THE BURNING QUESTION: LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

BLAME DRUG SUPPLIERS, NOT USERS.

Marijuana shouldn't be illegal because it is dangerous (it's not),
and it shouldn't be illegal because it's a "gateway drug" (it's not).
It should be illegal because of what it does to Latin America.

It is an undeniable fact that every time someone buys marijuana, they
are helping to fund a horrifically bloody civil war in Latin America
that's been going on for decades. Thanks to Americans' drug money, it
shows no signs of stopping.

Tom O'Connor, a prominent criminal justice professor at North
Carolina Wesleyan College, states on his Web site that 90 percent of
the marijuana in the United States is from Latin America.

This high demand has given rise to several suppliers, the most vile
of those being the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia).

FARC is a drug-funded terrorist organization that is so out of
control that, according to O'Connor, they don't even try to conceal
their kidnappings anymore; they simply refer to them as "taxes. "
This is what America's quest to get high has wrought.

One could make the argument that if marijuana were legal, it would be
sold by legitimate businesses who wouldn't buy it from Latin American
drug cartels, but this is incorrect for two reasons.

First, legalization wouldn't stop the flow of illegal marijuana into
the United States; if anything, it would make it flow faster and harder.

This is because legitimate businesses, if allowed to sell marijuana
in America, would have to follow all of the U.S. business laws that
the drug cartels laugh at. The price of legal marijuana would then
skyrocket compared to its illegal counterpart.

For example, would you buy American-made marijuana from RJ Reynolds
at $300 an ounce, or would you buy illegal Latin American marijuana
from RJ the drug dealer at a tiny fraction of that price?

Enough people would choose RJ the drug dealer over RJ Reynolds that
it would make legally selling marijuana a non-profitable venture and
the drug lords would keep on laughing maniacally all the way to the bank.

Second, this argument assumes that the companies who choose to go
into the marijuana business (and I'm not talking about landscaping)
will refuse to purchase their product from the cartels. This is
giving profit-driven entities way too much credit.

The history of Americans buying products from companies who procured
their wares in less than savory ways (oil, coffee, cotton, et al.) is
long and disgraceful. Just as Exxon and Unocal buy oil from Saudi
Arabia and pretend not to notice the decapitations, marijuana
companies will buy from Latin America without a second thought.

Marijuana should stay illegal because America shouldn't throw in the
towel in the war on drugs, not when that would be a huge boon to some
of the most despicable people on earth.

Instead it should end its futile and punitive war against drug
consumers in the north and take the war to the real enemies - the
drug suppliers down south.

THE LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA IS LONG OVERDUE.

The mere fact that there is no reason to keep the drug illegal is
reason enough to legalize it. Just look at the most common arguments
put forth by the "marijuana is the devil's harvest" enthusiasts.

First, it is contended that marijuana is a "gateway drug" that often
leads to heroin, cocaine or other, harder drugs. Anti-drug advocates
use the fact that most users of heavier drugs have tried marijuana as proof.

Ridiculous. By this logic, the same argument could be made to make
alcohol illegal, because a vast majority of heavier-drug users
consumed alcohol before moving on to harder drugs.

Second, physical damage done to users that abuse the drug and other
dangers would be increased.

Hypocritical. According to the editors of the prestigious British
medical journal, The Lancet, "It would be reasonable to judge
cannabis as less of a threat ... than alcohol or tobacco."

Furthermore, a federally commissioned report by the National Academy
of Sciences' Institute of Medicine states, "Except for the harms
associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are
within the range tolerated for other medications." Cigarettes are
legal in this country, so clearly the effects of the smoke are not
enough to justify prohibition.

The strongest case for marijuana legalization, however, is sheer
economics. According to the NORML Report on Sixty Years of Marijuana
Prohibition in the U.S., the arrest and prosecution of more than
700,000 people on marijuana charges (close to 90 percent of which for
possession alone) cost taxpayers between $7.5 billion and $10 billion annually.

If marijuana were legalized, not only would taxpayers no longer have
to pay for such needless processes, but private firms would also
spring up, sell marijuana, turn a profit and return tax revenues to
the government. Just as cigarettes and alcohol generate enormous tax
revenues, marijuana would do the same.

And for those concerned profits are going back to drug lords in
Colombia, don't be. As it stands, marijuana bought today already
drives demand that supports Latin American terrorist organizations
such as FARC, but legalized marijuana will curtail this demand.

Think of legalized marijuana in terms of the oil trade. Currently,
the United States is heavily dependent on Middle Eastern oil, which
is widely seen as a huge problem. But had the Middle East been, say,
Canada, no such problem would exist, and instead of constantly
seeking to diversify, America would have been satisfied in dealing
with its laid back neighbor to the north.

The same goes for marijuana. As new companies emerge, of course they
will look first to Latin America, but the political consequences of
such an action will soon catch up to them.

The result: a massive search to diversify, which, unlike oil, is
accomplished much easier in the field of marijuana. Then, over time,
marijuana will be produced domestically, and the power of the Latin
American drug cartels will diminish.

Thus, keeping marijuana illegal is absurd. We must legalize marijuana
immediately and begin "reefing" the benefits today.