Editor's note: There are millions of regular pot smokers in
America and millions more infrequent smokers. Smoking pot clearly has
far fewer dangerous and hazardous effects on society than legal drugs
such as alcohol. Here is High Times's top 10 reasons that marijuana should be legal, part of its 420 Campaign legalization strategy.
10.
Prohibition has failed to control the use and domestic production of
marijuana. The government has tried to use criminal penalties to prevent
marijuana use for over 75 years and yet: marijuana is now used by over
25 million people annually, cannabis is currently the largest cash crop
in the United States, and marijuana is grown all over the planet. Claims
that marijuana prohibition is a successful policy are ludicrous and
unsupported by the facts, and the idea that marijuana will soon be
eliminated from America and the rest of the world is a ridiculous
fantasy.
9. Arrests for marijuana possession disproportionately
affect blacks and Hispanics and reinforce the perception that law
enforcement is biased and prejudiced against minorities.
African-Americans account
for approximately 13% of the population of the United States and about
13.5% of annual marijuana users, however, blacks also account for 26% of
all marijuana arrests. Recent studies have demonstrated that blacks and
Hispanics account for the majority of marijuana possession arrests in
New York City, primarily for smoking marijuana in public view. Law
enforcement has failed to demonstrate that marijuana laws can be
enforced fairly without regard to race; far too often minorities are
arrested for marijuana use while white/non-Hispanic Americans face a
much lower risk of arrest.
8. A regulated, legal market in
marijuana would reduce marijuana sales and use among teenagers, as well
as reduce their exposure to other drugs in the illegal market. The
illegality of marijuana makes it more valuable than if it were legal,
providing opportunities for teenagers to make easy money
selling it to their friends. If the excessive profits for marijuana
sales were ended through legalization there would be less incentive for
teens to sell it to one another. Teenage use of alcohol and tobacco
remain serious public health problems even though those drugs are legal
for adults, however, the availability of alcohol and tobacco is not made
even more widespread by providing kids with economic incentives to sell
either one to their friends and peers.
7. Legalized marijuana
would reduce the flow of money from the American economy to
international criminal gangs. Marijuana's illegality makes foreign
cultivation and smuggling to the United States extremely profitable, sending billions of dollars overseas in an underground economy while diverting funds from productive economic development.
6.
Marijuana's legalization would simplify the development of hemp as a
valuable and diverse agricultural crop in the United States, including
its development as a new bio-fuel to reduce carbon emissions. Canada and
European countries have managed to support legal hemp cultivation
without legalizing marijuana, but in the United States opposition to
legal marijuana remains the biggest obstacle to development of
industrial hemp as a valuable agricultural commodity.
As US energy
policy continues
to embrace and promote the development of bio-fuels as an alternative
to oil dependency and a way to reduce carbon emissions, it is all the
more important to develop industrial hemp as a bio-fuel source -
especially since use of hemp stalks as a fuel source will not increase
demand and prices for food, such as corn. Legalization of marijuana will
greatly simplify the regulatory burden on prospective hemp cultivation
in the United States.
5. Prohibition is based on lies and
disinformation. Justification of marijuana's illegality increasingly
requires distortions and selective uses of the scientific record,
causing harm to the credibility of teachers, law enforcement officials,
and scientists throughout the country. The dangers of marijuana use have
been exaggerated for almost a century and the modern scientific record
does not support the reefer madness predictions of the past and present.
Many claims of marijuana's danger are based on old 20th century
prejudices that originated in a time when science was uncertain how
marijuana produced its characteristic effects.
Since the cannabinoid
receptor system was discovered in the late 1980s these hysterical
concerns about marijuana's dangerousness have not been confirmed
with modern research. Everyone agrees that marijuana, or any other drug
use such as alcohol or tobacco use, is not for children. Nonetheless,
adults have demonstrated over the last several decades that marijuana
can be used moderately without harmful impacts to the individual or
society.
4. Marijuana is not a lethal drug and is safer than
alcohol. It is established scientific fact that marijuana is not toxic
to humans; marijuana overdoses are nearly impossible, and marijuana is
not nearly as addictive as alcohol or tobacco. It is unfair and unjust
to treat marijuana users more harshly under the law than the users of
alcohol or tobacco.
3. Marijuana is too expensive for our justice
system and should instead be taxed to support beneficial government
programs. Law enforcement has more important responsibilities than
arresting 750,000 individuals a year for marijuana possession,
especially given the additional justice costs of disposing of each of
these cases. Marijuana arrests make justice more expensive and less
efficient in the United States, wasting jail space, clogging up court
systems, and diverting time of police, attorneys, judges, and
corrections officials away from violent crime, the sexual abuse of
children, and terrorism. Furthermore, taxation of marijuana can provide
needed and generous funding of many important criminal justice and social programs.
2.
Marijuana use has positive attributes, such as its medical value and
use as a recreational drug with relatively mild side effects. Many
people use marijuana because they have made an informed decision that it
is good for them, especially Americans suffering from a variety of
serious ailments. Marijuana provides relief from pain, nausea,
spasticity, and other symptoms for many individuals who have not been
treated successfully with conventional medications. Many American adults
prefer marijuana to the use of alcohol as a mild and moderate way to
relax.
Americans use marijuana because they choose to, and one of the
reasons for that choice is their personal observation that the drug has a
relatively low dependence liability and easy-to-manage side effects.
Most marijuana users develop tolerance to many of marijuana's side
effects, and those who do not, choose to stop using the drug. Marijuana
use is the result of informed consent in which individuals have decided
that the benefits of use outweigh the risks, especially since, for most
Americans, the greatest risk of using marijuana is the relatively low
risk of arrest.
1. Marijuana users are determined to stand up to
the injustice of marijuana probation and accomplish legalization, no
matter how long or what it takes to succeed. Despite the threat of
arrests and a variety of other punishments and sanctions marijuana users
have persisted in their support for legalization for over a generation.
They refuse to give up their long quest for justice because they
believe in the fundamental values of American society. Prohibition has
failed to silence marijuana users despite its best attempts over the
last generation. The issue of marijuana's legalization is a persistent
issue that, like marijuana, will simply not go away. Marijuana will be
legalized because marijuana users will continue to fight for it until
they succeed.
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