Beyond The Broken Spectrum

Many people scoff at the idea, but legalize marijuana, regulate it, and tax it, and you will find this will effectively solve several of the problems we face today.

To begin, let’s dispel the common myths about marijuana that many people regularly take as fact.

Myth #1 – Marijuana is a dangerous, deadly illicit drug.

The truth couldn’t be further from it. Marijuana is safer than both tobacco and alcohol and has never resulted in a single death from its consumption. That’s right, it is impossible to overdose and die on marijuana. The same can’t be said for the two main legal drugs we have right now. The worst that can happen to a marijuana consumer is a decrease in sperm production, and a decrease in dreaming.

Compare this to the problems associated with the use of tobacco and alcohol, which include death, organ destruction and failure, and a shortened life-span.

Myth #2 – Marijuana is highly addictive.

Marijuana is addictive, but in reality, both caffeine and alcohol are addictive as well, not to mention nicotine found in tobacco products. What may surprise you though, is that marijuana is less addictive than both alcohol and caffeine. People have a much harder time quitting alcohol and caffeine than they do quitting marijuana. The rate at which people are dependent on alcohol is higher than the rate for marijuana dependency. Also, the majority of marijuana users don’t consume marijuana on a daily basis like alcohol users do, and have few withdrawal problems, if any, when they do stop their consumption.

Myth #3 – Smoking marijuana is several times as worse as smoking tobacco and causes cancer.

Smoking anything is bad for you, regardless of what it is. However, smoking marijuana is not even remotely as bad as smoking tobacco or anything else.

Marijuana has never been shown to cause lung cancer. Studies have compared chest x-rays of tobacco smokers and marijuana smokers, observing that the damage done to the lungs of the marijuana smoker is significantly less than the damage done to the lungs of the tobacco smoker. The good news is, there are much healthier ways of consuming marijuana than smoking it, such as by using a vaporizer, or by cooking with it. By using these methods, the harms of marijuana are minimized greatly.

Myth #4 – Marijuana is a gateway drug.

This is every prohibitionist’s favorite argument to make. If you consume marijuana, you will move on to harder drugs and become addicted to them. This argument is highly flawed, and a completely fabricated scare tactic. The real gateway drug is prohibition.

Since marijuana is not a legalized and regulated substance, anyone can sell it, and anyone can buy it. The people selling marijuana generally have other drugs for sale as well, and it benefits them to get you hooked on a hard, addictive drug, which will keep you coming back to them for more. If marijuana were to be legalized and regulated, people wouldn’t be introduced to these other dangerous drugs while buying their relatively harmless drug, marijuana. The illegal market is the problem here. Even then, most people who try marijuana, never go on to harder drugs because they have the common sense to know how dangerous they are.

Myth #5 – Legalization will lead to a big increase in drug consumption and crime.

This is simply not true, as proven by the decriminalization of marijuana in the Netherlands. Studies have shown that consumption among adults is comparable to the current consumption among adults here in the US. Consumption among minors is considerably lower there than in the US. There is no doubt that consumption of the drug would increase once legalized, as many people who currently would consume marijuana do not do so due to the illegality of it. However the scary, drastic increase in drug use that will lead to more crime prohibitionists talk about is unfounded. The Dutch government is currently wondering what to do with its empty prisons, all the while we are trying to figure out how manage our over-populated prisons.

These are some the biggest myths and misconceptions about marijuana, but there are many more as well. The Drug Policy Alliance Network has a large list of the myths about marijuana, and it is highly recommended that you visit this site and learn about the myths, and the truth behind the myths.

Now that some of the myths about marijuana have been covered and it is apparent that marijuana is not a dangerous substance, we’ll list some reasons for why marijuana should be legalized.

The amount of taxes collected from marijuana sales would be great and would help ease budgets around the country. Starting out, basic taxes on marijuana and the businesses that sell marijuana in California would be around $1.3 billion. Not only would we collect taxes on marijuana, we would be collecting taxes on a whole new slew of businesses and products that will be produced for the marijuana industry. The revenue made from the legalization of marijuana isn’t the only factor to consider either. Consider the amount of money that would be saved by no longer prosecuting and jailing marijuana users. It is currently estimated that we would save about eight billion in costs alone if were to go the route of legalization. An analysis of this can be found at http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/

Marijuana has vast, untapped medical uses, not to mention the many uses that it currently already has in the medical community. Currently marijuana helps patients to cope with their pain, suppress their symptoms, and in some cases, live longer and enjoy a higher quality of life than those who use pharmaceutical drugs. Legalization would pave the way for new research into the use of marijuana for medicine and even possible cures to diseases.

