The only winners in the “war on drugs” are the drug dealers themselves. The government charged at least $7.5 billion dollars to taxpayers for fighting the dreaded plant. Still, according to government estimates, nearly 70 million people have used marijuana in their life (“NORML”). Much of this money was spent toward the fighting of teen use particularly. However, in a study recently conducted by Newsweek 41% of tenth graders of America have used Marijuana. Conversely, only 28% of tenth graders have used marijuana in the Netherlands. The significance of this figure is that marijuana is legal in the Netherlands (“Numbers” 18). What’s this? Legalization can lead to less use of the drug? Yes. Much of the attractiveness of the drug comes from its illegality. When teenagers know that they are not supposed to have something, they immediately want it, classic signs of adolescent rebellion and curiosity. However, now the government is spending more money on marijuana and the number of people using it is increasing. The government is losing an incredible amount of money by not taxing marijuana. As it is now, since marijuana is illegal, drug dealers can charge whatever prices they want and steadily increase their profits.
The legalization of Marijuana in the Netherlands has not only kept a smaller rate of teenagers from trying marijuana, but it has also led to a decrease of the abuse of harder drugs. Legalization is doing so well that “the Netherlands has fewer addicts per capita than Italy, Spain, Switzerland, France or Britain, and far fewer than the United States.” According to a study by Frits Knaak of the Trimbos Institute in Utrecht, the amount of hard drug addicts has remained the same because none of the younger generation is falling into the old habit. Thus, the average junky in the Netherlands is 44. Also, .3% of Dutch teenagers have tried cocaine as compared with the U.S.’s 1.7%. Cannabis seems to satisfy the younger generation alone. With so many are using cannabis surely there are addiction and health problems. Quite the opposite is true. According to Knaak, “there were only 2000 (patients) in the whole country – just .3% of all Dutch cannabis users.” Of that, 42% “are also having trouble with alcohol or other drugs.” Thus, only .126% of the users of cannabis are having problems related with only that drug. Mostly these problems are lifestyle problems, such as trouble at school, lack of concentration, and loss of short-term memory. However, Dutch teenagers get among the highest scores in the world on international science and mathematics tests (Mackenzie).
With the scarcity of prison space, a nonviolent, victimless crime such as use of marijuana is a waste of time, resources, and money. Also, it leaves many families without a provider and many otherwise law-abiding citizens with a brand of drug user and delinquent. It is estimated that law enforcement agents arrests a marijuana smoker every 45 seconds (“NORML”). While there is no official number of inmates in prison for use of marijuana, the Marijuana Policy Project, a non-profit organization who’s purpose is to provide information of incarceration, has an estimate of 15,668 marijuana offenders in federal prison, 13,670 offenders in state prisons, and 7,222 in local jails (Thomas). With each prisoner at an annual cost of $23,000, the government spends a grand total of $840,880,000 on the incarceration of nonviolent marijuana users (“NORML”). Ideas for the use of this money are endless. More so, if the government got exactly what it wanted, that is to stop habitual users of marijuana by incarceration, then it would be looking at incarcerating 10 million people for a cost of $230,000,000,000 annually (“NORML”). The goal of the government is not only extremely expensive, but unattainable and futile.
The main argument for the continued prohibition of marijuana is that it is horribly bad for your health. This is a gross overstatement, especially compared to the legal drugs of the United States. Although some say a single joint of marijuana is as bad as a whole pack of cigarettes, Dr. Donald Taskin, a lung expert at the University of California at Los Angeles, found that “smoking three joints per day caused no greater rate of decline in lung capacity and the ability to breathe than smoking no marijuana per day” (“Claim Three”). If one smoked an entire pack of cigarettes, immediate effects could be seen on the ability to breathe. Also, no one has ever died from an overdose or gotten a cancer from marijuana. Cigarettes have long been known to be the single most contributing factor of cancer in the American population. Marijuana is less harmful for your health than alcohol. A test by the World Health Organization showed that cannabis faired better in five out of seven comparisons of the long-term damage to health. Also the World Health Organization found that “ while heavy consumption of either drug can lead to dependence, only alcohol produces a ‘well defined withdrawal syndrome’” (“High”). Consistency is not a strong point in the government. If harmful substances like alcohol and cigarettes are tolerated in the United States then a drug with very few harmful effects should be legalized.
One other myth is that marijuana has serious effects on your long-term memory and mental function. However, studies have recently put this myth to rest. Jack Fletcher of the University of Texas in Houston have been making regular trips to Costa Rica for the past 25 years in order to study the effects of heavy use of marijuana on the long-term memory. Even though some of these users have smoke ten joints a day for more than thirty years, Fletcher found that “their ability to learn is only mildly impaired, and even when struggling with more demanding tasks, such as recalling information while pressing a tapper as fast as possible, their scores fall well within normal range” (“Claim One”). This study was reaffirmed by another study in Baltimore in which 1,318 residents were given tests of mental ability. After twelve years, the study showed that “those who admitted to having smoked marijuana, even heavily, were no more likely to show signs of impaired mental function than people who had never tried the drug” (“Straight”). The same cannot be said about cigarettes. The relaxed feeling a smoker gets is the blocking of the brains neural receptors which send synapses. If these synapses are blocked, the brain does not work properly or as quickly.
While some may argue against the recreational use of marijuana, the medical use of marijuana is clinically proven. According to Dr. Herbert Kleber, professor of psychiatry at Colombia and Medical Director of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, “Marijuana for medicinal purposes should not be decided by referendum. Would you have a referendum on penicillin for pneumonia?” (Buckley). Marijuana has been shown to relieve a variety of medical afflictions. Marijuana has been proven to relieve intra-ocular pressure helping glaucoma patients. Also, it dramatically helps relieve the nausea of chemotherapy. It has been known to relieve the pain and alleviate the spasms associated with several forms of multiple sclerosis, post-polio syndrome, epilepsy, and certain types of spinal and cranial injuries as well. Marijuana was also used in common treatment of arthritis before 1937 (“FMR”). Whether legal or not, one should be able to use a medicine to alleviate one’s pain. However, the government is beginning to turn around on this issue. In fact, between 1978 and 1996, 34 states passed laws recognizing marijuana’s therapeutic value.
Although we are currently living under a state of marijuana prohibition, many factors support the legalization of it. Much of the government’s capital is being wasted fighting the war on drugs and incarcerating those P.O.W.’s. The medicinal value of marijuana is indisputable, and, even if smoked recreationally, it has far better attributes than alcohol and cigarettes. Also, studies have shown it to have no long-term effect on mental functions and memory. Thus, write your Congressman, and we will all meet at the capital under the banner “Free the Weed.”
