Legalize it

In modern society marijuana has always been considered a sort of taboo subject in the United States due mainly to the fact that it is illegal. Many people don’t realize however that considering the history of our country, marijuana has only been illegal for a relatively short time span. Several of our founding fathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, grew marijuana for hemp (the material derived from the plant) regularly and there is even speculation Washington smoked the plant occasionally. Back in those days marijuana did not have the sinister reputation it has today but instead was a vital part of colonial life, with the hemp material having a number of uses including rope, clothing, and paper (West, 1998). It wasn’t until the early 20th century that the public opinion regarding marijuana began to shift and restrictive laws were put in place that would eventually lead to illegalization.

     Marijuana does have some negative effects, but compared to other drugs marijuana is harmless. Other drugs are highly addictive were marijuana is not. Alcohol is one of the most leading causes of car crashes. Marijuana is nowhere near being a leading cause of death. Other drugs can lead to cancer where marijuana is used to cure it, and other drugs can lead to deaths. Other drugs impair you vision, but marijuana does not. All the other drugs except alcohol are gateway drugs, and the only way to purchase them is by smuggling them across the border. Many advocates say “we should begin to reflect that reality in our state and federal legislation, and stop acting as if otherwise law-abiding marijuana smokers are part of the crime problem. They are not, and it is absurd to continue using law enforcement resources arresting them.” (Gary) Many advocates also say, “Far more harm is caused by marijuana prohibition than by marijuana itself.”(Gary)

While marijuana was not actually outlawed until the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 it was a part of the country and society since before the arrival of its current transplanted inhabitants. Hemp is the name of a species of Cannabis that has been used throughout history for many things including rope, clothing, medicine, oils and other such novelties. Marijuana and hemp are both of the species Cannabis Sativa and occur naturally along with a score of other variations of the plant. Marijuana is simply a form of hemp that is higher in delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), marijuana’s naturally occurring psychoactive chemical. Today we hear many nicknames for marijuana including: weed, pot, budda, grass, and bud to name a few. Marijuana has long been used by the indigenous peoples of North and South America for many things, from medical to religious purposes. Of course a select few Europeans exploited narcotics and different types of marijuana. However, in Europe it was not a widespread phenomenon, and neither was it from the time of colonization or even industrialization in America. It was not until the era of the 19th amendment to the U.S. constitution, known as prohibition, that marijuana became a widely used substance in the U.S..

Legalizing Marijuana Abraham Lincoln once stated that, "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." In today 's society, this statement still applies in reference to the illegal use of marijuana. Marijuana prohibition causes far more harm than marijuana itself. Keeping marijuana illegal is expensive and causes crime. Out of four possible connections between drugs and crime, at least three would not exist if drug prohibition laws were repealed. First, crimes which occur billions of times a year are producing, selling, buying, and

In its early days cannabis or “marijuana” as it’s mostly known was first established in 8000 B.C. Later becoming more and more popular cannabis was incorporated in many things such as weave to fine hemp cloths, medicine, and as a fiber for the Chinese and later all across the world. Nowadays marijuana is illegal and has been so since 1970 after the Federal Controlled Substances Act was passed. Now there’s an ongoing controversy about cannabis being legalized or decriminalized for medical or even recreational uses. Marijuana laws are getting looser and looser and states around the world and starting to be more accepted but the drug is still not legalized completely and there’s no concrete reason why.

While an undereducated, youth fostered movement towards the legalization of marijuana is rapidly spreading across America, Father Gerald Coleman, in Is America Going to Pot, steps back from the frenzy to examine the gross amount of physical evidence that opposes the rash movement. Approaching legalization of marijuana from numerous avenues, Coleman systematically degrades many of the popular pro-marijuana arguments circulating today. In addition his article is able to simultaneously provide a number of well-founded arguments ranging from the various health troubles, the gateway drug potential, and the resounding positive effects on the black market drug trade that legalization of marijuana would and is currently promoting, to support his anti-legalization

One of the first things about marijuana history that the American public still doesn 't understand is that cannabis, was once very legal to grow in the United States. In fact, up until 1883 it was one of the largest agricultural crops in the world, including America.(The Union) But it wasn’t grown for the psychoactive plant cannabis sativa. Cannabis hemp, which carries a fraction of the amount of THC, (the compound in marijuana that attributes to the high feeling) was and is used all over the world, producing the overall majority of Earth’s fiber, fabric, paper, and medicines.(Herer,20) Hemp has a deep American History as well, from the gardens of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin to the 8,327 American hemp plantations counted in the 1850 census.(Herer,15) Yet the Federal government now recognizes cannabis as a Schedule I drug with no medical value, and 23 States have legalized cannabis for medicinal use. (The Union) Even though some western states such as Oregon and Colorado are making legal changes to marijuana policy at the state level, the most beneficial marijuana law we could pass is and always has been the Nationwide legalization of industrial Cannabis Hemp.

