Marijuana Legalization Essay

Written for my English 101 class, would've liked to spend a little more time on it, but I kept getting high instead.

Written by: Christian Prince

[FONT=&quot]Legalize It[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot] Why does our government feel the need to step in and prohibit a natural plant that has been used by many societies for up to the last 4,000 years (Snyder 103)? Marijuana has been entirely unregulated in society up until only a couple hundred years ago, but we now cannot watch television without seeing a commercial demonizing it. Views on marijuana have stayed almost unchanged since Harry Anslinger launched his racist campaign against it as the head of the newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Anslinger successfully changed the way America viewed marijuana by a relentless tirade of propaganda, and the methods used ensured that the drug would never get a fair hearing. Currently, 12 states have laws that protect users of marijuana under medical purposes, and 10 states have laws that support medicinal marijuana but do not provide legal protection for it (NORML 1). A few of those states have even gone one step further to place any other marijuana law at the bottom of police priorities, where those entire communities have voted to do so. We are slowly starting to realize that marijuana has tremendous uses for patients of chemotherapy and AIDS, and that many of the ideas we grew up with about it are blatantly false (1).[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot] Evidence of ancient marijuana use as a recreational drug dates back to 1000 BCE in India where it soon became a vital part of Hindu culture (Snyder 125). Cannabis was also used recreationally in other civilizations prior to 500 BCE, but most documentation of drugs from that time period pertains to opium addiction. The ancient Chinese used marijuana as far back as 2000 BCE, learning how to use every single part of the plant. They did not start using it recreationally until much later, however, and little is known about why they did not. In second century India, it became common practice to give banquet guests cannabis to encourage amusement and cheerfulness. The lower class of India used the herb at the end of the day to relieve fatigue, promote happiness, arouse appetite, and to reduce stress due to the strain and repetitiveness of daily routines (Geller and Boas 5). From India, marijuana spread quickly to the rest of Asia and the Middle East, and then to Africa and South America, especially in Muslim countries (Fort 15). Followers of Mohammed were prohibited from drinking alcohol, and many turned to cannabis as a substitute. In the 19^th century, two separate scientific European reports claimed cannabis was a wonderful ailment for many common problems and also a mild euphoriant (Grinspoon 56). Doctors of that time also vouched for its usefulness and eagerly provided cannabis without a prescription (Snyder 121). In the United States, cannabis emerged slowly as a recreational drug around 1916 by soldiers in the Panama Canal Zone. In 1933, the military surgeon released a report stating the marijuana is not habit forming, delinquencies resulting from use are negligible when compared to alcohol, and “that no recommendations to prevent the sale or use of marijuana are deemed advisable” (Geller and Boas 147).[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot] Not everyone in the United States was able to take an objective look at marijuana, and some completely disregarded all evidence that it was not dangerous. The main player in the prohibition of marijuana was Harry J. Anslinger, the newly appointed first director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Anslinger was in a unique position, given the power to define both the problem and the solution. The federal government had already started to prohibit cocaine and opium, but Anslinger had the ability to prohibit anything he wanted to. In order to ensure success at his new job, he preyed upon notions of racism and violence to shed negative light on marijuana: “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others (Brecher 4).” Sadly, these deliberately false statements still exist in people’s thoughts, such as a poster in the Buhler High School hallways in 2006 that said “Marijuana: One hit can kill,” from Anslinger’s message of “Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.” It is well known now that it is physically impossible to ingest enough marijuana to be fatal, and that marijuana has never caused a single death since its history of use (NORML 1). Anslinger also had a very effective partner who helped him spread his anti-marijuana propaganda in the name of William Hearst. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Hearst was the owner of a very large chain of newspapers who had invested heavily in the timber industry and wanted to prevent hemp paper’s development as competition. He also hated Mexicans after losing 800,000 acres of timber land to Pancho Villa. Printing Anslinger’s sensationalist and racist propaganda sold newspapers and protected his business investments, ensuring Hearst stayed rich. Together, the two flooded America with newspaper stories often written by themselves that played upon racist views of the time, telling everyone who had no experience with the drug that only the “degenerate” races used it (Brecher 6). Anslinger made his move two years later when he proposed his plan to Congress along with a portfolio of Hearst articles (8). He distorted statements by the American Medical Association to make it look as if they supported cannabis prohibition, but William Woodard, Legislative Council for the AMA, showed up for the hearing. He started by expressing outrage that Anslinger had distorted AMA statements and that the bill was presented using the term marijuana (9). At this time, marijuana was a term used in Hearst’s sensationalist articles. Woodard argued that most people had not yet connected cannabis and hemp to marijuana, thus legitimate opposers of the bill were not even aware of it. He then stated the AMA was opposed to the legislation and there was not enough evidence of any of the claims to warrant its prohibition. A committee member then read a quote from one of Hearst’s articles, and then passed the legislation. On the floor of the House of Representatives, when asked if the bill had support from the AMA, one committee member jumped up and shouted yes. With that lie, the legislation passed and cannabis was made illegal through the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 (10).