The Right Choice
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency describes it as “a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Schedule I drugs are classified as having a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.” (DEA p.1). American country singer and marijuana advocate Willie Nelson said, “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?” (Nelson p.1). Larry Malerbra D.O, a practitioner, educator and leader in the field of holistic medicine argues that, “The medical benefits of marijuana (cannabis) are pretty well established. There is voluminous scientific research on the subject that verifies its efficacy when applied to a variety of medical conditions, and plenty of first-hand evidence that it works for those who use it for their own health problems.”(Malerbra p.1) With so many different ideas on what exactly Marijuana is, a controlled substance, an herb and a flower, or a medicine. There is no wonder there is much controversy of the legalization of the substance that has just as many names as descriptions. It is referred to as, weed, pot, dope, grass, reefer, herb, Mary Jane, Cannabis sativa, hemp, and most commonly marijuana. In our country we are free to smoke cigarettes until our lungs are black and cancerous, and drink alcohol to the point of intoxication and destroy our detoxification organ making it scarred and unusable. We should as citizens of a free country should be given the choice to use marijuana whether for medical or recreational uses. Legalization would make a new taxable product, free up law enforcement agencies, and take power and money away from gangs. It is not only the right choice to legalize marijuana it is the safest.
Marijuana myths are everywhere and for the most part people believe they are true because they have heard them over the years. The most common myth is that marijuana use leads to the use of harder more addictive drugs. But there has been no scientific evidence to prove this is true. Another myth is that marijuana kills brain cells, this is also not true, and has been no proof of this. Marijuana was found to disturb some short term memory responses, but no actual brain cells are damaged. It is also believed that making marijuana illegal will reduce the harmfulness of smoking, “ (1)paraphernalia laws have impeded the development and marketing of water pipes and other, more advanced technology that could significantly reduce the harmfulness of marijuana smoke. (2) Prohibition encourages the sale of pot that has been contaminated or adulterated by insecticides, Paraquat, etc., or mixed with other drugs such as PCP, crack and heroin. (3) By raising the price of marijuana, prohibition makes it uneconomical to consume marijuana orally, the best way to avoid smoke exposure altogether; this is because eating typically requires two or three times as much marijuana as smoking.” (Thistle p. 1) All of the myths we have been exposed to over the years concerning marijuana use are just that myths, legends, fiction.
Cannabis sativa is the scientific name for Marijuana. For those of you that are not familiar with Cannabis sativa, it generally appears to resemble dried, shredded leaves. The mixture usually consists of the leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the cannabis plant. The mixture is typically green, brown, and gray in color. To some, it will look a lot like tobacco. People who use cannabis sativa generally smoke the substance rolled in a cigarette or in a pipe, much like tobacco. But the drug can also be mixed in with foods or brewed like a tea. Cannabis is used as a way to heighten senses and cause relaxation. This is achieved through the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol, sometimes referred to as THC, which is present in cannabis.
The use of Cannabis sativa is not a new concept in the United States or around the world. “Marijuana has been used as an agent for achieving euphoria since ancient times; it was described in a Chinese medical compendium traditionally considered to date from 2737 B.C.”(Narconon, 2010 p.1) Marijuana first appeared in the United States around 1545, believed to be brought here by the Spanish. It quickly became a commercial crop and was grown as a source of fiber. During this time many medicines contained marijuana. But it was not until the 1920 that marijuana began to catch on as a recreational drug. “Some historians say its emergence was brought about by Prohibition. Its recreational use was restricted to jazz musicians and people in show business. "Reefer songs" became the rage of the jazz world. Marijuana clubs, called tea pads, sprang up in every major city.” (Narconon, 2010 p.1) It was tolerated by most because marijuana use was not illegal. In 1937 a federal law prohibiting the use of marijuana was passed. “In spite of these laws, use of the drug became widespread during the 1960's and 1970's, especially among young people.” (Consroe p.1)
