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I'm a senior in high school and am taking several college classes. Our latest paper was supposed to be a "persuasion paper" and what's a better topic than legalizing marijuana? The paper was supposed to be 3 pages. Mine was 15 with a works cite paper. I thought I'd share with the city. I know it's long but I figured some might enjoy.


Where is the Justification?
By Erick *************

Former President Jimmy Carter once said, “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.” The prohibition of marijuana has been discussed and debated for years, and has recently become an extremely hot topic. As recently as 2009, a majority of 52% of voters supported the legalization of the recreational use and possession of marijuana, while only 37% opposed its legalization (Zogby Poll). The citizens of the United States have begun to question the reasoning behind marijuana's prohibition, and rightfully so. Our nation is at a pivotal point; we must be rational and cease the unmerited ban of a simple plant.
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In 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified, and alcohol was federally prohibited. Thomas Fleming of the Wall Street Journal explains in his article, “Prohibition: A Cautionary Tale” that while puritan Protestant groups fueled the movement to abolish the intoxicating beverage, the belief that the exclusion of alcohol in the human diet would improve productivity and wealth also had a heavy influence in the amendment's certification. The amendment did not ban the consumption of alcohol, but instead prohibited the manufacture, distribution, and sale of the vaguely titled, “intoxicating liquors”. The Volstead Act was introduced in 1919, and was passed by congress later that year. The act defined in detail the phrase “intoxicating liquors” and banned all beverages containing more than 0.5% alcohol. The liquor industry had been the seventh largest in the United States and was shut down by the federal government; tens of thousands of workers found themselves jobless.

\tThe period when alcoholic beverages were prohibited became known simply as Prohibition. Rather than lower alcohol use, Prohibition spawned a black market of bootleg liquor. In the documentary, The Union, Jack A. Cole, a former undercover narcotics agent, states that “under prohibition of alcohol everything got worse. Everything.” The majority of Americans wanted their liquor, and many individuals found illegal ways of obtaining it. With the greater part of the nation disobeying the law, the underworld that is organized crime began to take form. The black market of intoxicating beverages flourished, and gave rise to criminals such as the notorious Al Capone. Capone, along with other crooks such as Machine Gun Kelly and Lucky Luciano, became a few of the earliest profiteers of ‘drug dealing'. Prohibition also adversely affected the health of many Americans; according to Cole, during the time of Prohibition, deaths by alcohol poisoning rose by 600% because of improperly made “bathtub whiskey”. In his article, Thomas Fleming explains, “Taking a drink became a sign of defiance against the arrogant minority who had deprived people of their "right" to enjoy themselves.” In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt took office as president, and made the repeal of the blunderous amendment a priority. On December 5th, 1933, Roosevelt followed through with his intentions and passed the Twenty-First Amendment, which invalidated the Eighteenth Amendment; Prohibition had officially failed.

\tA mere four years after the Twenty-First Amendment had been ratified President Roosevelt signed the Marihuana Tax Stamp Act that federally prohibited the possession, sale, and transportation of marijuana. The first marijuana possession arrest took place on August 2, 1937, the very day the Marihuana Tax Stamp Act was signed into law (The First Marijuana Arrest Ever). Samuel Caldwell was arrested for possessing two marijuana cigarettes, or joints, and was sentenced to four years in Leavenworth Penitentiary.

\tAccording to the Federal Borough of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report, 847,864 people were arrested in 2008 for marijuana violations, averaging out to be nearly 90 people an hour. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) reported that approximately 89% of those arrested were charged for only possession. The number of marijuana related arrests are currently more than the number of apprehensions for murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault combined. The national average cost of keeping a marijuana user in jail indicated by the National Institute of Corrections is $22,650 per year. In states such as Oklahoma, where first time possession of any amount is punishable by up to a one-year incarceration, the cost of prison keeping is astonishing. The Union states that California's Department of Corrections budget increased from $923 million in 1985 to $5.7 billion in 2004, which is over a 517% expansion. From 1977 to 1999, overall local and state spending on correctional facilities rose 946%, which is nearly two and a half times the rate of spending on education increased.

