Marijuana Paper

Hey everyone, wrote this over the course of the last few years, constantly updating it and changing things. Let me know what you think...

A Study of Marijuana Policy:

"Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing
my Hohner harmonica." -Abraham Lincoln

Marijuana is a fascinating plant; over the past 72 years of prohibition it has evoked very strong emotions
supporting many different policies. These various policies stem from confusion regarding the morality
of using the plant, the health effects of the plant and lastly, how we should deal with it as a society. My
goal is to help you understand all of these different aspects and to put together the pieces of the puzzle
so you can form beliefs based on the facts rather than hearsay and propaganda. Let’s begin.


Many people are under the impression that Marijuana is addictive. The issue of addiction is
bogged down with a lot of propaganda and misinterpreted “evidence”. Many government officials
quote the ever-rising number of youth that are in addiction clinics for marijuana abuse. What those
government officials do not tell you is that being in an addiction clinic and being addicted are two
entirely different things. When a person is prosecuted for possession of marijuana the judge will, more
often than not on a “first strike”, give the defendant two options:

1: Jail time and a large fine
2: An Addiction clinic and probation.

The obvious choice is to go with the several month addiction clinic and probation. This leaves both
parties somewhat happy, the defendant just has to attend a few classes instead of doing hard time
(although he will still have a drug charge on his record) and the government gets to state that all these
people are hooked on a drug that is not even addictive. Polling has determined that 86% of people in
addiction clinics are there solely because an authority in their life told them they had to attend; only
14% chose to attend because they actually felt they were psychologically dependant on marijuana. In a
recent study by the Institute of Medicine it was determined that marijuana is less chemically addictive
than caffeine and sugar. While it is possible for someone with a very addictive personality to crave the
effect of marijuana, the user will go through no physical withdrawal. A craving for marijuana is similar to
a woman’s craving for chocolate, purely psychological (prohibitionists use the words “habit-forming” to
describe craving). On the other hand, people who frequently use caffeine or sugar products (or any
other chemically addictive substance) will notice headaches, irritability and the onset of a mildly
depressing mood when they stop consuming the substances; these are physical/chemical addictions.
One frequently made mistake is comparing marijuana cravings to tobacco cravings; this is far more
inaccurate than most people know. Marijuana is non-addictive, which means it causes no withdrawal
symptoms when use is discontinued. On the other hand, tobacco withdrawal symptoms have been
compared to those caused by black tar heroin.

 

"Marijuana is one of the safest, therapeutically active substances known to man."
-DEA Judge Francis Young

People are very often mis-informed about the health effects of Marijuana. One test, which
many people refer to, indicated that Marijuana killed millions of brain cells in several monkeys. This
study was conducted in 1980 by Dr. Gabriel Nahas, a professor at Columbia University. The study was
funded by the Federal Government and Dr. Nahas stated that he exposed each of the monkeys to the
equivalent of 30 joints every day for three months. At the end of the three months most of the
monkeys had died because the vast majority of these monkeys’ brain cells had died. For six years the
procedure was not released to the general public. After six years Professor Nahas was forced to release
the procedure for his study. As it turns out, he was putting gas masks on the monkeys and pumping
them full of ONLY smoke for 5 minutes at a time. It is scientific fact that after about 3 minutes of
oxygen deprivation, brain cells will start dying in large numbers. Gabriel was suffocating monkeys and
claiming it was the marijuana that killed brain cells. There have been many other studies conducted like
this one, most by Mr. Nahas, each of which were designed to skew the outcome. The medical
community as a whole has rejected every one of his studies as un-scientific and biased.


In 2005 Xia Zhang of the department of psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan was
commissioned to do another study on the effects of marijuana in brain cells. He discovered,
by testing on each individual cannabinoid (active chemical) in marijuana, that several of the chemicals
served to promote brain cell growth in the region of the brain called the “hippocampus dentate gyrus”.
This is the area of the brain that is primarily responsible for forming memories. He determined through
further research that marijuana serves to combat anxiety/depression and promote healthy long term
memory (despite the short term memory loss while “high” on marijuana).