[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Since then, supporters of prohibition continued to exaggerate marijuana’s dangers. New myths came along every once in a while, but none went away. One of the most prominent claims is that marijuana is a gateway drug, making its users fall into a slippery slide of hard drug abuse. In reality, it is true that most users of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin have used marijuana. However, there has been no steady connection between the use rates of these drugs over time. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, when marijuana use increased in the 1960s and 1970s, heroin use decreased (17). When marijuana use decreased in the 1980s, heroin use stayed fairly constant (19). Since the 1970s, LSD also remained stable while marijuana rates fluctuated (18). In Amsterdam, where cannabis is legal, 2.4 percent of the population that had ever used cannabis was current cocaine users in 1994 (Cohen 7). Only 0.2 percent of marijuana users used heroin (7). In the same year, 1.2 percent of high school seniors that had used cannabis in the Netherlands were current users of cocaine, while 16 percent of high school seniors in the United States did the same (7). When the Dutch legalized marijuana, they designed laws around selling marijuana in government licensed coffee shops to minimize contact with harder drug users or street drug dealers. Legalizing marijuana would actually keep people away from harder drugs, requiring them to buy it in liquor stores or smoke shops instead of from a more dangerous drug dealer that is likely to be connected to harder drugs as well.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Supporters of cannabis prohibition also claim that being under the influence of marijuana flattens out your brain waves, causing you to become frozen to the couch for hours. Television commercials are the most common place to find opinions like these, and a few years ago the Partnership for a Drug-Free America ran a commercial showing the normal brainwave activity of a person and then the flattened brainwaves of a 14 year old under the influence of marijuana, which was actually the brain waves of a coma patient (Herer 74). Researchers promptly complained and the organization pulled the advertisement. In reality, marijuana slightly increases alpha brain wave activity (Dornbush, Fink, and Freedman 13). Alpha waves are associated with relaxation and meditation, both closely tied with creativity. It should also be noted that the Partnership for a Drug-Free America receives a large part of their advertising budget from alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical companies (Cotts 2). These companies are heavily interested in making marijuana look like a horrible drug whilst downplaying the dangers of their own products. Another misleading statement about cannabis is that it impairs short-term memory. This is true while intoxicated by the drug, but any symptoms of short-term memory loss disappear when not under the influence (Dornbush, Fink, and Freedman 16). [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Yet another marijuana statistic that is misleading is that today’s marijuana is nothing like the marijuana from the 1970s. This is a claim made by researchers who used marijuana seized by police in the early 1970s against average cannabis of the time. The problem was with how the old marijuana was stored, open to air and in an evidence room that was not air conditioned, causing the potency to deteriorate dramatically. Independent studies confirmed through old marijuana that had been stored properly that “street” marijuana from the 1970s is roughly as potent as current “street” marijuana (Mikuriya and Aldrich 5). We do have genetic super-strains of the plant, cultivated by cannabis-breeding scientists, but such strains are up to ten times as expensive. We have cultivated strains with much higher amounts of THC, but they remain a delicacy while average marijuana has stayed about the same. Compared to alcohol, average marijuana would be beer, while super strains would be similar to vodkas and rums. People who use such strains compensate for its potency by consuming less, in much the same way as alcohol users do.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]As for marijuana being dangerous, a simple look at the states that have provisions for medicinal marijuana shows otherwise. Currently, marijuana is a Schedule I substance according to the federal government and the Drug Enforcement Agency. The DEA lists substances in this category are as having a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use, and a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug (1). According to NORML, an organization dedicated to reforming marijuana laws, twelve states have medical marijuana provisions, allowing patients to receive a cannabis prescription to treat cachexia, cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy, seizures, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, and multiple sclerosis (1). In all of these states, voters have approved legislation to put these programs in place. In spite of nearly 25 percent of our country recognizing marijuana as a medicine, the federal government continues to turn its back on it, refusing to admit that marijuana prohibition has no merit.