Not only does marijuana have medical uses, but it also has other uses as well. Hemp commonly mistaken as a drug, is a strain of marijuana that has an extremely low THC content, the ingredient that gets you intoxicated, can be used for a variety of industrial products and uses in the home. At one point, the federal government even mandated that hemp be grown to help supply our newly founded country’s army and navy. Even George Washington grew hemp. Hemp was used to make rope, clothing, paper, buildings, and even food. In fact, the Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper due to the long lasting preservative nature of the material. The North American Industrial Hemp Council does an excellent job of talking about the various uses of hemp.

The war on drugs is a war against our own people. Drugs are never going away, and as the prohibition of alcohol showed us, ignoring the problem and making it illegal does not work, and even worse it exacerbates the problem. While we squander our law enforcement resources on the drug war and victimless crimes, real crimes that bring harm to our society don’t receive the adequate attention they need while the drug war only adds another crime element to society. Police that could be responding to calls where people need help are squandering their time on drugs when they could be out helping people. In short, our focus on fighting the drug war has allowed the real criminals a lot more breathing room to commit crimes against other people.

Another major problem with conducting a war against our own people is that it is completely unproductive. Law enforcement waste their time and resources, lives are destroyed, people are thrown in jail, and the whole time, tax payers are footing this bill. It costs money to put these people through the court system, it costs money to house these people in jail, and it costs us tax revenue since the otherwise productive, taxpaying citizen, now sits in jail, being unproductive. Imagine an upstanding, otherwise law abiding citizen that enjoys recreational use of marijuana. They have a family and a successful career, but all of this is torn apart once they’re busted and sentenced to jail for marijuana use. It is worse if you are a student who depends on financial aid. Just one single drug offense, no matter how small, will almost certainly make you ineligible for any sort of financial aid. Not only are we destroying lives of productive citizens, we’re also preventing people from building good honest lives for themselves.

Public enemy number one are the drug cartels in Mexico and South America. Instead of allowing our money to go south of the border to drug cartels, we can keep the money here. This helps us and hurts them greatly, and in the long run, legalization could be one of the greatest decisions we have made when it comes to fighting terrorists and drug cartels. If we take away their money, we take away their ability to operate. Not only does this help us, but it greatly helps our neighbors to the south to get rid of such organized crime, which is currently spilling over the border and now affecting us.

Safety is a big reason for legalization. Currently, you never know what kind of chemicals may have been sprayed on the plant during its growth. You know absolutely nothing about the product at all since it is sold on the illegal market. Since there are no regulations in place to ensure a safe product, people who grow and sell marijuana have no reason to ensure you have a quality product.

Another downfall of not having regulations in place is the fact that drugs are easier to obtain by children. The local drug dealer doesn’t card, and doesn’t care about the wellbeing of your child. If marijuana were legalized and regulated, access to it by minors would be significantly decreased, and the potential for you, your child, or a loved one to get a hold of a bad product that could be dangerous becomes almost non-existent. With the rise of legal drug retailers, drug dealers on the streets would almost all be driven out of business by the legal, cheaper, more efficient model of business.

As stated earlier, marijuana is safer than alcohol, but not only is it safer for the user, but for everyone else in our society as well. People under the influence of alcohol are far more dangerous than someone under the influence of marijuana. Alcohol has been known to send people into raging frenzies and has caused countless fights and domestic abuses and disturbances, not to mention all the deaths stemming from alcohol use. Marijuana on the other hand, has a calming effect. Marijuana users tend to be very peaceful and mellow, not the sort to go out causing trouble, picking fights, or abusing their spouse or children, which tends to be the case among many users of alcohol. Studies have even shown that people who drive under the influence of alcohol tend to be more reckless while those under the influence of marijuana tend to be more cautious drivers. You should not operate a vehicle or any sort of machinery while under the effects of marijuana, just as you wouldn’t while under the effects of alcohol, but this shows that alcohol has much more negative effect on our society than marijuana.

It could even be suggested that the legalization of marijuana could lead to a decrease in the use of alcohol, which would decrease the negative effects of alcohol on our society as people move to a much less harmful drug that causes far less damage all around. MarijuanaIsSafer.com touts a book recently published which talks about why marijuana is safer than alcohol, and why our society would be safer if it were to be legalized.

Marijuana is not for everyone, just as alcohol isn’t for everyone. Marijuana has a different effect on different people depending on which strain of marijuana is consumed. Some people get a sense of paranoia the first few times they consume marijuana, others have no problems at all. Some have even gotten sick after consuming marijuana, but this all comes down to moderation. Just like alcohol, marijuana must be consumed in moderation or there can be unfavorable consequences that follow. Those who educate themselves on the use of marijuana and understand moderation will generally always have a good experience with their marijuana usage.

Supporting the legalization of marijuana is not taboo, and will serve to improve our society and make it a safer, more productive place to live. Help save the lives of millions of people and protect our children by advocating for the legalization of marijuana.

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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 2:36 pm • Drug Related, Economics, Editor's Picks, Education Issues, Government, Health & Medical, History, Judicial/Crime, Life In General, Politics, Science, State Issues • RSS 2.0 feed