 

The other claim that many people make is that Marijuana causes cancer. While marijuana
smoke does contain a small amount of carcinogens, recent studies have shown that even heavy
marijuana use does not lead to an increase in risk for lung cancer. The largest and most recent of these
studies was conducted with 65,000 people and indicated that not only does marijuana not lead to
increased risk for lung cancer, heavy use can actually serve to reduce your risk for certain types of
cancer, including cancer of the head, neck and testicles. The reason behind this is that THC is believed
to block the reproduction of many mutated/cancerous cells. Because of this, any cells that are mutated
are effectively “disabled” and flushed from the system. In addition THC has been objectively proven to
kill Glioma Cells in lab mice. Glioma is a rare form of brain cancer that is currently almost certainly fatal.
For some unknown reason, THC goes beyond disabling the Glioma cells and actually kills them.
Research has suggested that cannabis would be a very useful tool for combating certain forms of
cancerous tumors were it legalized and heavily studied.


Many people are under the presumption that because smoke is involved, the lungs must be damaged to
a certain extent. This simply isn't true. In a recent study of lung function done by several professors at
the Dunedin School of Medicine, it was shown that heavy, long term cannabis use was associated with a
higher average lung capacity and airway resistance (both are good things), the ability to convert oxygen
to and from the blood stream was not affected at all. Even after reviewing this study, many people will
shy away from smoking strictly because smoke can lead to a temporary, unpleasant feeling in the lungs.
To these people I would point out that there are many alternative ways of consuming marijuana: a
person can dissolve the active chemicals into a small amount of an alcoholic beverage (called a tincture),
or one can dissolve the chemicals into any fat based substance (butter/oil/peanut butter etc) to be used
however one typically uses this food product. These alternative methods of consumption are
preferable to some people because the cannabinoids are absorbed directly into the digestive system,
circumventing the lungs entirely. One can also vaporize marijuana. Vaporization is the process in which
marijuana is heated up just enough for the chemicals to become vapor and then inhaled, without
releasing any tar or carcinogens into the user's lungs. Consuming marijuana in a manner other than
smoking is very easy to do.

 

Many prohibitionists will state “marijuana has increased in potency by 175% in the past twenty years” to
scare people into thinking that marijuana is now dangerous. While marijuana hasn't increased in
potency, higher potency marijuana is now a bit more widespread than it was back in the 70s and 80s.
People with a bias against marijuana like to throw this stat around stating that it can cause overdose and
will lead to people getting far higher than they ever did on the less potent stuff. The fact is, regardless
of how potent it is, humans are physically incapable of overdosing on marijuana. A study done in the
late 90s determined that an average sized human would have to smoke somewhere in the range of
15,000 joints (marijuana cigarettes) in a 15 minute time frame to overdose on marijuana. Assuming,
conservatively, that each marijuana cigarette uses one gram of marijuana, this would mean that a
person would have to smoke just over 30 pounds of cannabis (street value of $150,000) in a 15 minute
time span. I challenge Bob Marley and Snoop Dogg combined to try and smoke 1/1000th of that, it just
can't happen. It is easier for a human to “overdose” on water than marijuana. The former has actually
been accomplished. Because there is no possibility of overdose, we can conclude that the more potent
marijuana available today is actually healthier for the smoker because he doesn't have to smoke as
much plant material to achieve the same effect.


Many people also say that higher potency marijuana will lead to a higher degree of impairment, this is
also a bunk assumption because it is easy to titrate your dose of marijuana due to how quickly the
effects are felt. To say that people will smoke the same quantity of potent marijuana as non-potent
marijuana, is comparable to saying that people will drink an equal quantity of beer and 151 rum, it's
ludicrous.


Another health related statistic than many people mis-interpret is that marijuana contains a little over
400 chemicals. That is a true statement, but it is not the terrible thing that it is usually communicated to
be. By comparison, the standard cup of black coffee contains just over 1500 chemicals. One quick point
is that the word “chemical” has a tendency to scare people, remember that everything in our universe is
composed of various chemicals.

