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Discussion in 'Apprentice Marijuana Consumption' started by Vicious, Nov 10, 2007.

  1. Please do critique. Stealing will result in death. :rolleyes:



    Prohibition and Reform of Marijuana

    From as early as the times of Alexander the Great, we as a human society have embraced nature in it's simplicity and have found ways to use certain plants in order to help better health, mind, and body. Marijuana has been used medically, spiritually, and as a recreational drug for centuries. Not only has it been used in every corner of the world, but it has helped produce one of the world's strongest natural resources, hemp. Hemp can be used for many different items that we as a society use in everyday life. It is the gray areas of marijuana that leave the substance to claim the title of an illegal substance. Since the early 20th century prohibition has blindly criminalized all uses of cannabis, medically and especially recreational, and if caught it is charged as abuse of an illegal substance.

    Cannabis, which is the flowering part of the marijuana plant, is composed of cannabanoids such as CBN, CBD, and the most infamous delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol also know as THC. Although we see signs throughout our history of spiritual use of marijuana, times have changed and so have the people. The typical marijuana consumer is usually a law abiding member of society being criminalized because they choose to use marijuana rather there than drink alcohol or smoke tobacco. This can put a harmless and otherwise innocent person in jail. The severity of this drug can put a normal person in the ring with people who have committed murders when it comes to time served in a correctional facility.

    Like prohibition in the past, marijuana has out weighed the actual risks of the contraband and has fabricated an illegal market. Timelessly, prohibition has proven to be ineffective. We can look back to when alcohol was prohibited, the mafia ran the underground smuggling rings to make a substantial profit while undermining the government laws that were placed before them. From 1980 to 2000 nearly ten million have been arrested with marijuana charges (Zimmer 2). Annual arrests have risen considerably, going from 326,850 in 1990 to an astonishing 829,625 in 2006, more arrests than all other violent crimes combined, including murder, robbery, and rape (NORML 1). With nearly 60,000 incarcerated it is costing tax payers an average of $1.2 billion dollars, and $7.5-$10 billion to prosecute simple possession charges, which is 85% of all arrests (Zimmer 2).

    Offenders of today can be denied federal funding, scholarships, grants, private loans, and occupational licenses (Zimmer 2). Many of these victims in The War on Drugs would be eligible for medical marijuana if it were state supported, instead these ill people are labeled a criminal to the society and are forced to be put away in order to maintain order and peace.

    In the 70's Oregon and Alaska decriminalized marijuana, only to be recriminalized under the Regan Administration. Making possession of a joint punishable up to a year in federal prision, the same punishment as heroine and cocaine offenses (Zimmer 2).

    In 1972 the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) presented a petition requesting marijuana be moved to a Schedule II Drug so that it may be medically provided (Stroup 7). After 16 years of fighting and appeals the DEA administrative Judge Francis Young announces "Marijuana has been accepted as capable to relieve distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for the DEA to continue to stand between those suffers and benefits of substance in light of evidence in this record" (Stroup 7). This was overruled. In late 1972 the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse claimed the harm of being arrested outweighs marijuana's actual harm, claiming "marginalizing" any minority does not serve the interests of society (Zimmer 3).

    It wasn't until 1996 that voters were able to pass laws preventing victimization of the ill using marijuana as medicine. Two years later medical marijuana proposals pass in Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington State (Zimmer 1).

    Between 1976 and 1985 California saved an estimated $1 billion dollars by decriminalizing personal amounts of marijuana (NORML 1). Federal officials still clinch to the highly biased and propaganda filled information and make egotistical opposition with comments as simple as "It sends the wrong message" (Zimmer 2). It's unnerving to see little federal progress since the Marijuana Stamp Act of 1937, which was entirely based off misinformation such as the infamous film "Reefer Madness".