The prison industrial complex obviously has an incentive to keep marijuana illegal. Their strength in numbers allows for a tremendous political influence from a large voting block with massive lobbying power. For example, CNBC found that there are nearly 800,000 people working within the prison industry, more than the U.S. auto industry. That figure doesn’t include all of the other sectors associated with the prison industrial complex such as lawyers, police officers, etc. The bureaucracy within the criminal justice

On October 1, 1937, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was enacted and it prohibited all forms of cannabis sativa. Although the bill was targeted towards the banning of marijuana and both forms of cannabis on separate ends of the sativa spectrum, there was no specification on which form was directed for the ban. Thus both were prohibited from being grown in the United States of America. In November of 2016, marijuana officially became legal to grow in all fifty states, yet industrial hemp is still currently legal to be grown in 13 states within the USA.  Hemp is largely exported to the US from other countries. It is imperative that hemp becomes legal to be grown around the entire country, for hemp will help retain the USA’s revenue by using hemp grown in America, has can be used for many different purposes such as clothing or food for example, has the potential to reduce American citizen’s carbon footprint as a substitute for paper and gasoline, and has no major threat to the industrialization of hemp in factories.

Marijuana is listed under one of the ancient and prohibited drugs with high rate of use for both medical and recreational purposes (Grinspoon and Bakalar qtd. in Lucas et al. 435). It has been used for the last 5000 years around the world by both legal and illegal ways. Furthermore, Grinspoon and Bakalar in their research say that “despite the high rate of recreational use and over 5000 years of therapeutic applications, this plant has resulted in relatively few serious negative physical or social impacts beyond the consequences associated with legal prohibitions on its use” (Lucas et al. 435). Canada was the first country in the world which outlawed use of cannabis in 1923 and there are no scientific basis behind its prohibition (MacQueen

A great many of today's citizens erroneously believe that the criminalization of marijuana came into effect as a result of research conducted with due diligence by trained scientists and physicians. The true reasons behind the criminalization of marijuana had little to do with the supposed harmful effects from its use as a recreational drug and much more to do with the financial bottom line of the entrenched industrial complex of this country. The leading advocates of the campaign to ban the use of marijuana were influential businessmen which held huge stakes in paper, pharmaceutical, and petrochemical industries. Their interest in promoting the criminalization of marijuana did not stem from an overwhelming concern for public health, but

From the eighteenth century onward in the United States, there has been a temperance movement. In other words, many people crusaded against what they saw to be the damaging effects of alcohol on health, personal and professional relationships, and society at large. The temperance movement gained so much gravity that the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol were actually prohibited from 1920 to 1933. As we all know, prohibition of alcohol was a dismal failure, as a thriving black market continued to produce what many citizens wanted. Marijuana prohibition on the other hand, was not a direct cause of public outcry. It was made illegal due to political maneuvering and an attempt to make amends for the fuck ups of prohibition of alcohol.

Legalization of marijuana is one of the most controversial topics in American society today. Surveys done by the US Government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive showed that 95 million Americans have used marijuana. There are two opposing sides that have strong stances on whether it should become legal or should remain illegal. We have one side that is anti-marijuana and the other is pro-marijuana. Each side provides valid and strong arguments supporting their views. The purpose of this paper is to carefully examine each opposing side and try to find some way to come to a compromise.

Prohibition hasn 't stopped the use and domestic production of marijuana so it 's time everyone faced the facts. Marijuana should be legal because punishment such as prohibition or incarceration does not help the country in any way shape or form but in return causes a lot of problems. There is no true good evidence that prohibition or even incarceration decreases the use of drugs or drug dealing. Actually there are many theories that suggest prohibition might actually increase drug use i.e. the "forbidden fruit" effect, and easier accessibility for the youth. Prohibition and incarceration has failed to control the use and domestic production of marijuana. The government has tried to use criminal penalties to prevent marijuana use for more than 75 years and yet marijuana is now being used by over 25 million people every year. Marijuana is currently the largest cash crop in the United States, and marijuana is grown all over the world whether it is grown legal or illegal. Claims that marijuana prohibition is a successful policy are outrageous and very much so unsupported by the facts. Arrests for marijuana possession mostly affect blacks and Hispanics and reinforce many people’s perception that law enforcement is biased and prejudiced against minorities. Blacks account for approximately 13% of the population of the United States and about 13.5%

Throughout American history our country has come to rely on many different natural resources. With technology and the population increasing, the number of fossil fuel reserves and natural forests are going down. What America needs is a renewable source of fuels and fibers that will meet the growing needs of the future, but will not damage our environment. One of the most promising sources of fiber, fuel, and natural oil is hemp. Hemp, also known as Cannabis Sativa L, has been used in our country since the early 17th century (Schreiber 160). Although hemp is considered an illegal drug, many people forget that it is a part of our country’s history. Despite its negative connotations, hemp has the potential to revolutionize the paper,