 

Frequently, the claim is made that marijuana is a gateway drug. To this I would state that statistically
only 1 in 104 marijuana users will ever use harder drugs. Several so called “experts” will cite the
“statistic” that marijuana users are 26 times more likely to use cocaine than non-marijuana users. This
statistic refers to the number of people who use cocaine, that use marijuana additionally. Saying that
marijuana caused the use of cocaine is a blatant misinterpretation of the data; all the data says is that 26
out of 27 cocaine users have used marijuana (about 96%). I could make the statement that about 95%
of meth users have consumed a Gatorade in their lifetime, but that in no way means that Gatorade
causes meth addiction. There is no chemical reaction of marijuana in the body that forces or compels a
user to pursue hard drugs; therefore we can conclude that any existing “gateway effects” must be social.
There are two different drug cultures out there, you have the “hippy”-esque culture that participates in
soft drugs like marijuana and Psilocybe containing mushrooms. This culture rarely, if ever, ventures into
the realm of hard drugs because they see hard drugs as dangerous. Then you have the hard drug
culture, the inner city crack users, the rural meth users, the suburban heroin users etc. This culture has
no problem using marijuana because they are already involved in substances that are far more serious.
The truth is that most hard drug users will use soft drugs but the vast majority of soft drug users will
never use hard drugs. Saying that pot smoking causes the use of hard drugs is like saying that tattoos
cause motorcycle riding. Yes, most bikers have tattoos, just like most meth heads have used pot, they
are both different lifestyle traits, one is not a direct result of the other. This logic is referred to as the
“correlation without causation” argument, and is becoming generally accepted.


I will grant some validity to the gateway theory, not due to any chemical effects of marijuana, but to
social effects caused by prohibition. Due to its current state of criminalization, Marijuana does have
three primary “social” gateway effects.

1: Whenever a user participates in the consumption of the herb, he desensitizes himself further and
further to breaking the law.

2: There is a good chance that many of the dealers who are selling these users Marijuana (or other soft
drugs) are also peddling hard drugs that involve more of a profit for them. Therefore, there is a constant
pressure exerted on the user (by the illegal dealers) to try other drugs and chase a “better” high.

3: Lastly, the government has continually spewed propaganda into the ears of our children in an effort
to lower usage rates; yet an all time high of over 40% of today's youth try marijuana before leaving high
school. Our kids are smart; they realize that most of what the government has said about pot is false.


The scary thing is what those same kids must think about what the government tells them about other
drugs like Methamphetamines, Cocaine or Heroin. Kids could potentially assume that the government is
just lying about that too; after all, how are they going to determine the truth if their primary source of
information has repeatedly lied to them. An old anecdote explains the situation well: if you live in a
region with a lot of cliffs and set up fences on all the cliffs and few in the middle of fields, you better
pray to god your kids don't hop the fences in the middle of the fields or they will begin to question the
legitimacy of all the fences (even the ones perched on cliffs).


Each and every one of the aforementioned gateway effects are caused by the criminalization of
marijuana. If marijuana was legalized the user could legally purchase drugs from a store where no
pressure is applied to try harder drugs and the government would no longer be confusing our youth with
deceitful propaganda regarding the use of marijuana.


Another tangent to address on the “gateway drug theory” is that for centuries prior to its prohibition,
marijuana was actually used as an “exit-drug”. People who were addicted to opiates or alcohol would
use marijuana to get through the withdrawal period. Marijuana is a very effective treatment for almost
all addictions because typical addiction symptoms are headache, stomach ache, nausea, cramps,
irritability and the shakes, all of which marijuana alleviates to one degree or another. Many people
make the case that marijuana could be used in addiction treatment as the exact opposite of a gateway
drug; it would help addicts to stop their use of alcohol, nicotine and various hard drugs.

