Annotated Bibliography

Ricardo Carrasco
English 1311

Sharyn Rosenbaum. Is Legalization The Answer? Human Rights, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Spring
1989), pp. 18-19. JSTOR. Web. 18 March 2014.
The legalization of Marijuana has always been fought over ever since the early 1900s.
Major Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore is on the side of legalization, he thinks that any new
drug policies made are on route to failure as past administrations of these policies have
done so. He think the most effective way to end the battle with drugs is to legalize them.
Another man Ira Glasser, national executive director of the ACLU says that if they do
legalize it, it would end a lot of gang related profit. He mentions that dealers are using
kids to cross drugs on a $300-$400 pay, if the law passed and drugs were legalized, these
kids would not be in such situations risking themselves for money. Drugs also make the
government waste a lot of money on just trying to keep awareness, in the article I found
that total government spendings for drug and awareness programs totaled $3.5 billion in
1988, according to a congressional research report.
The Huffington Post. (2012, August). Why Marijuana Should Be Legalized: 'Regulate Marijuana
Like Alcohol' Campaign Discusses Why Pot Prohibition Has Been A Failure. Retrieved
from The Huffington Post website http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/why-
marijuana-should-be-legalized_n_1833751.html
Three states including Colorado, Washington, and Oregon are in the verge of legalizing
marijuana for recreational use for adults. Colorados Amendment 64 seeks legalization
for adults 21 and over, a poll took by Rasmussen shows that 61 percent of Colorado
voters will favor legalizing marijuana if the regulations to get it is the same as alcohol
and cigarettes. Amendment 64 could also boost the profit in Colorado and help out
school revenue because of the different products offered by the legalizing of the plant, as
well as all of the jobs produced by it. It is also said that marijuana will be cultivated
properly and sold with limitations, this will help boost the states revenue and let the state
save millions of dollars in campaigns not needed and eliminate the underground war for
it. If marijuana and alcohol had the same regulation, the plant would be much safer
because according to different studies it has been observed that alcohol causes more
damage when it comes to problems and dangerous activities. With alcohol there are far
more consequences when consumed and some of them are not so good, in different
performed studies it is shown that marijuana also has not had any deaths due to overdose
or any deaths linked to marijuana. Marijuana all in all is just a safer option rather than
alcohol.
We Are The Drug Policy Alliance. (2013). Drug War Statistics. Retrieved March 18, 2014, from:
http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics
- Number of people arrested for a marijuana law violation in 2012: 749,825
Number of those charged with marijuana law violations who were arrested for possession
only: 658,231 (88 percent)
-Estimated annual revenue that California would raise if it taxed and regulated the sale
of marijuana: $1,400,000,000
-Number of people killed in Mexico's drug war since 2006: 70,000+
-Number of students who have lost federal financial aid eligibility because of a drug
conviction: 200,000+
-Amount spent annually in the U.S. on the war on drugs: More than $51,000,000,000
We Are The Drug Policy Alliance. (2013). Medical Marijuana. Retrieved March 18, 2014, from:
http://www.drugpolicy.org/medical-marijuana
A lot of very ill patients every year seek a way out of their suffrage and sometimes
medical marijuana is the only thing that will relieve their pain and not give any side
effects with the help. Marijuana has been tested accordingly and found that the use of it
can relieve some very serious diseases and problems out there for example some are
cancer, AIDS, and glaucoma, and also is found to be an alternative to some OTC drugs.
Medical marijuana is legal for medical use in twenty states and the District of Columbia
but under federal law it is still illegal. This leads to patients from all the remaining states
not being able to get their hands on medical marijuana or experience the use of it without
getting punished. A program called The Drug Policy Alliance supports marijuana use
and states, The Drug Policy Alliance is committed to increasing the number of states
with medical marijuana laws, supporting and improving existing state medical marijuana
programs, protecting medical marijuana patients, and ending the federal ban on medical
marijuana so that all patients within the United States have safe access to quality
medicine and research into marijuanas medicinal benefits can move forward. This
program seeks for the federal ban to be removed and is fighting in support of medicinal
use.
NORML. (2013). About Marijuana. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from: http://norml.org/marijuana
Marijuana has been used by nearly 100 million Americans despite the harsh rules against
the use of it. Studies have shown that marijuana is safer than both alcohol and tobacco
use as stated in the article, Around 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning.
Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By
comparison, marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose. NORML an
abbreviation for National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws is an organization
that is out to legalize marijuana in all states, they have found that it cost taxpayers about
$10 billion annually for the enforcement of marijuana usage and prohibition, and they
know that they also arrest around 750,000 individuals per year for these drug related
activities.
ProCon. (2013). Medical Marijuana. Retrieved March 23, 2014, from:
http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000091
-Marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug by the 1970 Controlled Substances Act,
meaning it is considered to have a "high potential for abuse," "no currently accepted
medical use," and "a lack of accepted safety." Rescheduling marijuana to the less
restrictive Schedule II or III (45 KB) remains a contentious issue.
-The University of Mississippi has grown marijuana (including a placebo with virtually
no THC) for US government-approved research since 1968. Each year the university
grows 1.5 acres, 6.5 acres, or none, depending upon demand.
- Eight of the 10 states that had legalized medical marijuana by 2006 saw a decrease in
teen use of marijuana from 1999 to 2006.
- In 1978 the US government started the Compassionate Investigational New Drug
(IND) program. Although closed for new patients in 1991, it still supplies 320-360
marijuana cigarettes monthly to each of the four seriously ill patients remaining in the
program.
- The first cannabis-based prescription medicine, Sativex, was launched in the United
Kingdom on June 21, 2010. Sativex is a mouth spray approved to treat spasticity in
patients with Multiple Sclerosis. Marinol, a synthetic version of delta-9-THC, a chemical
which appears naturally in the marijuana plant, was approved in the United States in
1985.