COUNTRY SHOULD LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

Substance Not Dangerous, Spending Towards War On Drugs Foolish

Marijuana use should be legalized and decriminalized in the United
States. The foundation for the oppression of a responsible marijuana
policy in America's history has been created by ignorant hysteria,
poor government prioritization and a lack of education on the topic.

Marijuana use, the act of consuming the
chemical tetrahydracannabinol (THC), is less dangerous
than drinking alcohol, but is treated as a much more dangerous act
in American law. People are allowed to go out to bars and get drunk
legally, so why aren't there bars for people to go and use marijuana
if they don't want to get drunk?

The reason for this and all American marijuana policy is based on
unreasonable double standards of society that have defined marijuana
as a dangerous, criminal thing.

In reality it is just a plant that has a chemical that makes you
feel funny. These double standards need to be common knowledge to
people, in order to educate them and keep them away from prejudicial
perspectives.

There is a stigma behind marijuana use in America. But where does
this stigma come from?

Perhaps it is the after-effects of anti-marijuana propaganda that
circulated in America, such as the cult film "Reefer Madness,"
created in 1936, which portrays marijuana users as murderous, sexual
lunatics - a truly ignorant preconception.

Perhaps it is marijuana's inexplicable relation to the dangers of
heavier drugs such as cocaine and heroin - side effects such as
violent addiction - when studies have actually shown alcohol and
tobacco to be more dangerous than marijuana.

Or perhaps it is the current propaganda on television, such as
commercial advertisements showing the "dangers" of smoking
marijuana. In one such advertisement, some boys are shown smoking
marijuana and then buying food at a drive-thru, and subsequently run
over a child on a bike because of it.

Advertisements and propaganda such as these are insane and blur the
reality of marijuana use. Instead of informing the public, such
movements have served no purpose other than causing an unnecessary
stigma behind something that is not dangerous.

These movements have created the ignorance that sustains the
oppression of marijuana, while alcohol continues to kill tens of
thousands in driving accidents and people become addicted to easily
available pills.

The reality of alcohol and marijuana laws is full of irony. Alcohol
has a damaging effect on the body: causing liver damage, killing
brain cells, creating impotent males. Surprisingly, marijuana use
only causes one of these three problems - an association to
impotency among male users.

Unfortunately, marijuana use also has a negative effect on the
lungs, but with the creation of new smoking devices such as
vaporizers, which are used medically in places such as California,
lung risks have been lowered significantly for users. The short-term
effects are substantial between the two as well. People
experience fits of violence, get incredibly sick,
experience hangovers and occasionally lose that inhibition known as
"common sense" when they are under the influence of alcohol. On the
other hand, marijuana users experience a temporary euphoria that
produces a relaxing effect in the body, only to leave them mildly
exhausted after the drug's effects have worn off. Yet marijuana
remains illegal and alcohol is restricted to people 21 and older.

In the same vein, millions of Americans take over-the-counter pain
pills with a doctor's prescription - pain pills that are more
addictive and tend to have similar effects on the body as marijuana
- - and it is completely legal. Not to mention very profitable.

I realize that an America with marijuana legalized federally is a
bit farther in the future, but I think the first step should be
taken in this movement towards the ending of marijuana prohibition:
the decriminalization of marijuana.

President Nixon, in 1971, coined the phrase "War on Drugs" to refer
to government policy towards drugs in the United States. Since then
the government has spent billions upon billions attempting to
prevent and eliminate drug use in America. I do not believe
the idea of a "War on Drugs" is a bad idea, but I do believe that
considering marijuana as a drug dangerous enough for billions of
dollars worth of enforcement is just foolish.

Nonviolent drug offenders receive sentences that place them in the
same prisons as rapists and murderers as well as other violent
offenders. This irony also needs to be brought to focus a bit more.
Placing a nonviolent offender in a prison full of violent people
will only turn the nonviolent person into a violent person.
Not only that, but taxpayer money is used to bust these nonviolent
offenders, as well as keep them in prison. The fact that our
nation's ignorance of marijuana is the cause for such double
standards is something that needs to be fixed. A person caught drunk
driving gets a short time in jail and has to take a class, while
a person growing marijuana for their own personal use will receive
years in prison and thousands in fines.

On the other hand, I do not wish to believe marijuana legalization
should be such a pipe-dream in our current times.

States such as California are pioneering the movement by legalizing
medical marijuana and decriminalizing it within the state, while it
is still federally illegal. Not only that, but marijuana can be
grown, bought and sold in parts of California for medical purposes.
The money California makes in taxes from the industry, billions in
revenue, also pays for the money spent fighting the illegal drug
trade in California. California is inching towards the larger
possibilities of marijuana legalization in America.

Not only is there a market for marijuana to be bought, sold, and
taxed, but jobs could be created by the marijuana production
industry, hemp from the crop could be harnessed as a resource, and
an entirely commercial sub-market could be created for marijuana,
the same way that alcohol now has a competitive commercial market.
Ideally, marijuana could be regulated in the same manner alcohol is
regulated: you can't do it while driving, while at work and you have
to be old enough. America would not only save billions in fighting
the "War on Drugs," but they would make billions more in taxes.
Yet, none of this will happen until society abandons its
preconceptions of marijuana.

Marijuana legalization is not about smoking a lot of marijuana - it
is about principle. Marijuana, superficially, is another way for
human beings to relax and amuse themselves. People should be allowed
to do things that make them happy without people telling them they
can't, especially when it only affects the user.

People are allowed to do a lot of things to their bodies and minds,
and the fact that marijuana use is not legal only serves as a
contradiction in American law. I believe laws on such subjects
should come down to personal responsibility. If you don't want to
smoke or drink, then you don't have to. If you abuse something like
marijuana though, you have no one to blame but yourself. People can
use marijuana responsibly, but America has to give them the chance
first. Get out and vote.