Keep All Marijuana Illegal
Today the debate goes on about the legalization of marijuana. Many people on both sides have good arguments about why or why not to legalize marijuana. Opponents of legalizing marijuana state that the evidence points to either, harmful affects, or that there is not enough information to safely support the legalization of marijuana. Proponents of legalizing marijuana say that it would decriminalize the drug trade and that we could tax the drug to raise money for education and prevention. After two decades of telling kids ?Just say No!? how would the children handle a switch in United States drug policy? Many states have new laws for the medical usage of marijuana, even though legalized synthetic equivalents do exist. Keeping marijuana illegal is in the best interest of American society as a whole.
The affects of marijuana usage are varied and not all agreed to. "Despite decades of research, there appears to be no definitive answer to whether marijuana causes severe long-term physiological damage to users. For every expert who says it does not jeopardize a person's health, there is someone to refute the claim. This uncertainty is reason enough to keep the drug illegal." according to The Michigan Daily Online. One place that most the experts agree is that smoking marijuana makes you "high" and that state will make a person impaired. The short-term effects include memory loss, loss of motor skills, increased heart rate, trouble with thinking and problem solving. Some users also experience intense anxiety, panic attacks and paranoia. Therefore, somebody that smokes marijuana and drives would be a hazard to public safety at the very least.
Proponents of legalizing marijuana point out 3 major effects that they believe are good for the United States. First, it would decriminalize the drug trade and make for less crime caused by marijuana users. Legalization would not necessarily wipe out the illegal market of marijuana. Gambling has been legalized in some areas, yet illegal gambling still thrives. In the Netherlands, after drugs were made legal, there was a 33 percent increase in gun deaths, almost all of them drug related. Second, the government could tax marijuana. What the U.S. would do with it is unknown, even though opening up substance abuse clinics on every street corner of the inner cities will take a lot of the funding.
Finally, the price of marijuana would become much cheaper and more widely available. This is really a coup for hardcore users and new users alike. The supporters think this will have a positive effect because it will curb the burglary and robbery by addicts that need money to support their addiction. This will start the wave of new users, similar to what happened in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and even Alaska. In Alaska marijuana was legalized, usage became a big problem, and then the drug was voted back to illegal status by the citizens. Can the U.S. be smart and learn from other countries or states mistakes and not open the same can of worms.
What about our children? How many children will take legalization of marijuana as a green light or just that extra push toward marijuana? According to the DEA ?more teens are in treatment for marijuana use than for any other drug or alcohol. Adolescent admissions to substance abuse facilities for marijuana grew from 43 percent of all admissions in 1994 to 60 percent in 1999.? Kids will be introduced to the number one ?Gateway drug? in greater numbers if it is legalized. Also from the DEA ?Among marijuana?s most harmful consequences is its role in leading to the use of other illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine. Long-term studies of students who use drugs show that very few young people use other illegal drugs with out first trying marijuana. While not all people who use marijuana go on to use other drugs, using marijuana sometimes lowers inhibitions about drug use and exposes users to a culture that encourages use of other drugs.? Finally the DEA states ?The risk of using cocaine has been estimated to be more than 104 times greater for those who have tried marijuana than those who have never tried it? 104 times greater! Factor that with more users of marijuana if it was legalized. That could become a national crisis overnight. Inner city kids have it the worst as a good portion of marijuana processed there is laced with PCP or even crack cocaine. Kids that smoke laced joints are never even getting a choice whether or not to try ?hard drugs.? So what do parents tell their children after they have been hearing ?Just say no!? and ?Drugs are bad? for over two decades now? How will a child react if there was a sudden change in the message given by the government?
There is quite a bit of support for medicinal marijuana today. Medical marijuana is the marijuana used by people with Glaucoma, Cancer, and AIDS to help them feel better or to mask the effects of other prescription drugs and chemo-therapy that can make them very ill. According to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll ?70 percent of voters support medicinal marijuana? and that ?34% favored legalizing marijuana use while 62% were opposed, the most support for legalization since the pollsters began asking the question in 1969.? While these numbers put marijuana support at a 30 year high there are some myths about medicinal marijuana.
Studies have shown AIDS patients that smoke marijuana damage their immune system, which is already failing. HIV-positive marijuana smokers progress to full blown AIDS twice as fast as non smokers. Cancer patients who smoke take in many cancer-causing substances, many of which are at higher concentrations than in tobacco. The major psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, THC, is legally available in pill form, called Marinol, which may be prescribed by a doctor. Major medical and health organizations stand firmly against the use of marijuana. These organizations include: the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, National Eye Institute, and the American Glaucoma Association. On the flipside, backers of legalizing medical marijuana laws include: the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML), the Drug Policy Foundation, and the Cannabis Buyers Club in San Francisco. A former director of NORML told an Emory University audience that NORML would use the issue of medical marijuana as a red herring to give marijuana a good name, and that it is an integral part of the strategy to legalize marijuana. So it boils down to whom would be trustworthy about the issue of medicinal marijuana.
Legalization of marijuana is not the answer to today?s marijuana epidemic. There will always be a criminal element in marijuana. Marijuana has been proven unsafe and addictive. Our kids would become confused on what to think if their government does an about-face on marijuana if it was legalized. Medical usage of marijuana is just a cover for liberal organizations to get all marijuana legalized. Legalization of marijuana will only increase usage of the number one gateway drug and our problems will continue and evolve into a new pro-drug society with a skewed sense of morality.
