Seth Finley Oct, 24, 2017

Legalize medical Marijuana

There is more public support for marijuana law reform than ever before with new

polls showing more than half the country is in favor of legalizing marijuana. The drug

policy alliance (DPA) believes marijuana should be removed from the criminal justice

system and regulated like alcohol and tobacco, Currently in the U.S there are two types

of marijuana laws in effect, recreational and medical laws, protecting citizens who are in

need of medical marijuana.

What's the reason for marijuana being illegal? To find out why marijuana is

illegal we have to see what was happening in the early 1900s just after the mexican

revolution. At this time we saw a influx of immigrants from mexico into states like Texas

and Louisiana. Shocking all these new americans brought their language, culture and

customs. One of these customs was the use of cannabis as a medicine or relaxant.

Mexican immigrants called this plant Marihuana. While americans were very familiar

with cannabis because it was present in almost all tinctures and medicines available at

the time, the word Marihuana is a foreign term. So when the media started falsely

spreading claims about these disruptive mexicans with their dangerous native

behavior including marijuana use, the rest of the nation didn't know that this marihuana

was a plant that they already had in there medicine. In an effort to control and keep tabs

on their new citizens they outlawed Marijuana, the idea was to have an excuse to

search, detain, or deport mexican immigrants. During hearings on marijuana law in the

1930s, claims were made about marijuana's ability to cause men of color to become

violent. This imagery became the backdrop for the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 which

effectively banned its use and sales. While the act was ruled unconstitutional years
Seth Finley Oct, 24, 2017

later, it was replaced with the Controlled Substances Act in the 1970s which

established schedules for ranking substances according to their dangerousness and

potential for addiction ("How Did Marijuana Became Illegal in the First Place?").

Why should we legalize? One reason could be to create jobs, legalizing and

regulating marijuana will bring on of the nation's largest cash crops under the rule of the

law. This will create jobs and economic opportunities in the economy instead of the

black market getting all the income. Legalizing marijuana would have police arresting

less people for marijuana related charges, this would also reduce crime because people

selling in the black market won't have too or be able to keep up with the dispensaries

prices. Legalizing marijuana would also save money, scarce law enforcement resources

will better used to ensure public safety while reducing corrections and court cost. State

and Governments would acquire significant new sources of tax revenue from regulating

marijuana sales.

What's the law now? Illegal marijuana has some unjust laws as for example

marijuana is classified as a schedule 1 narcotic under federal law, putting the plant in a

category reserved for substance which have no accepted medical use in the United

States, a lack of safety for use under medical supervision and high potential for abuse.

which is saying the federal government thinks marijuana is as dangerous as heroin,

MDMA, and LSD, and is more dangerous than morphine, oxycodone, cocaine, and

Meth. Which is crazy, the marijuana plant does not have any addictive additives unlike

tobacco which contains the addictive chemical nicotine and causes numerous cancers,

and alcohol is legal in all 50 states yet this drug yes alcohol is a drug, can cause

blackouts, memory loss, permanent brain damage, several other cancers,

Seth Finley Oct, 24, 2017

cardiovascular disease, liver disease, and many many more, but yet it's still legal you

would think it would also be classified as a schedule 1 drug, because it sure fits the

criteria for one ("Alcohol's Effects on the Body") .

Could marijuana be the key? Throughout human history there has been no

recorded incident in which someone has overdosed on marijuana and with the increase

in more potent forms of marijuana being produced there still has not been any cannabis-

related hospitalizations. But many people have overdosed from the prescribed medicine

such as Xanax, Morphine, Oxycodone, Methadone, Valium, and Fentanyl, that are

being over-prescribed and abused in american because big corporations like Big

Pharma are worried about the profits instead of public safety, furthermore not only are

they not regulating opioids correctly, they are bumping up the prices of their meds

because of the opioid crisis occurring in the country, so people with diabetes who need

insulin now have to pay over $300 for their prescription because they raised their prices,

in recent news there have been class action lawsuits filed towards companies like Big

Pharma because of the increased cost of prescription drugs. As the prices rise people

who are dependent on opioids are not going to be able to afford their addiction, so they

would have to turn to a cheaper alternative such as Heroin, and with the use of injected

opioids it increases the transmission of infectious diseases including HIV or Hepatitis C.

A new study shows that hospitalization rates for opioid dependence and abuse dropped

on an average 23% in states after marijuana became legal for medical purposes,

hospitalization rates for opioid overdose dropped 13% on average. This also might just

be the right step towards fighting the opioid epidemic, which has quadrupled since 1999
Seth Finley Oct, 24, 2017

in sales of prescription painkillers such as oxycontin and vicodin - kills 91 americans a

day ("Opioid Crisis").

The people's stance on marijuana, 83% of americans surveyed recently said that

doctors should be able to prescribe marijuana to patients, only 14% said they oppose

legalizing medical marijuana. However, 49% of people said they support legalizing

recreational marijuana, compared to 47% who said they disapprove ("Marijuana).

Medical marijuana might also help decrease health care spending, If every U.S state

legalized marijuana, americans would save millions of dollars a year through the federal

Medicare program, researchers found that the total savings derived from so far come to

around $468 million a year.

Despite the justice department's prohibition on marijuana, however; more than

half the states in the country have passed laws in recent years allowing adults to

consume cannabis for medical or recreational purposes, largely without opposition from

the obama administration. Most of americans think the Trump administration should

take a more relaxed approach on medical cannabis than his predecessor. So how do

you think we should approach medical marijuana? Should we enforce harsher laws or

be more relaxed?
Seth Finley Oct, 24, 2017

Works Cited

Burnet, DR. MALIK, and AMANDA Reiman. "How Did Marijuana Became Illegal in the First Place?"

We Are the Drug Policy Alliance. Drug Policy Alliance, 08 Oct. 2014. Web.

"Alcohol's Effects on the Body." National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Apr. 2017. Web.

"Marijuana." Blog post. NIDA. N.p., Aug. 2017. Web.

"Opioid Crisis." National Institute on Drug Abuse. NIDA, June 2017. Web.