 

Now let's examine some statistics regarding annual deaths due to alcohol/tobacco/marijuana. In 2000
the US government released these statistics:

Cause of Death / Deaths during 2000

Tobacco Related Deaths: 435,000

Poor Diet/Inactivity: 365,000

Alcohol Related Deaths: 85,000

Marijuana Related Deaths: 0

That's right, not only were there no marijuana related deaths in 2000, there have NEVER been any
recorded deaths that have been attributed to marijuana use. Obviously there are people that will die
with THC in their systems, but this is because the processed THC molecule (that has no impairment
effects) will remain in a person's system for up to 30 days after ingesting it. According to the
government, none of these deaths has ever been attributed to the marijuana use (including vehicular
related deaths). You can bet that if there ever was an incident regarding marijuana, prohibitionists
would be parading it all over the media. Think about it, when was the last time you heard of a
marijuana related death involving anything, be it stupidity, vehicles, Cheetos overdose maybe? A
documented, marijuana related death has simply never happened.


You might be wondering why I included the statistic about the obesity deaths. Well, one statement that
I hear a lot is that “marijuana can be overused/abused so what's the point in legalizing it”. Well the fact
is, I can abuse cheeseburgers, and 365,000 people die every year because they DO. That doesn't mean
that the government should start regulating carbohydrate intake, what people do to their own bodies is
their choice; Just so long as it doesn't affect someone else's life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.

 

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman (a Mexican Drug Lord who made the Forbes 400 List this year)-
"I couldn't have gotten so rich without Nixon, George Bush, George Bush Jr., Ronald Reagan, even El
Presidente Obama, none of them have the cajones to stand up to all the big money that wants to keep
this stuff illegal. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say, Gracias amigos, I owe my whole empire
to you."


Next we must consider the money involved in prohibition. Despite being illegal, marijuana is a billion
dollar industry; currently those billions are profiting organized crime. A lot of the money that goes
through the marijuana trade is profiting people who are potentially involved in many other shady
dealings including gangs, prostitution, violence, hard drugs etc (Mexican Drug Cartels). In the past year,
over 8000 people (Mexican civilians and Americans) have lost their lives to these drug cartels which are
becoming increasingly aggressive and violent. If marijuana/hemp was legalized, it would take the
billions of dollars funding these criminal enterprises and put it into the economy through legitimate
business; which would in turn, profit the government.


Speaking of the government, let's address how much the US government spends yearly combating
marijuana. The U.S. Government estimates conservatively that it spends 7.7 billion dollars annually
combating the marijuana trade. One would hope that the Federal government would have the sense to
spend this money chasing down the big guys, but in reality 98% of federal arrests (nearly 100% of state
arrests) are for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Right now we have approximately 1.2 million
marijuana users in jail at a cost of around 25,000 dollars per inmate per year. This means we spend
about 2.5 billion annually keeping those people incarcerated. On top of that, a panel of 500 top
economists estimated that the U.S. Government would profit a minimum of 40 Billion dollars annually if
marijuana/hemp was taxed in a similar way to alcohol. I really want you to realize how much money 50
billion dollars is, think about what we could do with that much money. Think of the all the potential
uses for 50,000,000,000 dollars! Not only is the money wasted, but also millions of man-hours are
wasted by law enforcement officers. These hours could be spent pursuing people who commit crimes
that actually have victims. Officers could be spending time chasing down wife-beaters, pedophiles,
murderers and rapists. Instead they spend countless amounts of time and money arresting people who
like to sit around, munch Doritos and philosophize about life's many dilemmas.

 

"Make the most of the Hemp Seed and sow it everywhere."
-George Washington

Until this point we have only discussed getting high with the Cannabis plant. Many people are unaware
of the many industrial uses that we have for the hemp plant (which should almost be its own subject
rather than being lumped in with the subject of drugs). For those of you who don't know, hemp is a
close relative of cannabis that grows much taller and is much more fibrous. Additionally, hemp contains
so few of the chemicals that are in cannabis and the few that do exist are in such a low amounts that it is
next to impossible to get “high” off of the buds of the hemp plant. The hemp plant is by far the
toughest, cheapest, most renewable natural source of a wide variety of industrial products.

