Marijuana: Justly Illegal???

“Wanted: Marijuana Smokers. Subjects are considered to be sex-crazed, violent and insane. Please approach with extreme caution”.

False propaganda has tainted the marijuana culture since the late 1930’s. The government release of short flicks of how marijuana can lead to killing and other false accusations were only the start. Even the start of marijuana prohibition showed the government was doing it behind our backs.

The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which made cannabis possession illegal in the U.S., was passed in a very unorthodox way. No one who would have objected to the bill was informed of its existence until just days before the actual hearings. The American Medical Association sent a representative to object to the banning of cannabis medicines, but the bill passed.

Sneaky bastards they are but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Another shot came when Harry J. Anslinger, a major player in the Marijuana Tax Act, openly asserted in public appearances and radio broadcasts that cannabis use caused killings, sex crimes, and insanity. He authored such magazine articles as 'Marijuana-Assassin Of Youth!' and thought that drug users should be locked up, not rehabilitated. Anslinger stressed marijuana's crucial role as a stepping stone to narcotics addiction and kept "secret" files on musicians who played with such jazz artists as Louis Armstrong and Count Basie.
In spite of his obvious passion for opposing drugs, Anslinger admitted in his memoirs, 'The Murderers' to supplying a key member of Congress with morphine. His biographer believes that addict was Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Many would call the marijuana user the bad guy but looking at all the false propaganda aimed at the public, it obviously makes no sense. Who are you more willing to trust: A liar or a smoker?

The government has tried to keep the public in the dark about marijuana and even launched an attack. From 1934-1956, The Motion Picture Association Of America banned all films featuring marijuana use. During the 70s, all mention of the word 'hemp' is removed from high-school textbooks in the U.S. So much for freedom of speech.

It doesn’t stop there. The laws of the U.S. is another good source of marijuana debauchery. Under federal law it is illegal to buy, sell, grow, or possess any amount of cannabis in the United States, except for very limited medical uses. Penalties for a first offense range from probation to life imprisonment, and fines of up to $4 million, depending on the quantity involved. It is illegal to use the U.S. Postal Service or any interstate shipper for the advertisement, import, or export of marijuana paraphernalia. (In some cases even rolling papers!)
Under civil forfeiture statutes any real estate, vehicles, cash, securities, jewelry, or other property connected with a marijuana offense are subject to immediate seizure. Property may be forfeited even after a defendant has been found innocent. Doesn’t make a lot of sense. Innocent until proven guilty is what they say, then they come and take your house away.

In the state of Montana, selling a pound of cannabis first offense could lead to a life sentence. In Virginia, the recommended punishment for growing a single cannabis plant is 5-30 years in prison. In Idaho, selling water pipes could lead to a nine year prison sentence. In Arizona, you can be prosecuted for possession if you fail a urine test! In some states it is illegal to even be in a room where cannabis is smoked.

"I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?"

Willie Nelson

In addition to fines, incarceration, and forfeiture, a convicted marijuana offender may face the revocation or denial of more than 460 Federal benefits, including student loans, small business loans, professional licenses, and farm subsidies.

Marijuana possession and cultivation offenses have absolutely nothing to do with violence, yet people convicted of these offenses regularly serve longer sentences than those convicted of violent offenses, including rape and murder. State and national leaders need to reconsider our country's priorities and attach more importance to combating violent crime rather than targeting marijuana smokers. Who would you rather have living next door: a child rapist or a pothead?

The Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) spends an estimated 1.3 billion dollars 'fighting' marijuana. Overall their anti-marijuana efforts have cost taxpayers 30 billion dollars. The results? $2 billion worth of cannabis seized and destroyed, 4 million people arrested, 250,000 individuals jailed for more than one year, and no change in basic usage patterns from the 1960s. Is it worth it? Is it fair? Your tax money going to fight marijuana instead of rapists and killers, that’s your choice.