\tIn Jill Ermer's online article, “Legalizing Marijuana: Trying to Outweigh the Pros With the Cons”, she states that in “the country of” Amsterdam, “where marijuana is a legal substance, … the city has a particularly high crime rate and problems with citizens using hard drugs.” Contrary to popular belief, cannabis is not legal in the Netherlands, but is instead tolerated, and has a “non-enforcement policy”. While it is true that the Netherlands does have a fairly high crime rate, 14th of the 61 countries listed on NationMaster.com, the United States is the outlier, and ranks in at number one. Per capita, the U.S. has a higher rate of car thefts, murders, rapes, and total crimes than the nation that does not prosecute those that choose to possess marijuana. The statement that the citizens of the Netherlands have problems with hard drug use is also fairly true, as it is with any other country. However, in a 1997 report performed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), it was found that in the Netherlands, individuals use marijuana and other drugs, including heroin and cocaine, at rates less than half of American citizens. In a nation that permits pot possession, one might believe that the ‘gateway drug' would increase other substance use.

\tThe “gateway theory” or “stepping stone theory” is the belief that marijuana use inevitably leads to the use of “hard” drugs like heroin and cocaine. Karen Tandy, the United States DEA administrator from 2005 to 2007, once said, “In law enforcement, rarely do we meet heroin or cocaine addicts who did not start their drug use with marijuana.” What she didn't say is that “virtually everyone who has ever used cannabis tried tobacco and alcohol first (Marijuana is Safer, 62).” Marijuana, along with tobacco and alcohol, is one of the three most widely used recreational drugs in the United states; more than four out of ten adults have smoked it. However, despite the drug's popularity, the use of other illegal substances remains fairly low. The 2007 SAMHSA “National Survey on Drug Use and Health” found that only 3.5% of United States citizens have tried crack cocaine, and fewer than 2% have ‘danced with the devil' trying heroin. The Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction published a report entitled Cannabis Policy: An Update that stated, “The more users become integrated in an environment where, apart from cannabis, hard drugs can also be obtained, the greater the chance that they may switch to hard drugs.” Marijuana in the United States must currently be obtained illegally. The “pusher” or “drug dealer” who is selling the marijuana may also be a vender of various other drugs. It is the actual prohibition of cannabis that is the gateway to other drugs.

\tOf the ‘big three', marijuana, tobacco, and alcohol, marijuana is by far the least toxic. Over 400,000 people die annually from causes directly contributed to tobacco use, and alcohol consumption contributes to the death of more than 85,000 United States citizens each year. Marijuana is Safer states that in the 10,000 years of known use of marijuana, there has not been a single recorded death attributed to cannabis use. Judge Francis L. Young states in his ruling of the Marijuana Rescheduling Petition that nearly all drugs are given an LD-50, which is the dosage at which 50% of animals tested will die as a result of drug-induced toxicity. Marijuana's LD-50 is about 1:20,000, meaning one would have to consume 20,000 times the normal dosage of marijuana, one joint, to induce a fatal response. The LD-50 of aspirin is 1:20, whereas the regular dosage for an adult is two pills, a dose of 40 pills may cause death. Marijuana is less toxic than many foods we eat on a daily basis; if one was to eat 10 raw potatoes, the level of solanine, a natural compound that exists in potatoes, would be enough to cause fatality.

\tBoth users of the drugs, and medical experts have long debated the addictiveness of the ‘big three'. Many people believe that long-term marijuana abuse can lead to addiction; that is, compulsive drug seeking and abuse despite its known harmful effects upon social functioning in the context of family, school, work, and recreational activities. In 1994, New York Times featured an article entitled “Is nicotine addictive?” The piece featured Dr. Jack E. Henningfield of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse and Dr. Neal L. Benowitz of the University of California at San Francisco who were asked to rate six substances on five different problem areas; withdrawal, reinforcement, intoxication, tolerance, and dependence. The substances were: cocaine, nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, marijuana and heroin. Surprisingly, both doctors placed each substance in the same order; most addicting was nicotine, then heroin, cocaine, alcohol, caffeine, and lastly, marijuana. NORML.org states that fewer than one in 10 marijuana smokers become regular users of the drug, and most voluntary cease their use after 34 years of age. By comparison, 15 percent of alcohol consumers and 32 percent of tobacco smokers exhibit symptoms of drug dependence.

