IS THE ILLEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA VALID?
The debate over the legalization of Cannabis sativa, more
commonly known as marijuana, has been one of the most heated
controversies ever to occur in the United States. Its use as a
medicine has existed for thousands of years in many countries
world wide and is documented as far back as 2700 BC in ancient
Chinese writings. When someone says ganja, cannabis, bung,
dope, grass, rasta, or weed, they are talking about the same
subject: marijuana. Marijuana should be legalized because the
government could earn money from taxes on its sale, its value to
the medical world outweighs its abuse potential, and because of
its importance to the paper and clothing industries. This action
should be taken despite efforts made by groups which say
marijuana is a harmful drug which will increase crime rates and
lead users to other more dangerous substances.
The actual story behind the legislature passed against
marijuana is quite surprising.
Haught Street Obama "Yes We Cannabis" Poster
Day 46 - West Midlands Police - Cannabis Drugs Rai...
Medical marijuana usaAccording to Jack Herer, author of
The Emperor Wears No Clothes, the acts bringing about the
demise of hemp were part of a large conspiracy involving DuPont,
Harry J. Anslinger, commissioner of the Federal Bureau of
Narcotics (FBN), and many other influential industrial leaders
such as William Randolph Hearst and Andrew Mellon. Herer
notes that the Marijuana Tax Act, which passed in 1937,
coincidentally occurred just as the decoricator machine was
invented. With this invention, hemp would have been able to
take over competing industries almost instantaneously.
According to Popular Mechanics, '10,000 acres devoted to hemp
will produce as much paper as 40,000 acres of average [forest]
pulp land.' William Hearst owned enormous timber acreage so his
interest in preventing the growth of hemp can be easily explained.
Competition from hemp would have easily driven the Hearst
paper-manufacturing company out of business and significantly
lowered the value of his land. Herer even suggests popularizing
the term 'marijuana' was a strategy Hearst used in order to create
fear in the American public. Herer says 'The first step in creating
hysteria was to introduce the element of fear of the unknown by
using a word that no one had ever heard of before... 'marijuana''.
DuPont's involvement in the anti-hemp campaign can also
be explained with great ease. At this time, DuPont was patenting
a new sulfuric acid process for producing wood-pulp paper.
According to the company's own records, wood-pulp products
ultimately accounted for more than 80% of all DuPont's railroad
car loadings for the 50 years the Marijuana Tax Act was passed. It
should also be said that two years before the prohibitive hemp tax
in 1937, DuPont developed nylon which was a substitute for hemp
rope. The year after the tax was passed DuPont came out with
rayon, which would have been unable to compete with the
strength of hemp fiber or its economical process of
manufacturing. 'DuPont's point man was none other than Harry
Anslinger...who was appointed to the FBN by Treasury Secretary
Andrew Mellon, who was also chairman of the Mellon Bank,
DuPont's chief financial backer. Anslinger's relationship to
Mellon wasn't just political, he was also married to Mellon's niece'
(Hartsell).
The reasoning behind DuPont, Anslinger, and Hearst was
not for any moral or health related issues. They fought to prevent
the growth of this new industry so they wouldn't lose money. In
fact, the American Medical Association tried to argue for the
medical benefits of hemp. Marijuana is actually less dangerous
than alcohol, cigarettes, and even most over-the-counter
medicines or prescriptions. According to Francis J. Young, the
DEA's administrative judge, 'nearly all medicines have toxic,
potentially lethal affects, but marijuana is not such a
substance...Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest
therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure
of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a
supervised routine of medical care' (DEA Docket No. 86-22, 57).
It doesn't make sense then, for marijuana to be illegal in the
United States when alcohol poisoning is a major cause of death
in this country and approximately 400,000 premature deaths are
attributed to cigarettes annually. Dr. Roger Pertwee, Secretary of
the International Cannabis Research Society states that as a
recreational drug, 'Marijuana compares favorably to nicotine,
alcohol, and even caffeine.' Under extreme amounts of alcohol a
person will experience an 'inability to stand or walk without help,
stupor and near unconsciousness, lack of comprehension of what
is seen or heard, shock, and breathing and heartbeat may stop.'