Here are a
few uses for the hemp plant:
Biofuel (who needs petroleum products)
Textiles (hemp clothing is 4 times more durable than cotton clothing)
Paper (hey, we wouldn't have to kill any more trees!)
Food (Cannabis seeds have excellent nutritional values)
Oil (Mechanical lubrication, Salad dressing etc)
Insulation (Cannabis fibers have great insulation properties)
Pressboard/plywood (again we would be able to stop killing trees)


The list goes on and on. A quick Google search will turn up a list of “5000 uses for the hemp plant”
The point is, on top of using bud for social and medicinal purposes, the re-legalization of the hemp plant
(made illegal because it is a cousin of the cannabis plant) would re-introduce billions of dollars into the
American economy through agriculture/textile plants/biofuel refineries as well as providing a much
more “green” way of dealing with some of our energy and housing needs. Once again, the government
would be able to collect tax on all this new revenue.

 

Another valid, and perhaps far more important, point I want to address with you is the vast amount of
medicinal uses for Marijuana. Currently the federal government qualifies Marijuana as a “Schedule 1
drug”, meaning it is supposedly extraordinarily dangerous and has absolutely no medicinal value. The
funny thing about this is that the federal government has several patents on medications derived from
marijuana. Additionally, in a court case several years ago the federal government was forced to admit
that marijuana has benefits for diseases like glaucoma, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis that surpass the
benefits provided by commonly prescribed medications. As a result of this lawsuit, the government was
ordered to provide a monthly supply of 250 joints to 7 people for the duration of their lives (5 are still
alive today, all of them say they remain alive solely because of the relief and healing provided by
cannabis). Each of the patients who remain alive still receives an 11 oz tin of USA Federally rolled
marijuana cigarettes every month. Unfortunately, through some loophole, George Bush Sr. was able to
refrain from giving the same treatment to patients who were not directly involved in the lawsuit.
Many years ago the Institute of Medicine recognized several hundred possible medical uses for the
marijuana plant. Several other public institution tests occurred but were not released to the general
public because big pharmaceutical companies successfully lobbied the government into allowing them
to be the sole testers on marijuana. In 1976 the government BANNED all U.S. research on marijuana by
public institutions. Predictably the pharmaceutical companies have done absolutely nothing with this
ability to legally research Cannabis. After all, why would they want a medicine that could be grown
cheaply in a person's backyard that has the capability of replacing up to 40% of their commonly
prescribed medications and painkillers (just based on our current knowledge of its medicinal value). As
a result we are now unable to test marijuana with modern medical technology because the pharmacies
essentially bought off our government. This banning of testing is a completely unconstitutional offense
that needs to be removed as soon as possible so medical advancements can continue to be made.
Recently many people have referenced the FDA “study” and found that marijuana has no medicinal
value. Closer review shows that their study encompassed looking through their old records to see if
they had ever acknowledged any medicinal use, they hadn't. Essentially the statement was that
marijuana has no medical use because they said so, not because any testing had taken place.

 

More than likely, marijuana's number one use would probably be as a painkiller for the many
neurological diseases including Multiple Sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease along with other painful diseases
like Arthritis and Osteoporosis. Many hospitalized patients suffering these brutal diseases are already
able to self administer Morphine or other Opiates. These drugs are very expensive and highly addictive;
why must the federal government insist that hospitals can't administer a cheaper non-addictive
painkiller that can be nearly as efficient? On top of being a pain killer, marijuana is the best combatant
of nausea that exists (as well as the one with the least negative side effects). After inhaling a small
amount of marijuana, most Chemotherapy patients report that their severe nausea and loss of appetite
has completely disappeared (something the expensive, side effect inducing, pills couldn't do). Another
benefit for those in chemotherapy is the delivery method of marijuana (smoking/vaporizing); many
chemo patients are unable to absorb the medication in traditional anti-nausea pills because they are
unable to keep them down long enough for the pills to take effect. In severe cases of IBS (irritable
bowel syndrome), where nausea and cramping can prevent the patient from eating, marijuana
eliminates ALL nausea and acts as a muscle relaxant to eliminate cramping. There are literally hundreds
of medications that Marijuana is a more effective, cheaper alternative for. Personally, I don't
understand why it is so hard for people to believe that Marijuana was either created as, or evolved to be
(whatever your belief) a natural medicine.


