The Marilization of Legaljuana

The Marilization of Legaljuana.          

         From the perspective of America's war on drugs, marijuana is one of its biggest enemies. Since two proven life

threatening substances, alcohol and tobacco, are legal, “Why is marijuana illegal?” seems a relevant question. There are

several reasons; first, the federal government, under President Nixon, adopted an anti-marijuana policy. Second, the

government is so heavily invested in jobs and appropriations to the various agencies involved they cannot turn back.

Lastly, drug companies have a vested interest in lobbying the government to keep it illegal. Because of a combination of

political misinformation, personal prejudice, and greed, vast amounts of taxpayer money is wasted, and far too many are

criminalized, over a harmless substance that a large number of responsible adults simply find relaxing and enjoyable.

         There are decades of studies that clearly show there are limited to no negative effects from smoking marijuana,

including the granddaddy of them all, the Shafer commission put together by President Nixon. Here is just a small

sampling of the conclusions put forth: “No significant physical, biochemical, or mental abnormalities could be attributed

solely to marihuana smoking.” (Shafer 61) “Young people who choose to experiment with marihuana are fundamentally

the same people, socially and psychologically, as those who use alcohol and tobacco.”(Shafer 42) “Marihuana's relative

potential for harm to the vast majority of individual users and its actual impact on society does not justify a social policy

designed to seek out and firmly punish those who use it.”(Shafer 130)

         Despite the clear recommendations of this conscientious report, audio tapes declassified and made public in

2002 clearly show that President Nixon had his own agenda, and that the myths and fallacies currently ascribed to

marijuana, and those who use it, came directly from the Nixon White House. Kevin Zeese, President of Common Sense

for Drug Policy observed, "If we had followed the advice of the experts rather than Nixon's prejudices we would have

less marijuana use, be spending less money on marijuana enforcement, and many millions less people would have been

arrested."

         Nixonion era policies are still maintained today. Take, for example, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s

(DEA) 2008 Marijuana Sourcebook which states that recent research shows marijuana is a “gateway drug”, even though

scientists studying the issue keep finding the opposite. In 2006, a study published in the American Journal of Public

Health, for example, found no evidence that marijuana acts as a gateway drug. A 2002 report by the RAND corporation,

an independent research group with a historically conservative bent, examined historical data from 1982-1994 and found

the same thing.

         According to a study by researcher Jon Gettman, Ph.D, the Federal Government currently spends approximately

10 billion dollars a year in direct law enforcement costs related to marijuana alone, and approximately 15 billion a year is

poured into the office of the Drug Czar every year. FBI stats showed record marijuana arrests in 2006 of 829,627,

43,000 more than in 2005, and by 2010 that number jumped to 853,839. That is like incarcerating the population of a

small city every single year. Imagine if all those resources were trained somewhere, anywhere, more productively.

         There is another culprit in the war on drugs, large pharmaceutical companies. By 2014 the global

pharmaceutical market is projected to top 1 trillion dollars. With that kind of money at stake, it is easy to see why Big

Pharmacy companies would want to keep marijuana illegal. You cannot patent a plant. Imagine a wonder drug able to

provide much needed relief from dozens and dozens of conditions. Imagine it is cheap, easy to grow, easy to dispense,

easy to ingest and, hundreds of years of “product testing,” has produced no fatalities and few side effects—except for the

fact that it “reportedly” makes you feel really, really good. That would be quite a drug. Knowing all this, it is

easy to see why the pharmaceutical industry worries about competition from marijuana. It is also noteworthy that though

the Federal Government claims cannabis has no medical value, the FDA has approved several drugs, either based on

cannabis synthetically, with drugs such as Marinol and Cesamet, or based on properties of the actual cannabis plant

itself like Sativex.

         The argument that marijuana is a gateway drug is a non sequitur. Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol or

tobacco, and is not a “gateway drug”. This is a fact that has been proven again and again by conscientious, unbiased

studies. The real question is, does society as a whole really want to go around putting people in prison and destroying

lives over this? Astronomer and astrophysicist Carl Sagan once said, “The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an

impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so

desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.” Anyone who thinks rationally and logically about this

issue is bound to come to the same conclusion.

Works Cited

Shafer, Raymond P "Marijuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding”, presented to Congress
March 22, 1972

Morral AR, McCaffrey D and Paddock S. (RAND Corporation) Reassessing the

Marijuana Gateway Effect December 2002 p. 1493-1504.
Office of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of The President Marijuana: