MARIJUANA: A POINTLESS BUT ENDING WAR

Back in my supermarket days as a stock boy, a coworker gave me an
anecdote about how he was getting high with his friends at a deserted
rail yard. Two police officers appeared suddenly, so the kids
languidly tried to hide their joints behind their backs. After some
half-baked attempts to lose the police, they gave up their joints.
Instead of arresting them, however, the policemen stomped on their
joints and simply shooed the kids away, where they would perhaps find
another place to loiter and smoke up.

The actions of these police officers epitomize a quickly developing
perspective toward marijuana in America. As time goes on, more and
more Americans are losing their faith in the war against marijuana-for
medicinal, recreational, and even financial reasons.

It's quite surprising whom you find disgruntled with prosecuting pot
smokers. According to Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director
of the Drug Policy Alliance, an organization that seeks widespread
U.S. drug policy reform, hundreds of policemen, judges, prosecutors,
statisticians, and politicians believe that marijuana criminalization
is a costly and foolish pursuit. A variety of political powers have
been opposing strict marijuana laws for years, to the point where
bipartisan support has been shown for legalization.

In the summer of 2003, around two-thirds of House Democrats and a
dozen Republicans voted in favor of an amendment, cosponsored by
Republican Dana Rohrabacher, to prohibit federal funding to Justice
Department crackdowns on marijuana in states that had legalized it.
Legalization of medical marijuana has already been approved in
California, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, and other
states; while New York, Maryland, and others are considering the same
move, often in bipartisan support.

The federal government spends at least $10-15 billion every year on
fighting marijuana on the basis that it is a harmful "gateway drug" to
other more harmful substances. However, there have been studies
comparing the relationship of marijuana and the demand for other
drugs, between marijuana decriminalized states and those with stricter
punishments. These studies conclude that criminalizing marijuana has
virtually no effect on the average use of other drugs, disproving the
stigma that it is a "gateway drug" (check out studies conducted by
Thies and Register). Other studies show that teenagers today find
chronic just as accessible as it was in the '70s, when marijuana laws
were at their weakest.

About 700,000 arrests are made every year for marijuana offenses, with
approximately 600,000 of them for minimal possession. Seven hundred
thousand amounts to more than the annual arrests made for cocaine,
heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and all other illegal drugs
combined. Millions of Americans have never committed any other crime
except for marijuana possession. Roughly 100,000 Americans are behind
bars tonight due to marijuana possession. Marijuana possession can
take away parents from their children, deport foreign-born residents
regardless of status, and bar student loans to those in need. It's no
surprise then that there is such a great movement for
legalization.

A 1988 administrative law judge from the Drug Enforcement
Administration concluded-after witnessing extensive testimony-that
"marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically
active substances known to man." Those words only begin to describe
the salutary characteristics of marijuana. No one has ever died from a
marijuana overdose, which can't be said of many illegal or even legal
drugs. Development of lung cancer from marijuana is very rare. There
are pharmaceutical products being sold today with marijuana's central
ingredient, THC. The funny part is that the DEA czar claims that
medical marijuana does not exist, yet the federal government is
currently running a program that distributes medical marijuana for a
few patients who are recognized by the court as genuinely ill. It is
becoming harder and harder for opponents of marijuana legalization to
disprove the therapeutic effects.

Those supporting marijuana legalization are now predicting that
marijuana will follow the route of Prohibition. California and several
municipalities currently regulate, distribute, and tax marijuana
through clinics; and when recreational use emerges, the government
will treat marijuana as it treats alcohol: tax it and incorporate
minor laws on usage.

A few days ago, Denver passed a law that now allows anyone carrying an
ounce or less of marijuana to be free from indictment. As the trend
for decriminalization continues, American views will change on
marijuana. They will see that marijuana prohibition values are worse
than those held for alcohol Prohibition, and when that time comes,
full legalization won't be far off.