Here are a few diseases Cannabis can be used to treat/give pain relief for:
AIDS (eases the pain)
Alzheimer's (Slows the onset of the disease, helps preserve long-term memory by creating more brain
cells in the hippocampus area of the brain)
Asthma (The cannabinoids in marijuana are known to relax the constricting airway muscles and stop
asthma attacks)
Cancerous Tumors (Marijuana significantly slows the progression of cancerous tumors located in certain
parts of the body by chemically neutralizing the main enzyme that promotes cancerous growth)
Glaucoma, the #1 cause of blindness in Americans (Significantly reduces eye pressure
preventing/delaying eventual blindness)
IBS (Eliminates Nausea, relieves cramping, increases appetite)
Insomnia (strong Indica strains of marijuana will effectively put you to sleep without the habit forming
effects that many sleep medications cause)
Migraines (migraines are caused by the constriction of veins in the brain; marijuana is known to dilate
veins. Nearly 100% of people that smoke marijuana for migraines report immediate relief)
MRSA (Cannabolic acid, an extract from the unripe marijuana plant has been shown to be
extraordinarily effective in combating the deadly, penicillin defying, anti-bacteria resistant, flesh eating
disease called MRSA)
Multiple Sclerosis (Calms Muscle Spasms, dampens twitches and stutters, alleviates pain)
More detailed information and sources can be found at:
Recent Research on Medical Marijuana - NORML


To be fair we must address the FDA approved “replacement pill” for marijuana called Marinol. Once
again, this is essentially admittance that marijuana has medical value (along with the patents the Federal
government holds for medicinal cannabis extractions, that will immediately be put into use when
medical marijuana is legalized). Marinol is 99% THC (the main psychoactive chemical in cannabis) and is
occasionally prescribed in instances that medical marijuana should be used. The reason that Marinol is
not an acceptable replacement for marijuana is because it contains ONLY THC. THC is one of 60 active
cannabinoids in marijuana; to say that Marinol contains all the healing properties of raw marijuana is
completely inaccurate. Additionally THC by itself is a very psychoactive, paranoia inducing chemical. It
is the other chemicals in marijuana, including Cannabinol, which neutralize these anxiety effects that
stem from pure THC. The pure Marinol pill rarely helps its patients and frequently induces
hallucinations and extreme panic attacks.

 

Many people complain about the smoking aspect of marijuana saying that it is extremely bad for your
health. The only proven effects that results from heavy (constantly stoned 24/7) marijuana smoking is
an increased lung capacity and a raised airway resistance, compare that to the side effects of many legal
prescription drugs and it pales in comparison. In addition, many people use medical marijuana to
combat extreme nausea, one of the biggest problems with pills is that patients often regurgitate them
before the effect takes place, with smoked marijuana a patient can entirely circumvent the digestive
system. In addition, because of how fast smoked marijuana takes effect; patients are able to titrate
(control dosage) far more easily than with pills, which take upwards of a half an hour to kick in.

 

Now let's discuss how unfairly the users of marijuana are treated. They use a substance that is less
dangerous and addictive than both tobacco and alcohol. Since the first marijuana laws in 1937 there
have been over 20 million arrests for possession alone, currently our average is 750,000 harmless users
arrested per year (1 arrest every 42 seconds). The total amount of hard time prisoners have served for
marijuana possession alone since 1937 has just surpassed 16 million man/years. In addition, a young
person who is caught smoking just one joint immediately loses all access to federal aid for schooling. A
child can go out rape and murder someone, serve his time and still collect federal aid. Denying federal
aid for schooling is an extraordinarily destructive law that leaves a child far worse off than any resulting
effect from marijuana. The users of marijuana do not affect anyone else's right to life, liberty or the
pursuit of happiness; so why is it that they are treated worse than violent criminals, or even made
criminals at all?


