of the plant marijuana comes from. It is a very fast growing, stable plant that can be used to create textiles, paper, construction materials, car parts, food and body care products. A 1938 article from Popular Mechanics said that there are more than 250,000 ways to use hemp. Benjamin Franklin made hemp paper from his paper mill. Hemp makes stronger paper that can last longer than wood paper by centuries. It does not need to be bleached like wood paper does, therefore it does not poison water supplies like paper mills do. And wood paper comes from trees that can take from ten to twenty years to grow while hemp paper comes from hemp that can grow in only 100 days. Finally, One acre of hemp can produce the same amount of product as ten acres of trees over a twenty year cycle.
In addition, Hemp is an environmentally friendly crop to harvest. It does not need any pesticides and its roots detoxify the soil, making it perfect to use as a rotation crop. It is also fast growing and reaches maturity after about 100 days. It is great for crop rotation as well, allowing farmers to produce two different crops to be grown and harvested in a single season. Hemp has the potential to help farmers financially by offering an alternative, stable crop.
Unfortunately, the government has prohibited the growing and harvesting of the crop. A multitude of jobs could be created if we took advantage of the highly adaptable hemp plant. A whole new production industry would be created. Unfortunately, the government has prohibited the growing and harvesting of the crop. Legalizing marijuana would could create a new crop for farmers, reduce pollution caused by bleaching paper, and help our environment by reducing our need for deforestation.
Another reason to legalize marijuana is that it provides relief for people with certain medical conditions. Medical treatment from marijuana has been shown to be helpful in lessening side effects for cancer and AIDS patients who are going through chemotherapy. By lowering the blood pressure, marijuana provides relief for people who suffer from glaucoma which is a condition where the tension inside the eyeball is abnormally high. In low doses, it can be used to treat depression. Marijuana also stimulates sleep, which aids patients who suffer from insomnia.
Two drugs which are legal in this country, alcohol and tobacco, are known killers. Every year, tobacco causes 435,000 deaths each year in the United States. Alcohol causes 85,000 deaths each year. (http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/30) The same study shows no deaths attributed to use of marijuana.
The DEA’s Administrative Law Judge, Francis Young stated: “In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating 10 raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care.”
There has not been a recorded case of lung cancer in a person who only smokes marijuana. Research has proven that using marijuana will not lead to any type of cancer. The same statement cannot be said about alcohol, though. It has been proven to add to different long-term negative health effects. Some of these include cancers and cirrhosis of the liver.
Marijuana should be legalized because it has proven health benefits and has been shown to be less harmful to the body than two of the most popular drugs that are legal in the United States, alcohol and tobacco.
Another reason marijuana should be legalized is that if it is legalized, illegal trade and associated crime involving it will be reduced, and valuable taxes will come out as a result. In 1969, only 16% percent of voters in the United States supported legalizing marijuana, based on a poll by Gallup. According to the same source, the percentage of supporters had risen to 36% by 2005. More recent polls indicate the number has gone up even more since the financial crisis in 2007-2009. Now, between 46% and 56% of US voters would support legalization. The number of supporters for legalization has gone up three times the amount than it was in 1969.
The market for marijuana is universal. “There’s no doubt about it that it would generate a lot of revenue. It’s a common pastime for a lot of people — black, white, various economic backgrounds,” says Tori More. California could raise $1.3 billion a year for marijuana taxes put into place.
According to his Jeffrey Miron, a professor of economics at Harvard, the government would save $7.7 billion a year if it didn’t have to spend money policing and prosecuting marijuana activity. Then, if the government taxed marijuana at the same tax rate as tobacco and alcohol, it could raise another $6.2 billion.
So we could not only raise money from legalizing marijuana and taxing it, we could save money by cutting the cost of law enforcement and the cost of housing non-violent marijuana users in prison. Stephen Gutwillig, director of the California’s Drug Policy Alliance, and a leader in the fight to legalize marijuana in California said, “Banning marijuana outright has been a disaster, fueling a massive, increasingly brutal underground economy, wasting billions in scarce law enforcement resources and making criminals out of countless law-abiding citizens,” he said.
Having more than 2.3 million citizens incarcerated at the beginning of 2008, the United States is leading the world in the number of people it has behind bars. The average cost of imprisoning these people was $23,876 in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics were available. State expenses vary from $45,000 a year in Rhode Island to $13,000 in Louisiana. More than one in 100 American adults is sentenced prison, which is costing the government near $50 billion a year. These tax dollars could be much better spent on getting our country out of debt.
When it comes to preventing repeat offenses by nonviolent criminals, who make up around half of the imprisoned population, other options for punishment are available. Proven alternative punishments consist of community supervision and required drug counseling, which is way less expensive could prove more effective than time in jail.
Legalizing marijuana cost help farmers by providing a reliable, money making crop, could help raise money for states in big financial trouble by providing a new tax base, and could help save money by lowering the need for law enforcement to spend time going after non-violent marijuana users and freeing up prison space. Further, there are proven health benefits for certain medical conditions and marijuana use has been shown to be no more harmful than drugs that are already legal in our country. Marijuana should be legalized in the United States.
Just stating a question how many violent pot heads have you seen compared to drunks? I mean I grew up in a small town where there were drinkers and pot heads alike and it seems as if you were going to go to a party with alot of drunk people there was going to be some type of fight male or female alike and going to hang out and smoke weed everybody would just be in silence and just relaxing watching tv or munching away. I mean I think some people are just really close minded they rather smoke something that is man modified to create an addiction that is closer to herion then marijuana is I mean if you have to be eased off nicotine by using patches or gums you are still recieving small doses to come off the same way a herion addict has to come off by recieving small doses. Marijuana is a single planet that the most it has been modified is potency where I have no idea what is in nicotine which we all know does cause cancer I think the worse side effect of marijuana is it affect the speech over time as well as response time but technically wont kill you. These are all just my opinions
One problem I have with many of the efforts to legalize marijuana, is that most people envision that retailers will be able to get current street prices for it. They say things like “legalizing marijuana will bring the state economies billions”! But again, they are thinking in terms of selling pot at $40 an eighth of an ounce. In a legal market, it will be IMPOSSIBLE to charge that much. Not only that but it would cause the whole project to fail.
One of the primary reasons for legalizing weed is to get it off of the street. If it were being made available at $40 an eighth in the stores, a person growing their own would be able to sell it for less than a fourth of that and still walk away with a sizable profit. With that in mind we should be looking at charging at most $10 an eighth for “the chronic” in our stores. While we’d have to sell a little more, it would dissuade potential “black market” activity.