Keep weed illegal! Here’s why
Growing up, I had my fair exposure to pot. I’ve also been witness to the on-going debate of whether or not pot should be legalized in the United States.
While I have never smoked pot, and I’m not likely to seek out the company of people who do, that fact has very little to do with what I know – pot should stay illegal in the United States. This is an incredibly difficult position to take, because drug use is extremely subjective.
But I do not think we can comprehend the immediate dangers that surround the drug trade. Even the simplest habits like marijuana use are unarguably part of a larger web of narcotics. Take a few minutes to watch the incredible investigative journalism piece by Current TV, on their show Vanguard (below). Does legalizing drugs make the United States a better place to live? Like many other subjective questions, there are trade-offs to both sides. The legalization of pot in the United States wouldn’t solve the huge problem facing Mexico – if anything, it would draw less attention to the larger issues at hand.
Often, first-hand experience, like that seen in Vanguard, is hard for Gen Y to come by. There is one step that we can take to understanding why pot should not be legalized. That involves comprehending the facts around marijuana in regards to its medicinal use and reach in this country.
Let’s take a second to look at the facts, here:
- We have made significant progress in fighting drug use and drug trafficking in America. Now is not the time to abandon our efforts.The Legalization Lobby claims that the fight against drugs cannot be won. However, overall drug use is down by more than a third in the last twenty years. Cocaine use has dropped by an astounding 70 percent and 95 percent of Americans do not use drugs. This is success by any standards.
- Smoked marijuana is not scientifically approved medicine. Marinol, the legal version of medical marijuana, is approved by science. According to the Institute of Medicine, there is no future in smoked marijuana as medicine. However, the prescription drug Marinol—a legal and safe version of medical marijuana which isolates the active ingredient, THC—has been studied and approved by the FDA as safe medicine. The difference is that you have to get a prescription for Marinol from a licensed physician. You can’t buy it on a street corner, and you don’t smoke it.
- Drug control spending is a minor portion of the U.S. budget. Compared to the social costs of drug abuse and addiction, government spending on drug control is minimal. The Legalization Lobby claims that the United States has wasted billions of dollars in its anti-drug efforts. But for those kids saved from drug addiction, this is hardly wasted dollars. Moreover, our fight against drug abuse and addiction is an ongoing struggle that should be treated like any other social problem. Would we give up on education or poverty simply because we haven’t eliminated all problems? Compared to the social costs of drug abuse and addiction—whether in taxpayer dollars or in pain and suffering—government spending on drug control is minimal.
This stance is sure to upset many of my peers. It is a personal choice to use recreational drugs, and I’ve made mine. However, I will not make the final decision on legalization. While I, like many others in the United States, would prefer to keep marijuana illegal – it would be ignorant not to acknowledge that our country will progress in whatever way best fits society.
Read the other perspective: Legalize! Why it’s time to end Nixon’s legacy
Awesome piece. I always like to imagine what would happen if weed was in fact legal. The argument that most people make is that, “people only want to smoke pot BECAUSE it is illegal and once it is accepted by society kids won’t want to do it”. Run with this idea, and think of what illegal substance would be next in line. I could just see the headlines, “EXTRA EXTRA, Weed is legal, all kids want Coke!”
Here is one reason I disagree: “According to a video on CNN.com, marijuana is an estimated $14 billion-a-year industry in California. That’s more than any other crop in California makes.” http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/02/24/wian.pot.tax.cnn
Think about the amount of money the United States would make every year if they legalized and profited from the sale of marijuana.
While I’m not sure I agree with you, Eddie, I do think you made some great points.
Another thing that the smokers and tokers of the world need to remember, as well, is that if we legalize marijuana it will be government regulated and will not be nearly as potent.
I am inclined, however, to agree with Max (in the comments) who offered the suggestion that legalizing marijuana would help cure a lot of our country’s financial problems.
I’m also a bit unsure how I feel about an anti-marijuana legalization article being written by someone who has never experimented with the drug. I don’t necessarily think you have to have tried it before you make judgment, but I think it would help inform a position on the matter.
Alright, I VEHEMENTLY disagree with your standpoint. Actually, every point you make here is just to the right of totally wrong, specifically your facts.
- For one, we haven’t made progress with the drug war. More and more people die in Juarez every month and the cartels are going bloody mad – pun intended. If marijuana were legalized, the cartels would have to abandon their biggest and easiest money maker, moving to heroin and cocaine, which are more difficult to cultivate and put a bigger strain on their industry. We would effectively shut down a HUGE amount of violent trafficking if weed were legal.