My theory is that many people who favor the illegality of marijuana have good intentions, they just
haven't thought about it much; they probably think that they are saving people from themselves and a
life of drug use. To these people I would ask: Do you really think you are saving people by putting them
in jail and giving them a criminal record that prevents them from getting monetary aid for school and
severely hampers their ability to find good employment? Even if marijuana was the most dangerous,
addictive substance in the world (which it most certainly is not), putting a user in jail and cutting off
future school and job opportunities by giving them a criminal record is absolutely not the way to “help”
these people. Jail time should be reserved for people who commit crimes that actually have victims. In
the mean time, a public health concern should be handled by the public health system. If you really
want to cut down on teen and adult marijuana use, you need to have control over the market (taxes and
regulations). Just look at how drastically the government has cut tobacco smoking via taxation,
regulation and a widespread campaign illustrating the harms of cigarettes. Yet these same people who
have more than cut cigarette smoking in half are trying to tell you that taxation and regulation doesn't
work? This just makes no sense, especially when you compare taxation and regulation to prohibition,
which costs billions annually and has completely failed at even marginally reducing marijuana usage.


"Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of
the drug itself, and where they are they should be changed."
-Jimmy Carter, Former U.S. President

 

I want to finish off this study with an examination of prohibition assuming all the negative propaganda is
true. For the sake of this final discussion we are going to assume that all the negative things ever said
about marijuana are true.


Let us start off by establishing the THEORETICAL positives and negatives of prohibition:

Positives:
-Prohibition attempts to eradicate drug use or at the very least, reduce it.

Negatives:
-Costs taxpayers 10+ Billion dollars annually.
-Encourages organized crime and a black market.
-Puts people in jail who have not intruded on anyone else's right to life, or the pursuit of happiness
-Doesn't differentiate between people who have a substance problem and people who are capable of
using marijuana responsibly.

Now, if prohibition actually did its job then we would be able to compare the positives and negatives. The
misconception that most people have is that prohibition actually achieves its goal.
We are going to be examining various statistics and polls as well as Holland for a real life demonstration
of the Legalization and Regulation via taxation concept.


Adult Drug Use:
One common worry that prohibitionists have is that many Americans have a burning desire to smoke pot
and would jump on the opportunity if it was legalized. The fact is, marijuana is already so easy to obtain
that just about every adult that wants to smoke, already does. The funny thing is, the few people that our
current laws are preventing from smoking are the people who would enjoy it most responsibly. After all,
these people are responsible enough to be a following an unjustified law that is easy to get around,
simply because they don't want to break the law.
In addition, several recent polls of non-smoking Americans have determined that over 99% would not
start smoking marijuana even if it was legalized. These polls have put to bed the assumption that there
are a ton of Americans who want to smoke pot and are just waiting to be able to.

Now let's examine the Dutch/American stats:
American Adult Drug Use stats:
At least Once: 41%
Regularly: 8-12%
Netherlands Adult Drug Use stats:
At least Once: 17%
Regularly: 4%

As you can see, the Legalization of Marijuana in Holland has resulted in a massive reduction in adult use.
No-one is really sure why this has happened, the most commonly accepted logic for the phenomenon is
that they succeeded in making pot boring. Sure it is possible that right after legalization we might see a
mild spike in usage, but once the novelty wears off it is more than likely that cannabis use will drop
below levels seen during its prohibition.


Teen Drug Use:

One of the most frequently used arguments used by prohibitionists is that "legalizing pot will make our
kids able to get it more easily". This parental fear is predicated on two false beliefs:
1. Illegal drug dealers won't provide your children with pot.
2. Marijuana isn't widespread enough that their child will ever be influenced by it.

The fact is, putting marijuana behind a counter significantly reduces its availability to minors.