    Contrary to government claims marijuana is relatively harmless. Only damage is done to the respiratory system, which is common for any smoke, although marijuana's smoke is less detrimental than tobacco smoke and hasn't been linked to cancer (Zimmer 3). This damage can still be reduced by other methods of ingestion, such as edibles, other smoking methods, and new technologies such as vaporizers, which cool smoke temperature literally to a vapor. No deaths have been linked to marijuana as there has been no fatal dosage (Zimmer 4). Previous government studies yielding negative results such as brain damage are from animal tests, in which they are forcing 1,000 times the amount of smoke than that the average human dose would be (Zimmer 4).

    A highly controversial issue is that marijuana is a 'Gateway Drug'. This would mean that it leads to harder, more addictive drugs. Majority of hardcore drug users have lived a detrimental life style before their abuse problems and were vulnerable to addiction via genetics or environmental stressors. Hardcore drug users reportedly use other drugs such as caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, as well as marijuana (Earleywine 2). Saying hard drug users are abusers because of marijuana needs to be dismissed by basic principals of science. Correlation does not mean causation.

    Medical marijuana is a natural alternative to toxic, costly, and in some cases less practical and effective conventional medicine.
    Medical marijuana can be used as an analgesic as it has been for centuries. An analgesic is typically a drug or medicine given to reduce pain without a loss of consciousness. In some states it can now be prescribed to relieve symptoms of intraculed pressure in open-angle glaucoma, as well as a treatment for depression, anxiety, menstrual cramps, asthma, and pruritus. It can also be useful for spastic conditions such as multiple sclerosis, paraplegia, and quadriplegia. Marijuana can also counterpart nausia, as well as many other symptoms associated with cancer patients and people with AIDs Wasting Syndrome (Stroup 7).

    Tens of thousands who are deprived of medical marijuana who self-medicate risk criminalization. Medical marijuana patients still occasionally become victims to the law. Bryan Epis of California faced 10 year federal prison charge for growing marijuana. Police claim Epis was growing to supply statewide drug operations. Epis appealed for police misconduct and perjury.

    Epis admitted he grew with four others for personal medical use (Walsh 1). Little amounts would be donated to a legitimate medical club he helped establish. Luckily Epis was protected under Proposition 215 which aloud authorized patients grow personal marijuana. Epis says, "If Proposition 215 had not passed, I wouldn't be standing here today. I'm being prosecuted because I have a heart. I've seen too many suffer and die from cancer and aids not to try to help them. I'm not ashamed for what I did but I feel bad for my family" (Walsh 2). Another similar case is that of Mark Emery, a pronounced Canadian 'pot proactive' politician wanted by the United States for supply marijuana seeds to private growers.

    Dispensaries offer a regulated system to provide quality marijuana to doctor recognized patients. It eliminates many crimes and stigmas associated with illegitimate drug trafficking. Police claim "High quality marijuana is widely available in all parts of the united states" (Zimmer 2). Medical Clubs offer a friendly environment where patients may use discretion and can purchase gourmet herb edibles. Many are an extension of a typical glass, or headshop.

    Although prohibition has been proven throughout the annals of history to be inevitably in vain, it is imperative to weigh recreational use and medical use of marijuana on separate merits (Stroup 6). Even acclaimed programs such as D.A.R.E. have admittedly been ineffective. Both states with and without marijuana prohibition have had paralleling rises and falls in drug use over the years (Zimmer 2). Potential patients are being deprived of daily medicine because all marijuana use is viewed by the law as abusive. It's now time to set the guidelines for responsible use and end the suffrage of tens of thousands who need medical marijuana. The wasted resources in an ineffective cynical campaign, are also victimizing millions trying to enjoy a drug less damaging than caffeine in the sanction of their homes.
     
  2. good paper man. only error i caught was in the marc emery sentence, you used 'supply' instead of 'supplying'.

    it was factual and you got your points across quickly and without bias. what class is it for?
     
  3. Wasn't for any certain class. School wide project everyone has to do to graduate. I have to do some more presentations, couple more projects. I already did job shadowing. I have a bunch of other shit to do.
     
  4. Wow, can't believe I found this. I'm reusing this for college American Federal Government class 3 years later. I wish I had my full work cited though.
     

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