"When they have to pay $4 billion for the drug war, somebody gets that. Drugs are incidental in this shit. They hype that shit to death." George Clinton

Marijuana remains the third most popular recreational drug of choice in the United States despite 60 years of criminal prohibition. According to government figures, nearly 70 million Americans have smoked marijuana at some time in their lives. Of these, 18 million have smoked marijuana within the last year, and ten million are regular marijuana smokers. The vast majority of these individuals are otherwise law-abiding citizens who work hard, raise families, and contribute to their communities. They are not part of the crime problem and should not be treated as criminals. Allow them there freedom.

With all the crap dished out to turn people against marijuana, its amazing that a recent poll done by Zogby concluded that the majority of Americans oppose US marijuana policies: Two-Thirds Oppose Feds' Closing of Medical Pot Clubs; Three-Fifths Oppose Arresting Pot Smokers. America Speaks!

Onto the money generated by this green devil. The economic impact of marijuana legalization offers an important advantage over decriminalization in that it allows for legal distribution and taxation of cannabis. In the absence of taxation, the free market price of legal marijuana would be extremely low, on the order of five to ten cents per joint. In terms of intoxicating potential, a joint is equivalent to at least $1 or $2 worth of alcohol, the price at which cannabis is currently sold in the Netherlands. The easiest way to hold the price at this level under legalization would be by an excise tax on commercial sales. An examination of the external costs imposed by cannabis users on the rest of society suggests that a "harmfulness tax" of $.50 - $1 per joint is appropriate. It can be estimated that excise taxes in this range would raise between $2.2 and $6.4 billion per year. Altogether, legalization would save the taxpayers around $8 - $16 billion, not counting the economic benefits of hemp agriculture and other spin-off industries.

NORML provides us with an interesting layout of some of the revenue generated from marijuana: We shall estimate the size of the commercial cannabis market by posing two price scenarios. (1) Given a $.50 excise tax and a minimum price of $1 per joint, we will assume that home growing absorbs 20% of consumption (that is, one-third of the consumption of multiple daily smokers), leaving a commercial demand of 12 - 24 million joints per day. This works out to about $2.2 to $4.4 billion per year in tax revenues. (2) Given a $1 excise tax and a price over $2 per joint, we assume commercial consumption would be cut by 40% to 9 - 18 million joints, yielding $3.2 to $6.4 billion per year. We conclude that revenues from cannabis excise taxes might range from $2.2 to $6.4 billion per year. This is comparable to the revenues currently raised through the federal tax on alcohol ($8 billion) and cigarettes ($5 billion).

In addition, legalization would create numerous revenue-generating spin-off industries, such as coffee houses, gardening equipment and paraphernalia. The city of Amsterdam, with a million people, boasts 300 coffee houses retailing cannabis. Translated to the U.S, this would amount to over 60,000 retailers and 100,000 jobs.
Finally, the legalization of cannabis would also permit the agriculture of hemp, a versatile source of fiber, protein, biomass and oil, which was once one of America’s top crops.

Hemp production might well rival that of other leading crops such as cotton or soy beans, which are currently on the order of $ 6 - 10 billion per year.

"It's just so ridiculous that a product with that many uses has to be made into a political thing. It's a shame. Not only could our farmers pay their bills and get out of debt, but this whole country would find a new way to environmentally protect ourselves by getting rid of all the petrochemicals that are killing us." Willie Nelson

On the other side of the ledger, legalization would save the considerable economic and social costs of the current criminal prohibition system. Current federal drug enforcement programs run at $13 billion per year. State and local programs are probably of similar or greater magnitude: in California, the Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated the cost of state drug enforcement programs at around $640 million per year in 1989-90, plus perhaps twice as much more in local expenditures. A sizable chunk of these costs involve cannabis, which accounts for 30% of drug arrests nationwide. Legalization of cannabis would also divert demand from other drugs, resulting in further savings. If legalization reduced current narcotics enforcement costs by one-third to one-fourth, it might save $6 - $9 billion per year.

