Kuresa1 Lency Kuresa Period 3 May 10, 2011

Clearing the Smoke

As children we were taught lessons like look both ways, dont take candy from strangers, and the biggest one: Say no to drugs. Although some of this advice was beneficial to us growing up, the messages we received about drugs were not always truthful. The biases of D.A.R.E. and Above the Influence flooded our young minds with the idea that marijuana was a deadly threat to our lives. lf there were more straightforward and widespread information distributed among the masses, then marijuana would be legal, as it should be. The first ones to bring marijuana into the United States (at this time being call the New World) were the Spanish. In the year 1545, they first introduced it in Jamestown. By 1611, the people of the town started growing it alongside tobacco plants. There it was seen as a source of fiber. Throughout the 1890s marijuana had become such a great cash crop that it had replaced cotton in most southern states and was used in some medicines back then as an active ingredient. However, it was the 1920s when the public really caught onto marijuana. Most researchers say that the large use of marijuana in thel920s was brought on by prohibition. The main marijuana users were limited to jazz musicians in small contained clubs called Tea pads. These businesses where not bothered because marijuana was legal and the patrons of these places were in no way making a bother of themselves or disturbing the peace. At this time marijuana was not

Kuresa2 seen as a social threat. From 1850 up until 1942 it was listed on the United States Pharmacopeia and prescribed for various pains like-but not limited to~labor pains, nausea, and rheumatism. Not long after this, in the l93Os the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now named the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) was determined with changing marijuanas image from a simple vice into a powerful, addicting substance that turns users into addicts with escalating drug habits into stronger and more dangerous drugs. With these forces against marijuana, the so-called drug did not have a chance and was made illegal in l937. Even though marijuana had been criminalized almost 30 years before, in the l960s and 70s marijuana was brought back to life by the hippie generation as a form of social disobedience. During this time marijuana was also the muse for many different artists and musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Doors. Such examples prove that marijuana inspired the music that influenced the world we have today. But something drastic happened in the eighties. Crack cocaine emerged into the world and caused mass pandemonium with people and the government alike. The government started a war on all drugs, including marijuana. The government grouped cannabis with other drugs like LSD, cocaine, and heroin. This tarnished the reputation of marijuana, demonizing a relatively harmless plant. This kind of paranoia has continued up until now. However, marijuanas current popularity is considerable. A reliable source says: A recent government survey showed: Marijuana is the most frequently used illegal drug in the United States. Over 83 million Americans over the age of 12 have tried marijuana at least once.

Kuresa3 Over 12 million had used the drug in the month before the survey. Seeing this information it is clear that marijuana is a highly desired position which makes it impossible to just push aside.(Witmer, Denise. "Marijuana Drug Use - Most Important Things Parents Need to Know About Marijuana.") Currently, the United States is in economic turmoil, School funding is being cut, gas prices are at historical heights, and people are losing their jobs. Yet, we still have the money to continue our drug war. This isnt logical, being that Advocates for Proposition 19 had said that if legalized, California could raise $1.4 billion in taxes and save precious law enforcement and prison resources. (Birchard John, The New York Times, Marijuana and Medical Marijuana). There are many different types of jobs that come with the legalization of marijuana, such as glassblowers, chefs, chemists, workers at dispensaries like cashiers, security, connoisseurs and critics, magazine editors and writers. If marijuana is legalized, then the entertainment industry opens up to a whole new field, since now only a few marijuanafriendly films are available. Most current films depict marijuana as an evil, but with a new outlook on the subject, it would be lucrative since it has gained a lot of acceptance among U.S. citizens. Along with media acceptance, there comes the disappearance of unnecessary legal fees for illegitimate marijuana arrests and court costs. The enforcement of marijuana laws would also be less extreme than what we have currently if we were to legalize it. The search and destroy missions of the past would be nonexistent, along with the police effort to generalize the substance as a staple for someones culture. With all this evidence lined up in the favor of legalization, it is not acceptable that marijuana laws are in their current\state: unjust and biased.

Kuresa4 Former president, Richard Nixon, found that marijuana was not harmful and should be legalized, but because of his bias he pushed those facts aside, and hid them from the public. These findings were released only recently in a documentary called, High, the True Tale of American Marijuana (Released October 18, 2008, Directed by John Holowach). This documentary shows the governments deceptive hand in the history of marijuana laws, and explains its current state. In the Constitution, it states that in any dispute between federal and state law, the federal position always wins, such as in the case of a man who was promised legal immunity by a Statewritten letter saying that he would be allowed to show his marijuana crop for a local news story, but shortly after, a federal agent ordered a crackdown on his house. He is currently fighting a case against having to serve 25 to life in federal prison for what he was led to believe as having a safe amount of marijuana at his home. This is just one small example of how the federal government is creating a trap for uneducated marijuana users. Now, even if someone has a medical marijuana identification card and is in the possession of any amount of marijuana they can be arrested by a federal agent if suspected. It is completely understandable that cannabis needs to be legalized in more than thirteen states to be federally legalized, which is the main goal of marijuana advocates efforts. The first step to legalizing marijuana is de-criminalizing it, taking the teeth out of the so-called monster. In present-day Portugal, marijuana has been legalized along with all other drugs. This was brought on by a major heroin epidemic. The leader of Portugal said that drug addiction is a self-afflicted disease and that treatment would be more socially productive than throwing everyone in jail. (Szalavitz, Maia. "Decriminalizing Drugs in Portugal a