- Next, THC is approved medicine. But Marinol has bizarre side effects, such as an uncontrollable appetite – it is specifically manufactured to boost the appetites of people dealing with chemotherapy. I have experimented with medical marijuana to treat anxiety and depression, and while there isn’t science available yet because it hasn’t been legal treatment for long enough, I have faith that within ten years, we’ll all be singing a different tune.
- Finally, we spend BILLIONS of dollars on the War on Drugs. How is that “minimal”? And as far as “social costs,” don’t you think that the cost to incarcerate a non-violent drug offender (hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars going to feed him to be shanked in prison) to take to the streets as soon as he’s out of prison because he can’t find a job is an exponentially higher cost to SOCIETY than government run rehab programs – which have shown to be exponentially more helpful than prison in other countries and are less expensive?
And I also agree with Kaitlin… drugs, like anything else, can only be debated after everyone’s on the same page…
However, I do understand that there is a minority of people in this country who truly don’t want pot to be legalized. And I, like you, put my hopes in the voters, and hope that they make the right decision – and if that’s to keep prohibition, I’ll sit tight ’til they come around
I was at a party once my junior year of college and this dude explained perfectly how to legalize and monetize marijuana. But I don’t remember how, cause I was high ha ha.
I saw the title of this piece and thought it would be, at least, backed up by some specifics. Instead, you generalize and the numbers you do reference hardly seem to be all that un-biased.
My personal feeling is that drugs should be legalized, or at the least, decriminalized. My thinking is not fiscally related (truly, those of you of who think drug control is a factor in our trillion dollar dollar deficit and 13 trillion dollar debt aren’t thinking clearly). Rather, it’s driven by plain old practicality. Anyone remember prohibition? Neither do I, but I do know what it wrought: a counterproductive war on booze that failed, just like our war on drugs. Far better would be a legal, regulated drug biz, much like our current booze biz, that let people get the drugs they wanted and seek treatment if they wanted to quit.
I think Eddie is spot on. The drug trade especially on the Mexican border is destroying quality of life for everyone. The solution is not to legalize but instead to enforce harsher penalties.
If there were any evidence that medical marijuana actually helped people then I might change my tune. However, according to the AMA in their June 2009 findings (Use of Cannabis for Medicinal Purposes) the only thing they have been able to determine after 35 years of study is that smoking pot helps weight gain. Hell, I could have told you that! Every genius with the munchies could tell you that.
Face it, people who smoke pot do it to get high. Furthermore they care more about getting high than about the thousands of people each year whose lives are destroyed, family’s are murdered, and futures are ended. It’s selfish and shows absolute disdain for ones fellow man, pure and simple.
Unless you tried it you are not qualified to write this my friend. Sorry. You lose all credibility as an author. When I wrote college paper on LSD I qualified my credibility by stating I had tried it. I got an A+ from my professor and extra credit from my Psych professor. I got the only 100% my Public Speaking professor ever gave out when I gave a speech on pot because I had credibility.
The fact is people are smoking it. They are not BAD people. And you can’t stop them. Why waste all the money on a failed drug war that costs us billions? I can smoke pine needles right? To each their own. Lets not criminalize non-violent behavior. Remember Holland has so much less crime than we do.
We would not have Avatar, Led Zeppelin/Beatles (or most huge bands), great works of literature, or Apple Computer if it was wasn’t for Pot and LSD. Are you going to tell your kids Steve Jobs is a horrible role model because he loved LSD in his younger days?
BTW I needed to add a caveat. I am not being a proponent of everyone doing drugs. To each their own. My point was as a journalist have some experience or more back up when taking a position. For example people against gay marriage holding up marriage as some special thing when in the US 50% of people cheat and 50% of marriages end in divorce. So what sanctity? We shit on marriage every day in the US so while that is not the reason to approve gay marriage, there are deeper issues one quality for that, its a false reason to be against.
So while you may be anti-drug for many good reasons remember that drugs have given this world some amazing things that without them. might not exist. And lastly 11% of people in the US smoke pot. So next time your in a crowd count to ten and that tenth person smokes pot. You might not seek pot smoking friends…but trust me…you have them. Judge people on the quality or their hearts, their ethics, their kindness, and whether they are responsible in their lives, and not on whether they party in a way you choose not too.
Cheers
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Fools! Weed should stay medicinal. You think money will be made the way it is now? The gov’t hates it, because it’s untaxed profit. The money stays within the people! That’s partially the beauty about it. If people are so avid about weed, go get your medical.