Greenlove24’s Weblog

     According to Time magazine, there were 872,721 marijuana related arrests in the US in 2007.  After hearing the former statement, I was shocked that there was so much law enforcement focused around marijuana enforcement alone.  This statistic has further sparked my interest in learning more about marijuana and why its legality is strictly enforced in the US.  After searching on the web, I found on norml.org that nearly one in eight US drug prisoners are behind bars for marijuana, and taxpayers are spending over $1 billon annually to incarcerate these offenders.  This is an outrageous amount of money!  In my opinion, this money that we supply the government should be used for something else.  There are many other more dangerous things that our law enforcement should be focusing on to keep us safe.  In the following paragraphs, I will explain what I have learned about marijuana, and my opinion of its legality.

     I do not agree with the placement of marijuana as a Schedule I drug with heroin, LSD, mescaline, and PCP.  Since it is placed in this category, marijuana violations have harsher punishments than most other drugs.  Some characteristics that put drugs into the Schedule I category are having high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.  Neither of those characteristics describe marijuana.  Marijuana is not a drug that causes physical dependence, because its concentration in our system is lowered gradually.  This also means that it does not cause withdrawal effects.  Many experts including doctors, pharmacists, and government agencies such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) have approved the use of marijuana as a drug, but it is still categorized as a Schedule I drug in the US.  Marijuana has a medical use, but due to its legality, this use is not being utilized as it should be.    

     Our marijuana policy as a nation is a no tolerance policy.  Laws vary from state to state, but the federal law that marijuana is entirely illegal trumps all state laws.  A possession as small as one ounce or less could send an offender to jail for a year.  If a cannabis plant is found on your property, by federal law, the government can seize your house and property.  Some states even have a law that if you possess a joint, your license is revoked, even if the offense is not automobile related.  In the Netherlands, marijuana laws are more relaxed.  Coffee shops are allowed to sell drugs, but they must follow these restrictions:  no advertising, no sales of hard drugs (heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and amphetamines), no nuisance, no admission to coffee shops for minors under 18, and no sales of more than 5 grams per transaction.  The Netherlands also give out educational information about the risks of marijuana to tourists and the youth.  Instead of having the “no-no attitude” toward marijuana like the US, they educate their youth about the facts of marijuana and let them make an educated decision about it.  This is like what we do for tobacco and alcohol use.  The usage rates of marijuana seem to be unaffected by the strict laws of the US or the relaxed laws in the Netherlands, so I think the Netherlands have a better policy on marijuana than we do without dealing with the high money and time investment of enforcement of strict marijuana laws.

     Marijuana is way less dangerous than many other drugs.  To this day, there has never been a death from overdose of marijuana.  The same can definitely not be said for most other drugs.  The biggest risk of smoking marijuana is possibility of negative respiratory effects.  This risk is from the inhalation of unfiltered smoke, tar, hydrocarbons, and an unknown amount of possible contaminants.  The thing about this risk is that it could largely be avoided.  There are certain ways to filter marijuana when smoking to lower these risks.  There is also a method recently looked into that involves vaporizing marijuana before inhaling it which is even better than filtration.  If marijuana was legalized for medical use, I think that safer ways of inhaling it would be further looked into.  Even if marijuana was only smoked, the risk is somewhat like the risk people take smoking tobacco, yet tobacco is illegal.  Marijuana causes no form of brain damage, yet alcohol, a legal drug, can cause some brain damage.  It seems that marijuana is not as dangerous as some drugs that are accepted and legal in our society.  I think that the pre-conception that marijuana is bad and dangerous is what keeps marijuana laws so strict.  I used to have this view of the drug, but after reading, researching, and learning more about marijuana, I do not see it as an extremely harmful drug.  I think it is a drug that could be used to do many good things in the medical field, and is less harmful than most other illicit drugs.  The laws on marijuana are too harsh, and need to be changed.  A good starting point would be changing marijuana to a Schedule II drug, so the plant form could be used in medical treatment.  The passing of decriminalization laws regarding marijuana would also be a good start.  This would lower the amount of arrests and money spent regulating marijuana use and possession; therefore, turning the focus of law enforcement to controlling drug dealing and trafficking more.

     I agree with Levinthal’s definition of drugs in Drugs, Behavior, and Modern Society:  “A chemical substance that, when taken into the body, alters the structure or functioning of the body in some way, excluding those nutrients considered to be related to normal functioning.”  A drug is taken to alter something about your being, and the taking of a drug is usually intentional.  The intention behind taking a drug can make the definition of a drug ambiguous.  If a drug is something a person takes to alter the structure or functioning of their body with intention, then some things that are not usually considered drugs actually cross over into the drug category. 

     Drugs affect our American culture diversely.  They contribute to some of the violence and crime in our society.  In most cases, money drives most of the violence and crime associated with drugs, not the drugs themselves.  Sometimes I think if illicit drugs were not so hard to obtain, then some violence and crime would decrease, because the high monetary value of drugs would not be as important to our culture. According to Drugs, Behavior, and Modern Society by Levinthal, there are actually more U.S. deaths per year from tobacco and alcohol use than all other drug usage.  This is ironic, because the two drugs that lead to death most often are legal not illicit drugs.     

     The line between right and wrong drug use is very blurred.  Recreational drug use is not always harmful and horrible, but it is still illegal, making it technically wrong.  Instrumental drug use is great, but all good things can be abused.  With all kinds of drug use, moderation is the key.  The scary thing with most drugs is that they are addictive, and that leads an uncontrollable lack of moderation.  People do drugs to get the effects of the drugs, and sometimes become dependent on the way they make them feel.

     So far in my life, I have used drugs in my life mainly for medicinal purposes.  I only take the prescribed dose of a drug when needed.  I depend on drugs to make me feel better when I am feeling ill, and I cannot imagine not having drugs to fall back on for this purpose.  I have also experimented recreationally with drugs twice in my life.  Both of these experiences were casual, and not extremely exciting or enticing.  I feel that I do not need to use drugs recreationally at all, but their instrumental use is necessary in my life.     

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