Kuresa5 Success, Says Report - TIME." Breaking) Because of Portugals position on drug use, the addiction rate has decreased drastically. In a recent documentary, Portugal teenagers reported that although all drugs are legal, some of them being very popular, theyre not overly attracted to them. With the money the government saved from not jailing addicts, they educated the children on the possible pitfalls of using heroin and all other controlled substances. America could do the same thing. The only barrier holding us back from legalization like Portugals is social prejudice and the stereotyping of marijuana users. Portugal clearly shows that information and honesty do not lead up to an outburst of drug use. ( High: the True Tale of American Marijuana, Director: John Halowach, 2008). Instead of using the unsuccessful method of scare tactics and slander campaigns, the United States would do better by using actual proven facts in their drug education. After all of the efforts put into this war on drugs, there really has been no movement forward. Teenagers have better access to marijuana than to beer and cigarettes. The black market is the main place where most people are supplied, if it is not medically prescribed. This underground world of everything from prostitution, to guns, and human trafficking is not an appropriate place for something even less hannful than alcohol or tobacco. Without legalization, there is no rightful enforcement of laws with marijuana. We are in a situation now where there is smuggling of drugs with no regulation which produces dangerous situations such as gun wars led by villainous drug lords in a Scarface type environment. Marijuana is not the kind of substance that should be involved in this kind of idiotic fiasco. In the United States, when a person, especially a minor, is caught with marijuana they are given the choice between either treatment or incarceration, but since marijuana arrests are

Kuresa6 on the rise it would be most logical to go with treatment than being thrown in jail. As clear proof, the number of arrests and admissions into treatment centers rise with one another, but over half the adolescent patients checked in to these centers are not there by free-will. The federal government and other agencies take their statistics from rate of patients in treatment centers for marijuana. What they dont tell you is that these individuals chose treatment as a lighter sentence in the face of real jail time. Alcohol and tobacco have been killing people for years-legally. lt is shocking that alcohol poisoning can kill a person in one night. The long-term effects are no better. Liver failure and kidney failure are on the top of the list of negative effects with this drug. Tobacco destroys a person from the inside out, destroying the lungs, ageing the skin, and yellowing of the teeth. These are just the beginning of a long list of tobaccos deadly effects. With this considered, marijuana has been known to reverse some of these effects, but not all. There are many dangerous and insidious drugs that marijuana has been unfairly grouped as a Schedule l drug along with cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, and heroin. Marijuana, as a substance by itself, is not nearly as dangerous as these other killers. Between marijuana and these other drugs, the long-term effects are vastly different as well. Marijuana is medicinal and helpful over time by cutting down on the users chances of tumor growth in common lung cancer by half, says Harvard University Researchers (Marijuana Cuts Lung Cancer Tumor Growth ln Half, Study Shows." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, iHealth, Environment & Technology). lt is this kind of generalization that produces stereotypes against marijuana, and prevents it from being legalized.

Kuresa7 Also concerning stereotypes, Harry Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau Narcotics in 1938, made a prejudiced and completely false comment to congress, stating that, Most marijuana smokers in the United States are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others. (The War on Drugs: Heroin, Cocaine, crime, and public policy, by lnciardim James A. 1986) Marijuana has nothing to do with who someone seeks out sexually. lt will not overtake your thought process, or completely throw off your sense of right and wrong. This is one of many false generalizations of the average marijuana user. Others include: laziness, memory- and brain cell loss, impotence, and psychotic episodes. These effects do not take hold of the average person. The idea of psychotic episodes as linked to marijuana was made famous by a notorious film called, Refer Madness, in which one of the characters, after smoking marijuana, goes into fits of laughter, sexual promiscuity, and fits of rage all in a matter of seconds. This is a completely falsified depiction of marijuana use, and it had misled many of the people in the United States to believe in this as a possibility from smoking marijuana. There have been other movies and television shows that also perpetuate this image of marijuana users as slow, dimWitted, and emotionally unstable. For the most part, these accusations are completely untrue, brought on by propaganda from so-called drug awareness campaigns like Above the Influence and D.A.R.E. These organizations demonize the use of marijuana by using subliminal messages that describe marijuana as puppets or easily-influenced