Sue Blackmore of The Guardian once wrote, “In science it is all too easy to apply a more critical eye to research whose conclusions you disagree with. (Are We Better Off Without Religion?)” Many Americans believe that the social negatives of legalizing marijuana greatly outweigh the benefits; however, throughout my research, I found that the arguments presented by the opponents of legalizing marijuana often had little or no scientific evidence of being correct. In my attempt to find reliable sources for beliefs such as ‘long-term abuse of marijuana damages brain cells', I found a brochure titled: Major Scientific Evidence Against Marijuana. Under the banner, “Brain Damage from Marijuana”, the pamphlet states, “Marijuana (also called pot) severely damages the brain, the chromosomes, the sex and reproductive organs, the hormones, the lungs, and the immune system.” The statement cites two sources, Peggy Mann's 1985 written collection Marijuana Alert and Gabriel G. Nahas's 1979 report Marihuana: Biological Effects. The 1993 Reason Magazine article, “Selling Pot” Jacob Sullum describes Marijuana Alert as containing “every scrap of research that reflects badly on marijuana, including thoroughly discredited studies, while virtually ignoring anything that would give a different impression, including major surveys of literature.” Marijuana Alert, contains much of Gabrial Nahas's research found in Marihuana: Biological Effects, which has often been discredited due to the fact that other researchers have tried and failed to replicate his studies. The Brochure goes on to say that brain damage caused by marijuana use had been proven by a study performed by Dr. Robert Heath, which is now known as the “Heath Monkey Study”. The experiment consisted of subjecting monkeys to marijuana smoke that was allegedly the equivalent of a teenager smoking two joints a day, five days a week for a year. The monkeys began to atrophy and die after 90 days, and brain cell damage was determined by counting the dead brain cells of the monkeys who had been subjected to the marijuana smoke, and the monkeys who had not. In his book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer explains that after six years of requests by Playboy magazine and NORML, how the study was conducted was finally revealed. It was discovered that Dr. Heath had pumped the amount of smoke equivalent to 63 joints in “five minutes through gasmasks”. The monkeys were deprived of oxygen, which shut down the brain, and began to kill brain cells; Herer compared the “study” to “a person running the engine of their car in a locked garage five, 10, 15 minutes at a time, every day!”

There is, however, a plethora of scientific research supporting the exact opposite of much of the information in the ironically titled pamphlet Major Scientific Evidence Against Marijuana that is sponsored by the Anti-Drug Abuse Education Fund. The brochure, which is educating by way of hollow facts, declines to recognize the National Academy of Science's (NAS) 15 month long study on the health-related effects of marijuana use, titled Marijuana and Health, that found "there is not yet any conclusive evidence as to whether prolonged use of marijuana causes permanent changes in the nervous system or sustained impairment of brain function and behavior in human beings." Nor does it recognize the NAS's findings that while “Marijuana does reduce the sperm count and obstruct sperm mobility in males within the normal range. These side effects do not seem to affect human fertility, and are completely reversible thirty days after cessation of use.” The study also concluded “there is no evidence that marijuana causes chromosome damage.”

After a hard day of working at his restaurant, Stephen Rogers sits down at the bar to have a beer. With each sip of the dark ale, his stresses of the day seem to slip away. As he finishes his pint and begins to pour another, he glances through his address book in his phone for a companion for the evening. He tastes each drop of the hops and continues to watch the football game on television. After his second, he finishes a third, then a fourth. He glances at his cell phone again, and makes his biggest mistake of the evening; he calls his ex girlfriend, sparking a conversation referred to as the dreaded “drunk dial”.

Across town, Robert Briggs, a former classmate of Stephen's pulls the lever on his Lazy Boy recliner and leans back. After sitting in front of a computer and trading stocks all day the leather lounger is a relieving change from his rolling armchair. Robert flips through the channels of his television until he finds the football game. During a commercial break he reaches into his pocket and grabs a tightly rolled up plastic bag. He sets a plate onto his lap and pours the contents of the bag out onto it. Two popcorn sized flower buds bounce on the tray; small particles of green dust sprinkle off of the green clumps. Robert grasps a pair of scissors and begins cutting the two marijuana buds into shreds. He carefully slides two sheets of thin paper out of a pack of rolling papers and works the herb evenly the length of the paper. Lightly licking the gummed end of the paper, he folds it over and rolls his second. He sets one on the plate, which he places on the table next to his recliner. Bringing a joint to his lips he ignites a match and proceeds to light his marijuana cigarette. Slowly sucking the aromatic smoke into his lungs, he then exhales. The snugly wrapped joint burns slowly, and when it burns to its base he sets it in an ashtray on the adjacent table. His senses are raised and his focus on the game is uninterrupted. During halftime he lights his second joint as the marching band starts to play “As the Saints Go Marching In”. After finishing his smoke, he makes his way into the kitchen to make a snack before the second half begins.

More than 14 million people in America smoke marijuana illegally on a habitual basis. For many, marijuana offers the same sense of relief that others may find in a glass of chardonnay, or a cold beer. The ‘stereotypical stoner' wearing Birkenstocks, a tie-dye shirt, and worn hemp slacks is not the average marijuana smoker by any means. The majority of marijuana smokers are hard working, tax paying, good citizens who dislike the smell of patchouli just as much as anyone else.

