GREED STANDS IN THE WAY OF DECRIMINALIZATION

I would like to take this opportunity to write about a plant with an
undeserved reputation. Everyone knows, or thinks they do, about this
weed, but most really don't. If you haven't had any experience with
this substance at one time or another, you probably know someone who
has. I'm referring, of course, to marijuana.

This weed was outlawed in 1937. Do you know why? You would think it
was because of complaints from the medical profession for having to
treat so many marijuana addictions, or the police because marijuana
was the main impetus behind so many violent crimes, but you would be
wrong.

Legislation to criminalize marijuana was rammed through Congress
because of the efforts of two men. Harry J. Anslinger, the first
director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics who saw that policing the
opium and cocaine trade was not enough to justify his position. He
needed something more prevalent and pot hit the spot.

Anslinger had a strong ally in William Randolph Hearst. Hearst had
some personal reasons to see that marijuana or pot smoking was made
illegal. First he hated Mexicans, and since the majority of pot users
at the time were Mexicans, it was a good way for him to get revenge
because Pancho Villa, their leader, had taken 800,000 acres from him.
Also, he had invested heavily in a new papermaking process that used
wood pulp instead of the superior hemp fiber to make paper.

So with Hearst's enormous propaganda machine going at full speed, the
vast majority of the

people and Congress were persuaded that marijuana was a danger to
society. Interestingly the sole objection came from a Dr. William C.
Woodward, who, at the time, was the legislative Council for the
American Medical Association. Woodward criticized Anslinger for
distorting previous AMA statements that had nothing to do with
marijuana and making them appear to be AMA endorsements for Ansling's
views.

Many today still believe that marijuana has no medicinal value, is
highly addictive, that it kills brain cells, that it drives people
crazy, etc., etc... But the truth of matter is, all of those
accusations have been shown to be false by numerous scientific
experiments from 1893 to the 1970s as explained in a book by Lynn
Zimmer, an associate professor of sociology at Queens College, City
University of New York, and John P. Morgan, M.D., professor of
pharmacology at the City University of New York Medical School. Their
book is titled Marijuana Myths Marijuana Facts.

Of course some studies confirmed the dangers of marijuana, but Zimmer
and Morgan point out in their book that those studies had significant
flaws. I find it quite odd that mankind has successfully used and
benefitted from this plant for 8,000 years, but now it is an accursed
thing.

Here are a few more reasons I believe marijuana should be
decriminalized: There are 60 chemicals in marijuana that could have
medical uses. If there were absolutely no medical benefits to THC
(tetrahydrocannabinol, marijuana's chief psychoactive ingredient) why
put it in a pill (Marinol) form and prescribe it to patients.

According to Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), the drug war
costs $69 billion per year. A professor of economics at Harvard by the
name of Jeffrey Miron estimated that if marijuana was legalized and
taxed like ordinary consumer goods, it would bring in $2.4 billion a
year. And if it were taxed like alcohol or tobacco, the revenue would
be $6.2 billion. Why is it that the only ones who profit from
marijuana are illegal drug dealers? The marijuana arrests in the
United States in 2005 was 88.5 percent and was for possession only.
Police arrested 786,545 people for marijuana violations in 2005. That
same year, police arrested 603,503 for committing violent crimes.

The craziest part of all of this, in my opinion, is that they warn
that pot smoking leads to experimenting with harder drugs like heroin
or cocaine, but physicians can legally prescribe morphine and cocaine
but not THC, except, of course, in a pill form (Marinol) which is the
most inefficient way to metabolize THC. Smoking is simply the most
efficient way to do it.

The American College of Physicians, the largest group of internal
medicine doctors in the United States, have endorsed the use of
marijuana for medical purposes. Thirty-six states permit its use as a
therapeutic drug.

The main ally in the decriminalization of marijuana is the truth. The
main stumbling block to it is greed.

Finally, I want to make it clear that I, by no means, recommend that
anyone try smoking pot. I'm just saying we shouldn't punish those who
do.