Kuresa8 people. Disguising the truth behind these flashy commercials, with no real facts behind them leads people astray. Above all these reasons not to fear the legalization of marijuana, health care is the paramotuit. Marijuana has so many medicinal purposes like easing the pain of AIDS by helping with poor appetites, migraine relief, treating anorexia, among many others. With the advances of medical marijuana, high-potency strands are reducing the amount of tar taken in when it is smoked. A vaporizing machine has even removed all of the tar from smoking. Take in case the story of Scott Snoffer, diagnosed with a blood disorder. Doctors first order of business was to prescribe him high-potency-~and addictive-pain pills. With the failure of these pills, the fear of pharmaceutical addiction and the disablement that these pills caused, Stott searched for a healthier alternative. He decided to ask his doctor about medical marijuana. Once prescribed, Scott began to be more active in his life With his disease becoming less of a burden to him. Even his sons said, that without marijuana, their father would not be able to accomplish the actions that he does every day. Considering Karens case, an amazing person diagnosed with cancer at an early age, medical marijuana saved her life. After prescription drug failure and a near-death experience because of starvation, a friend recommended marijuana as a more promising treatment. After a period of time, Karen began to be able to keep down her food. She is still living, and sleeps better because of medical marijuana. Joey Perez was a young boy diagnosed with autism. His mother did the necessary research about the drug before ever experimenting with it on her son. Giving her son a cannabis-

Kuresa9 infused brownie, she saw her son order food for the first time, eating in mass-quantities, and relieving him of his deathly low body weight. Hester-Perez said, l saved my son's life, and marijuana saved my son's life... When a mother hears that her son is knocking on death's door, you will do anything to save his life." (Mother Gives Son Marijuana to Treat His Autism, Joseph Brownstein, Nov. 23, 2009) With all these lives that marijuana has changed for the better, it is clear that the fight against marijuana is not about its positive effects and more about money, power, and control of the American people and their rights to proper medications. The pharmaceutical drugs given to us by doctors are extremely addictive, and their side effects are more harmful than anything that could possibly be compared to marijuana. Legalization would end the need for many of these pharmaceutical drugs, being a good enough substitute with less risk of overdose or addiction, if any. My discussion of the economic benefits of marijuana legalization shows that taxation and the production of jobs would relieve our country of some of our financial stress. The political debate on marijuana legalization demonstrates how the government has a larger hand than what is shown to the public in their orchestration of the War on Drugs. When de-criminalization does happen on a larger scale, the black market will be reduced considerably. With the case of addiction to marijuana, the facts given to the people over the years have been skewed, this slowing down the process of legalization, and causing stigma regarding marijuana use. Finally, health issues address marijuana legalization with the most compelling arguments. The legalization of marijuana is extremely important to this country because of its financial benefits, the reduction of crime and addiction, in addition to a new era of health care advances. The prejudice of the past should not prevent us from moving forward in the future.

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Bibliography
1. Birchard, John. "Marijuana and Medical Marijuana." Http://www.nytimes.com/. Bloomberg News, 11 Feb. 2011. Web.<http1//topics.nytimes_com/top/reference/timestopics/subj ects/m/marijuana/index.html>. 2. Brownstein, Joseph. "Mother Gives Son Marijuana To Treat His Autism - ABC News."ABCNews.com: Breaking News, Politics, World News, Good Morning America, Exclusive Interviews - ABC News. 23 Nov. 2009. Web. 12 May 2011. <http ://abcnews _ go .com/ GMA/ AutismNews/ mother- son-marij uana-treatautism/ story?id=9 1 5 3 881>. 3. High: The True Tale of American Marijuana. Dir. John Holowach. Perf. John Holowach, Ricardo Cortes and Lyle Craker. Film. Inciardi, James A. The War on Drugs: Heroin, Cocaine, Crime, and Public Policy. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield Pub., 1986. Print. 4. "Marijuana Cuts Lung Cancer Tumor Growth In Half, Study Shows." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. ScienceDaily, 17 Apr. 2007. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://www.sciencedaiiy.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm>.

Kuresa11 5. Szalavitz, Maia. "Decriminalizing Drugs in Portugal a Success, Says Report TlME."Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. Www.time.com, 26 Apr. 2009. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://wvvwtime.com/time/health/article/ 0,85 99, 1 893946,00.html>. 6. Witmer, Denise. "Marijuana Drug Use - Most Important Things Parents Need to Know About Marijuana." Teenagers Parenting Teens - Parents of Teenagers Find Help Raising Teens. Web. 12 May 2011. <http://parentingteensabout.com/od/marijuana/a/teensmarij uanadruguse.htm>.