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]If the federal government would open its eyes to the truth about marijuana, there are billions of dollars to be made. So far, over 500 economists have sent letters to the federal government showing support for the legalization of marijuana. They claim that $7.7 billion currently spent on prohibition enforcement would be saved by legalization. Also, if marijuana were to be taxed heavily such as tobacco and alcohol, our country could profit by up to $6.2 billion a year (Moffatt 1). This is a total savings of $13.5 billion annually! According to NORML, there are 50,000 deaths annually from alcohol poisoning and 400,000 deaths annually from tobacco. Marijuana is non-toxic and cannot lead to death by ingestion alone (1). It is ridiculous to keep cannabis illegal and ignore the benefits it can bring to our society while substances which are thousands of times more dangerous, such as alcohol and tobacco, are freely available.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]There is absolutely no reason that marijuana should still be illegal. Harry Anslinger’s propaganda has been long exposed, and there is plenty of evidence to counter any baseless claim made by him and his supporters. While marijuana is obviously not as safe as breathing air, harms surrounding its use have been twisted and exaggerated. Keeping cannabis illegal only serves to keep its price high and provide organized crime with another cash crop. Legalization would put over $13 billion back into the pockets of our government and keep our buyers away from more dangerous street dealers, possibly lowering use rates of harder drugs. We have already started to legalize its use as a medicine, but we should keep moving forward until there are no restrictions on its use. The government has no right to “protect” users from themselves, especially in a country where substances that kill hundreds of thousands of people a year are legal. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Works Cited[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]"Active State Medical Marijuana Programs." NORML. 1 Dec. 2004. 4 Dec. 2007 <http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3391>. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Brecher, Edward M. "The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs." Drug Library. 1972. 5 Dec. 2007 <http://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/Library/studies/cu/cu56.html>. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Cohen, Peter. Cannabis Users in Amsterdam. Urban Softdrugs Tolerance Policy Conference, 7 June 1995, University of Amsterdam. 2 Dec. 2007 <http://www.cedro-uva.org/lib/cohen.users.en.pdf>.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Cotts, Cynthia. "The Partnership: Hard Sell in the Drug War." The Nation 9 Mar. 1992. 2 Dec. 2007 <http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/Nation030992.html>. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Dornbush, R. L., M. Fink, and A. M. Freedman. Marijuana, Memory, and Perception. 124th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, 3 May 1971. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"Drugs of Abuse Publication, Chapter 1." Drug Enforcement Agency. US Department of Justice. 4 Dec. 2007 <http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/abuse/1-csa.htm#Schedule%20I>. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Fort, Joel. The Pleasure Seekers: the Drug Crisis, Youth, and Society. New York: Grove P, Inc., 1969. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Geller, Allen, and Maxwell Boas. The Drug Beat. New York: Cowles Book Company, Inc., 1969. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Grinspoon, Lester. Marijuana Reconsidered. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1971. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Herer, Jack. Hemp & the Marijuana Conspiracy: the Emperor Wears No Clothes. New York: Atlantic Books, 1990. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Johnston, L. D., P. M. O'malley, and J. G. Bachman. Monitoring the Future. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, 1994. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Mikuriya, Tod H., and Michael R. Aldrich. "Cannabis 1988 Old Drug, New Dangers the Potency Question." Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (1988). 2 Dec. 2007 <http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/general/potency.htm>. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Moffatt, Mike. "Time to Legalize Marijuana? 500+ Economists Endorse Marijuana Legalization." About. 4 Dec. 2007 <http://economics.about.com/od/incometaxestaxcuts/a/legalize_pot.htm>. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]"Pot's Less Dangerous Than Alcohol or Tobacco." NORML. 18 July 2002. 4 Dec. 2007 <http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5349>. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Soloman, Snyder. Uses of Marijuana. New York: Oxford UP, 1971. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Main Findings. 1994.[/FONT]

 

If you want to use it, just include my name. Using it for an assignment is plagiarism, but if you want to share it with friends and leave it whole, go for it.

Unfortunately, I can't be unbiased with this subject! Thanks for the kind comments though.