Hello there everyone on this forum. Please feel free to get high and read my essay. (Keep in mind I wrote this 2 years ago) Do you have a family member or friend who would be better off using marijuana as a medicine? Do you have a family member or friend who is or was addicted to alcohol or drugs? Well if you do they are a victim of the War on Drugs. If you have never heard of it I am not surprised. It is one of the least talked about political issues. One of the most argued issues inside the issue is drug policy and marijuana laws. I am here to persuade and inform you why the War on Drugs is a total failure. The War on Drugs was started in 1970s by Richard Nixon. The War on Drugs gave birth to the DEA and the CSA. The DEA is the “Drug Enforcement Agency” and the CSA is the controlled substance act created by Nixon and the DEA. They created the CSA so they could rank drugs in “schedules”, ranking from one to five. Five being drugs of medical value, and one drugs of absolutely zero medical value. Cannabis or marijuana has historically and scientifically proven itself of having great medical value even though it is ranked as a schedule one substance by the federal government. What doesn’t make sense to me is that marijuana is a schedule one substance while crack-cocaine and methamphetamines are schedule 2. Do you see any wrong in that? I think that’s wrong because marijuana has huge medical benefit and no one has ever been killed from it in recorded history while the other two have. 80% of all Americans agree that marijuana is not a dangerous drug, and that our drug laws should be changed. States such as California have passed laws such as proposition 215 that allow patients to grow or obtain “medical marijuana” with a doctor’s note. Common uses a patient could use medical marijuana for are chronic pain, HIV/AIDS, depression, glaucoma, or any other medical condition your doctor thinks is appropriate. In reality medical marijuana is legal in the states that allow it, but the law is not recognized by the federal government. To explain the 10th amendment of the bill of rights states that the states have the right to govern themselves with regard to powers not granted or prohibited by the constitution. So federal laws still apply. So if you were a medical marijuana patient with HIV/AIDS, and marijuana is the only medicine that you can afford or is the only medicine that actually works, the DEA can and will enforce laws on you, and will have you arrested. I think that’s totally wrong, and they should stop arresting sick people. One such as Bill O Riley of Fox News, who supports the War on Drugs, would say that they only allowed medical marijuana to make marijuana easier to get. This is probably the most unwell thought out opposition in my opinion because it’s a common and hasty opposition. There are plenty of reasons for allowing medical marijuana; the word medical alone should open your eyes and ears. The DEA everyday raids medical marijuana dispensaries in California. They arrest the patients they find on the dispensaries patient records, in the name of protection and passion. So a federal agent wants to protect me from a harmless herbal medicine by throwing me into prison? That doesn’t sound like the government is trying to protect me. President Obama has promised to decriminalize medical marijuana and give protection to dispensaries. He has failed yet to have done this but I support this. Marijuana prohibition let alone drug prohibition part of the War on Drugs is the most insane and wasteful idea ever. It has done nothing but create debates, and is wasteful government spending. It has put over one million non violent drug offenders behind bars and has wasted over two billion of government and tax payer dollars a year. It’s as if they didn’t learn from alcohol prohibition. I never heard of someone high on marijuana go home and beat their family compared to the stories of someone going home drunk or on drugs beating their family. It is a contributing and un-talked about factor to today’s economic crisis. Why is it that the only presidential candidate that ran in the past five elections to even talk about it or debate about is Ron Paul, the one who predicted today’s economic crisis back in 1988 and has been warning us about it for the past 8 years? Those who opposed Ron Paul laughed at him and called him a nut. Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich are two other candidates who oppose the War on Drugs. So is it fair to the people in prison that Michael Phelps, barrack Obama, bill Clinton, and George bush all who have been caught or admitted to smoking marijuana, and get away with it? I say yes and no. Yes because I support marijuana decriminalization. No because Obama did cocaine in high school and because none of them are above the law. I personally believe marijuana should be decriminalized not legalized because of too many irresponsible pot smokers. Example is that alcohol is legal but people still drive under its influence. I believe we should decriminalize it to a point to where it’s almost legal. Economically speaking legalizing/decriminalizing marijuana on a medical or recreational basis can be a good thing. It’s cheap to produce, and it can give pharmaceutical companies something to manufacture and be taxed on. A theory I have of why marijuana is illegal is because marijuana would replace over 80% of our current medicines. Meaning the government would lose money. Also you could just grow it in your home for free resulting in even more money loss. So marijuana illegalization is a scam for the bigger companies. I believe there using marijuana as a figurehead as an example for illegal drugs. They made up a bunch of lies about marijuana to make it look bad, to make illegal drugs look bad, which they are of course. There’s people who have done drugs and have ruined their lives or have become total scum. Those are the people we should be helping. Now the gateway drug theory of marijuana I believe is 50% true and false. There are people who do only marijuana, and then there are people who are introduced into drugs because they got involved with marijuana. This is the where “putting people in jail for drugs” part of the War on Drugs I hate. If the U.S government had regulation and control of marijuana, this would result in less people doing drugs. Look at it this way: a drug dealer doesn’t care who, or how old you are, and wants you to get addicted, but a government could regulate it, put a certain price on it, age limit, and law. Our lesson from alcohol and marijuana prohibition is that prohibition never works. I believe that all the illegal drugs should be decriminalized to a very small point. As insignificant as it sound to most people, this controversy cuts to the very core of our constitutional right to consume any drug prescribed by our doctor. In opposition, one might say that the War on Drugs is protecting their children from drugs and those who use them. I agree with this sort of. I think that we are handling drugs in a wrong way and that were teaching kids about drugs in a wrong matter. I believe we should be teaching them the political, social, agricultural, and economical views of the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs, as a whole: rigs elections, is religious suppression, is civil rights suppression, an economic disaster, and a scam. The CIA back in the 1960s needed money to fund the war in Nicaragua, so they flew back hundreds of pounds of cocaine back to the U.S and regulated it in California, which gave birth to the rise of cocaine drug culture in America. So who’s the real drug lord? On the news they tell us they need our help to fight this drug. This is where drugs rig elections. They use illegal drugs they created to make them look good. Some might find George Bush’s statement on drugs fact or fiction. He said, “If you do drugs you support terrorism”. You might think that’s just him blaming terrorism again for something, but this time bush was actually speaking the truth for once. Terrorists use opium poppy plants to make heroin to fund their plans. A contributing reason for Bin Ladin attacking us on 9/11 could be that we cut off part of his money supply by taking down opium plants overseas. Either that or that’s just a crazy thought. Old religions such as Hinduism or Rastafarian are two religions that use cannabis. The prohibition of marijuana disrupts this, leading to the religious suppression part of the War on Drugs. Tim Garon, a medical marijuana patient in Washington State, was denied a liver transplant for having used legal medical marijuana on the advice of his physician. The University of Washington Medical Center is the one responsible. Tim Garon was a young hard working musician. Thanks to marijuana prohibition, Tim Garon was denied the liver transplant on his birthday, which would have saved his life. So pretty much they said to Tim happy birthday you’re going to die. He is just another victim of the War on Drugs. In opposition to medical marijuana, one might think that owning a dispensary is not a successful gig. Well Luke Scarmazzo a white rap artist and medical marijuana dispensary owner in California, took home every month $13,000 for the first two years his dispensary was open before it got raided by the DEA. His dispensary made a total of $4.5 million dollars the two years it was open. This shows the success of medical marijuana they don’t want you to see. $13,000 is more than 3x of what the average American makes. Something that they haven’t talked about on American news is contaminated cannabis. Contaminated cannabis or gritweed is when a dealer sprays his cannabis with glass, sand, or other silica type substances to make his cannabis weigh more, meaning he would get more money. If someone were to smoke this, it would cause tremendous damage to their lungs, and could cause silicosis. Silicosis is inflammation and scarring of the lungs which could lead to painful and deadly symptoms. This is wrong, even for someone who is part of an illegal culture. It’s just another reason to why prohibition doesn’t work. The War on Drugs is evil and wrong. It rigs elections, is religious suppression, is civil rights suppression, an economic disaster for the USD, and is a scam for the bigger companies. America needs to wake up and end this ongoing pointless war and get back to reality.
My Sources: Booth, Kevin. American War on Drugs: Last White Hope. [Documentary] Prod. Passion River, 2007. Campbell, Alex. Super High Me. [Documentary] Prod. Bside Entertainment, 2007. Obama, Barack. Barack Obama: Becoming Barack. [Documentary] Prod. CBS News Productions, 2008. Safer, Morley. The Debate On California's Pot Shops [Documentary/Article] Prod. CBS News Productions/60 Minutes, 2007 Kiro7 News. Marijuana Use Forces Seattle Patient Off Transplant List [News/Article] Prod. Kiro7 News, 2008 Blythe, Matthew. Wales This Week: Contaminated Cannabis [News/Article] Prod. ITV Wales, 2007 Paul, Ron. RNC: War on Drugs [Interview/Speech] Prod. FORA.tv, 2008
I just briefly skimmed through the essay. Rather than offering any pointed critiques, I might suggest a few additions. I didn't seem to notice any reference to the accumulated cost the War on Drugs has had, both monetarily, morally, and with regard to externalities on the average citizen, society, and the economy. This could extend to many areas, from border security, to law enforcement, to prisons/inmates, etc. As well, there's a rising issue of drug cartel violence which is facilitated by the War on Drugs, particularly with respect to Mexican-border cities (reference Juarez). I think these are some crucial points to include when arguing against the War on Drugs. Additionally, you might consider touching on how cannabis prohibition also prohibits hemp, which may have many efficient applications in a number of markets that would ultimately be beneficial to the economy, both for consumers and producers. Also, I'd suggest using less subjective language ("I" and "me", for instance).
Thank you for the reply. Yea I know my essay was a little loose in some areas. I wrote this essay 2 years ago. The war on drugs is a HUGE subject. I could have written lot more pages. US drug laws have become pretty mainstream thanks to Fox News John Stossel, discovery channel border wars, and marijuana inc.