There are several uses for marijuana, recreational, medical, and industrial. Marijuana has long been used for medicinal purposes. Most recently it has been controversial in its medical use to treat symptoms in all forms of cancer, anorexia, glaucoma, and AIDs, to name just a few. Marijuana is also used by people as a recreational drug and has most often been referred to as the gateway drug. Hemp is also a fiber that is made from the marijuana plant; it serves as a soft and durable fiber. When used for recreational use marijuana is an illegal drug. Marijuana often brings on feeling of euphoria and relaxation. It is not known to cause violence or feeling of anger. It is often referred to as a gateway drug. Meaning it is thought to be the first drug used down the path of drug addiction. Many people will argue that all drug addicts started with marijuana and when it did not satisfy the high, they would move on to harder and more harmful addictive drugs. Joycelyn Elders, MD, former US Surgeon General, stated in a Dec. 14, 2002 editorial published in The Globe and Mail, “Much of their [US drug-policy leaders] rhetoric about marijuana being a 'gateway drug' is simply wrong. After decades of looking, scientists still have no evidence that marijuana causes people to use harder drugs. If there is any true 'gateway drug,' it's tobacco."(ProCon p.1) The one thing that most people are overlooking is the readily available, legal, drugs alcohol and cigarettes. Most teenagers’ first encounter with a drug is through alcohol or cigarettes. It is available in almost every home and is by far the easiest drugs to get a hold of. The next in the lineup of easily accessible drugs is prescription drugs, ranging from cough syrup, to vicodin, and oxycodone. These drugs have become the new drug of choice among young people, because they are legal. Plus, they are in almost every bathroom or kitchen around the country.
If marijuana was legalized it would take away the stigma that it is a drug. It would no longer be grouped with drugs like cocaine and heroin. It would be put in the same class as alcohol and cigarettes. We see the dangers in the legal drugs like alcohol, cigarettes, and prescription pills, and still choose to use them. When the government prohibited the use of alcohol, our country fought back, using freedom of choice as a reason. It was then made legal for a consenting adult to choose to consume alcohol. The same should be true of marijuana; it is by far safer then cigarettes and alcohol. Smoking cigarettes is known to cause cancer, heart disease, stroke, and lung diseases. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “In the United States, tobacco use is responsible for about one in five deaths annually (i.e., about 443,000 deaths per year, and an estimated 49,000 of these tobacco-related deaths are the result of secondhand smoke exposure)” (CDC p. 1). The most common method for consuming marijuana is smoking, just like cigarettes. A burning cigarette releases multiple carcinogenic chemicals including carbon monoxide. Many of the same chemicals are found in smoked marijuana, the similarities in marijuana and cigarette smoke are very similar. The only difference being THC is present in marijuana, and nicotine is present in cigarettes. With more similarities than differences, why then is it that cigarettes are legal to consume at 18 years of age. Marijuana is a scheduled 1 controlled substance, just like heroin and PCP. The fact is marijuana is no more harmful than cigarettes when smoked, and there are safer ways of using marijuana. Although the desired outcome is less effective and much slower, marijuana can be brewed like a tea or cooked into foods and ingested, removing all of the possible dangers that come from smoking. Alcohol is also known to cause liver damage, cancer, and death. Alcohol is also one of the most toxic drugs on the market today, right behind heroin and GHB. “The largest cluster of substances has a lethal dose that is 10 to 20 times the effective dose: These include cocaine, MDMA often called "ecstasy", and alcohol.” (Gabel p. 3). The lethal dose is the dose that can kill the average person, and the effective dose is the dose needed to bring on the desired effects. Marijuana is thought to be the least physiologically toxic substance, requiring anywhere between 100 to 1,000 times the effective dose, to be lethal. If a person where to take a few extra drinks of alcohol when they were already intoxicated, this could potentially result in death. But it would require someone to smoke or ingest and immeasurable amount of marijuana to come close to death. The website ProCon had this to say about deaths from marijuana, “According to FDA data obtained by our filing of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, marijuana was not reported as a primary cause of death at all between Jan. 1, 1997 to June 30, 2005 (the time for which the data were available).” (ProCon p.1) Marijuana is by far the least hazardous of all the illegal drugs and far less hazardous then the legal drug alcohol. People have the right to consume alcohol, even though it is known to cause cancer, liver damage, and death. Yet marijuana has not been proven to cause cancer, and has never been the primary cause of death. The choice should be left up to the individual.