Today the debate goes on about the legalization of marijuana. Many people on both sides have good arguments about why or why not to legalize marijuana. Opponents of legalizing marijuana state that the evidence points to either, harmful affects, or that there is not enough information to safely support the legalization of marijuana. Proponents of legalizing marijuana say that it would decriminalize the drug trade and that we could tax the drug to raise money for education and prevention. After two decades of telling kids ?Just say No!? how would the children handle a switch in United States drug policy? Many states have new laws for the medical usage of marijuana, even though legalized synthetic equivalents do exist. Keeping marijuana illegal is in the best interest of American society as a whole.
The affects of marijuana usage are varied and not all agreed to. "Despite decades of research, there appears to be no definitive answer to whether marijuana causes severe long-term physiological damage to users. For every expert who says it does not jeopardize a person's health, there is someone to refute the claim. This uncertainty is reason enough to keep the drug illegal." according to The Michigan Daily Online. One place that most the experts agree is that smoking marijuana makes you "high" and that state will make a person impaired. The short-term effects include memory loss, loss of motor skills, increased heart rate, trouble with thinking and problem solving. Some users also experience intense anxiety, panic attacks and paranoia. Therefore, somebody that smokes marijuana and drives would be a hazard to public safety at the very least.
Proponents of legalizing marijuana point out 3 major effects that they believe are good for the United States. First, it would decriminalize the drug trade and make for less crime caused by marijuana users. Legalization would not necessarily wipe out the illegal market of marijuana. Gambling has been legalized in some areas, yet illegal gambling still thrives. In the Netherlands, after drugs were made legal, there was a 33 percent increase in gun deaths, almost all of them drug related. Second, the government could tax marijuana. What the U.S. would do with it is unknown, even though opening up substance abuse clinics on every street corner of the inner cities will take a lot of the funding.
Finally, the price of marijuana would become much cheaper and more widely available. This is really a coup for hardcore users and new users alike. The supporters think this will have a positive effect because it will curb the burglary and robbery by addicts that need money to support their addiction. This will start the wave of new users, similar to what happened in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and even Alaska. In Alaska marijuana was legalized, usage became a big problem, and then the drug was voted back to illegal status by the citizens. Can the U.S. be smart and learn from other countries or states mistakes and not open the same can of worms.
What about our children? How many children will take legalization of marijuana as a green light or just that extra push toward marijuana? According to the DEA ?more teens are in treatment for marijuana use than for any other drug or alcohol. Adolescent admissions to substance abuse facilities for marijuana grew from 43 percent of all admissions in 1994 to 60 percent in 1999.? Kids will be introduced to the number one ?Gateway drug? in greater numbers if it is legalized. Also from the DEA ?Among marijuana?s most harmful consequences is its role in leading to the use of other illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine. Long-term studies of students who use drugs show that very few young people use other illegal drugs with out first trying marijuana. While not all people who use marijuana go on to use other drugs, using marijuana sometimes lowers inhibitions about drug use and exposes users to a culture that encourages use of other drugs.? Finally the DEA states ?The risk of using cocaine has been estimated to be more than 104 times greater for those who have tried marijuana than those who have never tried it? 104 times greater! Factor that with more users of marijuana if it was legalized. That could become a national crisis overnight. Inner city kids have it the worst as a good portion of marijuana processed there is laced with PCP or even crack cocaine. Kids that smoke laced joints are never even getting a choice whether or not to try ?hard drugs.? So what do parents tell their children after they have been hearing ?Just say no!? and ?Drugs are bad? for over two decades now? How will a child react if there was a sudden change in the message given by the government?
There is quite a bit of support for medicinal marijuana today. Medical marijuana is the marijuana used by people with Glaucoma, Cancer, and AIDS to help them feel better or to mask the effects of other prescription drugs and chemo-therapy that can make them very ill. According to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll ?70 percent of voters support medicinal marijuana? and that ?34% favored legalizing marijuana use while 62% were opposed, the most support for legalization since the pollsters began asking the question in 1969.? While these numbers put marijuana support at a 30 year high there are some myths about medicinal marijuana.
Studies have shown AIDS patients that smoke marijuana damage their immune system, which is already failing. HIV-positive marijuana smokers progress to full blown AIDS twice as fast as non smokers. Cancer patients who smoke take in many cancer-causing substances, many of which are at higher concentrations than in tobacco. The major psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, THC, is legally available in pill form, called Marinol, which may be prescribed by a doctor. Major medical and health organizations stand firmly against the use of marijuana. These organizations include: the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, National Eye Institute, and the American Glaucoma Association. On the flipside, backers of legalizing medical marijuana laws include: the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML), the Drug Policy Foundation, and the Cannabis Buyers Club in San Francisco. A former director of NORML told an Emory University audience that NORML would use the issue of medical marijuana as a red herring to give marijuana a good name, and that it is an integral part of the strategy to legalize marijuana. So it boils down to whom would be trustworthy about the issue of medicinal marijuana.
Legalization of marijuana is not the answer to today?s marijuana epidemic. There will always be a criminal element in marijuana. Marijuana has been proven unsafe and addictive. Our kids would become confused on what to think if their government does an about-face on marijuana if it was legalized. Medical usage of marijuana is just a cover for liberal organizations to get all marijuana legalized. Legalization of marijuana will only increase usage of the number one gateway drug and our problems will continue and evolve into a new pro-drug society with a skewed sense of morality.