Even though these effects occur only under an extreme amount of
alcohol consumption, (.2-.5 BAL) the fact is smoking extreme
amounts of marijuana will do nothing more than put you to sleep,
while drinking excessive amounts of alcohol will kill you.
The most profound activist for marijuana's use as a
medicine is Dr. Lester Grinspoon, author of Marihuana: The
Forbidden Medicine. According to Grinspoon, 'The only well
confirmed negative effect of marijuana is caused by the smoke,
which contains three times more tars and five times more carbon
monoxide than tobacco. But even the heaviest marijuana smokers
rarely use as much as an average tobacco smoker. And, of course,
many prefer to eat it.' His book includes personal accounts of
how prescribed marijuana alleviated epilepsy, weight loss of AIDs,
nausea of chemotherapy, menstrual pains, and the severe effects
of Multiple Sclerosis. The illness with the most documentation
and harmony among doctors which marijuana has successfully
treated is MS. Grinspoon believes for MS sufferers, 'Cannabis is
the drug of necessity.' One patient of his, 51 year old Elizabeth
MacRory, says 'It has completely changed my life...It has helped
with muscle spasms, allowed me to sleep properly, and helped
control my bladder.' Marijuana also proved to be effective in the
treatment of glaucoma because its use lowers pressure on the eye.
'In a recent survey at a leading teaching hospital, 'over 60
per cent of medical students were found to be marijuana users.'
In the same survey, only 30 per cent admitted to smoking
cigarettes' (Guardian). Brian Hilliard, editor of Police Review,
says 'Legalizing cannabis wouldn't do any harm to anybody. We
should be concentrating on the serious business of heroin and
amphetamines.' 'In the UK in 1991, 42,209 people were convicted
of marijuana charges, clogging courts and overcrowding
prisons...and almost 90 per cent of drug offenses involve
cannabis...The British government spends 500 million pounds a
year on 'overall responses to drugs' but receives no tax revenue
from the estimated 1.8 billion pound illicit drug market'
(Guardian). Figures like this can be seen in the United States as
well. The US spends billions of dollars annually on the war on
drugs. If the government were to legalize marijuana, it could
reasonably place high taxes on it because people are used to
buying marijuana at extremely high prices created by the risks of
selling marijuana illegally. It could be sold at a convenient store
just like a pack of cigarettes for less than someone would pay
now, but still yield a high profit because of easy growing
requirements.
An entire industry could be created out of hemp based
products. The oils extracted from seeds could be used for fuels
and the hemp fiber, a fiber so valued for its strength that it is
used to judge the quality of other fibers, could be manufactured
into ropes, clothing, or paper. Most importantly, the money the
government would make from taxes and the money which would
be saved by not trying to prevent its use could be used for more
important things, such as serious drugs or the national debt.
The recreational use of marijuana would not stimulate crime
like some would argue. The crime rate in Amsterdam, where
marijuana is legal, is lower than many major US cities. Mario
Lap, a key drug policy advisor in the Netherlands national
government says 'We've had a realistic drug policy for 30 years in
the Netherlands, and we know what works. We distinguish
between soft and hard drugs, between traffickers and users. We
try not to make people into criminals' (Houston Chronicle).
We can expect strong opposition from companies like
DuPont and paper manufacturers but the selfishness of these
corporations should not prevent its use in our society like it did
in the 1930's. Regardless of what these organizations will say
about marijuana, the fact is it has the potential to become one of
the most useful substances in the entire world. If we took action
and our government legalized it today, we would immediately see
benefits from this decision. People suffering from illnesses
ranging from manic depression to Multiple Sclerosis would be
able to experience relief. The government could make billions of
dollars off of the taxes it could impose on its sale, and its
implementation into the industrial world would create thousands
of new jobs for the economy. Also, because of its role in paper
making, the rain forests of South America could be saved from
their current fate of extinction. No recorded deaths have ever
occurred as a result of marijuana use, it is not physically addictive
like alcohol or tobacco, and most doctors will agree it is safer to
use. Marijuana being illegal has no validity at all. Due to all the
positive aspects of marijuana it should be legalized in the United
States.