The main reason for the need for legalization of marijuana is liberty and freedom of choice. But some people need more than liberty, they need good to come for everyone in order to legalize marijuana. The legalization of marijuana would bring in tax revenues. In many states marijuana is a very large and lucrative agricultural crop. But all of that money is untaxed; legalizing it would open the product up for taxation and regulation. “From Canada we’ve learned that the production cost of (government-sponsored) marijuana is roughly 33¢ a gram. Currently, U.S. marijuana consumers pay at least $10 per gram retail for illegal marijuana. If the cost of retailing and distribution is the same as for legal tobacco cigarettes, about 10¢ a gram, then selling the (legal) product at exactly the same prices as on the street today ($10 per gram) could raise $40 billion to $100 billion in new revenue. Not chump change. Government would simply be transferring revenue from organized crime to the public purse.” (Easton p.1) The legalization would also save the government in law enforcement costs. If marijuana were legal it would free up the time and resources of many federal and state agencies to pursue more severe crimes and offenders. Legalization would also take the drugs control out of the hands of gangs and criminals alike. Many criminal organizations use drugs as a main source of income, removing marijuana from that list would take money and resources out of their hands. Another argument for legalization is not for the legalization for recreational use, but from a medical perspective. Marijuana has been present in the medical community for centuries. It has many medical benefits related to symptom relief. “Marijuana has been used medically for thousands of years and in the United States for over 150 years up until the 1937 Tax law and subsequent passing in 1970 on the Controlled Substance Act” (Debondt p.2). Many doctors prescribe marijuana to patients to control or alleviate symptoms. Marijuana is not a cure for any disease and is used only to relieve symptoms. The research to back up the benefits of medical marijuana is limited, because of its illegal status. Marijuana is widely known to treat symptoms from arthritis, appetite loss, nausea, cancer chemotherapy, AIDS wasting syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke, Cohn’s disease, depression, mental illness, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, hypertension, migraine, schizophrenia. Currently Congress has listed marijuana as a schedule 1 controlled substance with no accepted medical use. Despite all of the doctors and patients who have proven the benefit of marijuana, it is considered illegal to use a drug that they can benefit greatly from. Several states have passed laws legalizing marijuana use for medical reasons, but it is still illegal on a federal level. The states who have approved marijuana for medical use include, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington DC, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
I am taking the stand to have the choice to decide whether or not to use marijuana, not because I currently use it and wish it to be legal. That is the exact opposite, I do not use marijuana. But I do think that the choice should be one that I am allowed to make. It is just as safe, if not safer than all the other drug products on the market. I have seen firsthand the effects that marijuana has had on the lives of people. It is made to sound like a horrible and vicious drug that ruins families. I had a ninety year old neighbor, who fought in WWII, raised his family the best he could, and smoked marijuana at night on the front porch to calm his nerves. He worked hard to make an honest living as an iron worker. I had a friend who grew up in a drug riddled home with a meth addicted mother. She left home went to college first got a BS form a well-known University, received a Master’s degree, and is currently working on her PhD. This girl has been and might just always be considered a “Pot Head”. But she is the smartest most motivated person I know. There was a woman who died of cancer, who fought to live. Used chemotherapy and radiation treatment to try and fight off the cancer that was destroying her body. She lost weight, her hair, her appetite, her energy. She smoked pot to ease the symptoms. She told me of all the drugs she had tried to help with the nausea and fatigue, marijuana was the most effective. These stories are not the exception they are the norm. Is the old man considered a criminal because he worked hard, made an honest living, paid taxes? Is the smartest girl I know a drug addict because she left a situation that was dangerous to better herself? Is the cancer patient breaking the law because she finally found something that helped her eat a meal and enjoy a conversation with her family? The answer in the eyes of the law is YES. Marijuana is a schedule 1 controlled substance, and is illegal
In our society we are allowed freedom of choice. We are all raised with the idea that we get to choose what is best for us. Marijuana has many uses, and to many people it is seen as a beneficial substance. The arguments for legalizing marijuana range from benefits to the ecomony, to medicinal uses. The facts are clear when you compare marijuana to other legal drugs, like alcohol, cigarettes, and prescription pills. Marijuana is just as safe if not safer than those other legal substances. It is not a matter of using or not using, it is a matter of choice. The right choice in the legalization of marijuana is yes. Legalize Marijuana and let people make the right choice for themselves.

Reference
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