The harmful effects marijuana poses on your health are usually just more false information and propaganda. There have been numerous official reports and studies, every one of which has concluded that marijuana poses no great risk to society and should not be criminalized. These include: the National Academy of Sciences’ “Analysis of Marijuana Policy”(1982); the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse (the Shafer Report) (1973). It is sometimes claimed that there is “new evidence” showing marijuana is more harmful than was thought in the sixties. In fact, the most recent studies have tended to confirm marijuana’s safety, refuting claims that it causes birth defects, brain damage, reduced testosterone, or increased drug abuse problems.

"The importation and sale of marijuana is condemned and punished as a serious crime, but we accept as legitimate the manufacture and sale of an infinitely more addictive and deadly drug: the nicotine in cigarettes that cost the lives of 390,000 American citizens last year."

Jimmy Carter
1990

The current consensus is well stated in the 20th annual report of the California Research Advisory Panel (1990), which recommended that personal use and cultivation of marijuana be legalized: “An objective consideration of marijuana shows that it is responsible for less damage to society and the individual than are alcohol and cigarettes.”

Just as most experts agree that occasional or moderate use of marijuana is innocuous, they also agree that excessive use can be harmful. Research shows that the two major risks of excessive marijuana use are: (1) respiratory disease due to smoking and (2) accidental injuries due to impairment. Fortunately, the hazards of marijuana smoking can be reduced by various strategies: (1) use of higher-potency cannabis, which can be smoked in smaller quantities, (2) use of waterpipes and other smoke reduction technologies, and (3) ingesting pot orally instead of smoking it (bakin’ brownies, mmmmm).

The government is starting to admit some of its myths about the dangers of marijuana. Government experts now admit that pot doesn’t kill brain cells. This myth came from a handful of animal experiments in which structural changes (not actual cell death, as is often alleged) were observed in brain cells of animals exposed to high doses of pot. Many critics still cite the notorious monkey studies of Dr. Robert G. Heath, which purported to find brain damage in three monkeys that had been heavily dosed with cannabis. This work was never replicated and has since been discredited by a pair of better controlled, much larger monkey studies, one by Dr. William Slikker of the National Center for Toxicological Research and the other by Charles Rebert and Gordon Pryor of SRI International. Neither found any evidence of physical alteration in the brains of monkeys exposed to daily doses of pot for up to a year. Human studies of heavy users in Jamaica and Costa Rica found no evidence of abnormalities in brain physiology. Even though there is no evidence that pot causes permanent brain damage, users should be aware that persistent deficits in short-term memory have been noted in chronic, heavy marijuana smokers after 6 to 12 weeks of abstinence. It is worth noting that other drugs, including alcohol, are known to cause brain damage.

Marijuana prohibition applies to everyone, including the sick and dying. Of all the negative consequences of prohibition, none is as tragic as the denial of medicinal cannabis to the tens of thousands of patients who could benefit from its therapeutic use. Basic compassion and common sense demand we allow America's seriously ill citizens to use whatever medication their physicians' deem safe and effective to alleviate their pain and suffering.

Modern research suggests that cannabis is a valuable aid in the treatment of a wide range of clinical applications. These include pain relief- - particularly neuropathy pain (pain from nerve damage), nausea, spasticity, glaucoma, and movement disorders. Marijuana is also a powerful appetite stimulant, specifically for patients suffering from HIV, the AIDS wasting syndrome, or dementia. Emerging research suggests that marijuana's medicinal properties may protect the body against some types of malignant tumors and are neuroprotective.

Marijuana is not something to be feared. It’s something to be hailed. God put it here for us to use, not condemn. The facts are present, whether government admitted or not, and its time to speak out. With the overflowing prisons, an unstable economy and and an ill society, marijuana can solve many of these problems. It may not be a permanent solution but it can be a huge step forward.