Columbia University performs an annual survey sent out to teenagers across the nation. The questionnaire asks teens to rate what they can get their hands on easiest: prescription drugs, cigarettes, marijuana, or beer. The 2008 survey was featured in an article in USA Today, and for the first time students claimed they could get their hands on OxyContin, Adderall, and Xanax easier than a twelve pack of Coors Light. Cigarettes were reported being the easiest to get a hold of, but only beat marijuana by a margin of less than 2%. Rated last was alcohol. So why is it that it is easier for kids to get synthetic heroin pills than a case of beer? Kids have less trouble obtaining benzodiazepines and opiates because drug dealers are not asking for their identification. Going through the legal process of achieving a bottle of hooch involves knowing someone above the legal age of twenty-one, or finding a way to steal it. If marijuana were federally regulated, kids would need to go through the same process to score a bag of pot. In The Union, Norm Stamper, the former police chief of Seattle, Washington explains, “If you bought for someone underage your license is in jeopardy. A license ought to be hard to get and easy to lose.”

The prohibition of marijuana has done the same thing that the prohibition of alcohol did in the 1920s; it has created a dangerous criminal market. Two marijuana merchants are interviewed in The Union, and are asked if they'd like to see marijuana legalized and they flatly answer, no. Neither of them want the government to “take any money out of our pockets.” The Associated Press declared marijuana many of the Mexican drug cartel's largest source of income (Marijuana Big Earner for Mexico Gangs). If marijuana was legalized, these criminals would no longer reap profits from importing cannabis across the U.S. and Mexico border.

Jon Gettman, a professor at George Mason University, states in his economic analysis “Lost Taxes and Other Costs of Marijuana Laws”, that the nation's marijuana laws cost taxpayers $41.8 billion annually. On NORML.org, a report entitled “Legalization Could Yield California Taxpayers $1.2 Billion Per Year” compared California's wine industry and the state's illegal marijuana industry. The retail sales of California wine reaches up to $12.3 billion, generates 309,000 jobs, and $10.1 billion in wages. When the same situation is applied to a legal marijuana industry, it is estimated that there will be upwards of $12 to $18 billion in total economic activity, 60,000 to 110,000 new jobs and $2.5 to $3.5 billion in wages.

In September of 2003, the city of Seattle, Washington passed Initiative 75 by a strong majority of voters. The initiative mandated that the arrest of adult marijuana users would become the lowest priority of law enforcement agencies of the city. The Stranger, which claims to be “Seattle's Only Newspaper”, hailed the metropolis as a “vanguard” of the marijuana movement, and reported in its December 2005 article “After I-75” that the initiative had “succeeded in radically altering the climate for pot smokers”. Naysayers of the referendum, who predicted a rapid increase of marijuana use in high school students, were shocked when a survey of students in Seattle Public Schools performed by the University of Washington found that the rate of 10th and 12th graders who had used marijuana in the past month had in fact dropped two percentages from 2002 to 2004. A report of the Marijuana Policy Review Panel on implementation of Initiative 75 was released on December 4th, 2007, which concluded that there was “no evident increase in marijuana use among youth and young adults, no evident increase in crime, and no adverse impact on public health.” On January 15th, 2010, The Seattle Times reported that the new city attorney, Pete Holmes, planned to dismiss all marijuana possession cases unless they are “out of the ordinary circumstances.”

The 2009 Los Angeles Times article “Marijuana legalization initiative headed for 2010 ballot” describes how a petition to include an initiative that would make marijuana legal for possession easily reached its 433,971 signatures needed to appear on the November 2010 ballot. The initiative, which would make it legal for adults over the age of 21 to possess an ounce of cannabis, would allow cities and counties to enjoin their own taxes on any aspect of marijuana production and sales. The crusade of the legalization of marijuana is undeniably gaining support, and it will only be a matter of time before the nation realizes the inequitable mistake that is the prohibition of marijuana. I once heard that when California coughs, the nation gets a cold, and I can only hope that the future holds the statement to be true.






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FINAL REPORT OF THE MARIJUANA POLICY REVIEW PANEL ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INITIATIVE 75. Rep. Seattle, 2007. Web. 19 Jan. 2010. <http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~cfpdfs/309070.pdf>.

Fleming, Thomas. "Prohibition: A Cautionary Tale" Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - WSJ.com. Wall Street Journal. Web. 08 Jan. 2010. <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704876104574632273709727450.html>.

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haha thanks! When I told my teacher I had over 30 sources cited he almost fainted.

 

yeah exactly. For marijuana connoisseurs like us these papers are incredibly easy to write haha.

 

Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone! I really appreciate it!