The "2008 National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse" reported this:
“The survey found that 42 percent of 12- to 17-year olds can buy marijuana in a day or less; 23 percent
in an hour or less. In addition, half of 16- and 17-year olds say that among their age group smoking
marijuana is more common than smoking cigarettes”

This study, among others, has made it abundantly clear that students are able to obtain marijuana far
more easily than tobacco or alcohol. The common logic is that when something is made illegal it is harder
to obtain, with things like firearms this might be the case because not many people can fire up the lathe
and pump out Assault Rifles. Marijuana on the other hand, is very easily produced, very widespread, and
the people that currently sell it have no reason to deny pot to your 12 year old because they are already
breaking the law by dealing in the first place.
Now let's examine teen drug use in America vs. Holland:

American Teen Marijuana use:
46% of American Teens have tried pot before they graduate high school.

Dutch Teen Marijuana use:
26% of Dutch Teens have tried pot before they graduate high school.

As you can see, regardless of whether or not we "encourage marijuana use when we legalize", teens
can't get marijuana nearly as easily because the guy sitting behind the counter of the marijuana
dispensary doesn't want to get canned from his job. Just like the guy at the liquor store who doesn't sell
your kids booze.


In conclusion let's examine the ACTUAL positives and negatives of marijuana prohibition:
Positives:
....
Negatives:
-Costs taxpayers 10+ Billion dollars annually.
-Enables violent drug cartels and a billion dollar black market.
-Puts people in jail who have not intruded on anyone else's right to life, or the pursuit of happiness.
-Doesn't differentiate between people who have a psychological drug problem and people who are
capable of using marijuana without issues.
-Leads to an INCREASE in both Adult and Teen Marijuana use

As you can see, the legalization argument doesn't even really need to deal with whether or not marijuana
is healthy or unhealthy, addicting or non-addicting (although those debates are most certainly still worth
having). It really has everything to do with the inability of prohibition to do its job. Sadly, many politicians
realize that prohibition is a complete failure but they spew marijuana propaganda to scare citizens and
then support prohibition to win elections by appearing “tough on drugs”. The problem this poses for
honest, informed politicians is that if they mention anything about removing the current drug laws they
get labeled as “soft on crime” and “one who doesn't care about the future generation”. In reality, many
politicians, republican and democrat, admit behind closed doors that legalization is a far better
alternative to our current drug laws. The problem is that their hands are tied when it comes to taking
action on this issue because it poses large political risk. When marijuana is legalized and taxed, adult
drug use has historically, statistically and currently (in Holland) either stayed the same or been reduced.
Dutch teenage drug use was cut in half when marijuana was put behind a counter rather than in the
hands of illegal dealers. When the US government made marijuana illegal, they let go of all control
over an industry that continues on at full speed, despite its illegality. The only way to have any control
over the Marijuana industry is to regulate and tax it.

 

In closing I want to leave you with this question. Why do we allow our government to spend 7.7
billion dollars annually to continue to lose the war on a “drug” that fuels violent drug cartels, hasn't
killed a single person in documented history, is less addictive than caffeine, less intoxicating than alcohol
and could potentially be the answer to hundreds of diseases that are perplexing modern medical
science? The answer is simple, there is NO logical reason why these things continue to happen, and we
as the American people must take action to end the injustices of Marijuana Prohibition.


“Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by
legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the
very principles upon which our government was founded.”
-Abraham Lincoln

 

It just leads to generally less regard for breaking the laws because when you consistently break one law, your "conscience" tends to bug you less when proceeding to break other laws.

As far as how this point applies to the gateway theory, the idea is that a person is slightly more likely to proceed to other drugs if they are already used to smoking marijuana illegally. Whereas if marijuana were legal, choosing to use a harder drug would require a person to cross the legality barrier as well as choosing to use a hard drug.

Now for those of us who have thought about it and are logical about our decisions, this point is inaccurate, however this point definitely applies to the unwashed masses...

Thanks for the feedback, any comments, questions or fact checks are greatly appreciated!