What do you think? 6 pages or so in Word, but if you smoke weed you probably won't be able to stop reading it.
Christian Boggs
English 1102
April 11, 2009
Marijuana
Ask yourself this- Would any civilized, educated being ever want a drug like marijuana to be legalized for use all over our country? Surely anyone who is intelligent would say no, drugs should never be legalized or decriminalized because they are bad for your health. But what about people who they can help? Dr. Lester Greenspoon of Harvard Law tells a story about how he once had a son named Danny. Danny had a rare series of diseases known as “Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia†which caused him severe nausea and vomiting throughout his (failed) treatment. As his chemotherapy treatment progressed, his nausea and vomiting became worse. In order to prevent this, Dr. Greenspoon did some research from different parts of the United States and discovered a boy in Houston that had the same problems as his son, Danny. The boy from Houston had claimed that marijuana eliminated the nausea and vomiting completely. Dr. Greenspoon decided that it was worth a try, and allowed Danny to smoke a joint of marijuana twenty minutes before his next chemotherapy session. Like the boy in Houston claimed, Danny’s nausea and vomiting were eliminated and the only thing Danny could say afterwards was “Dad, can we get a submarine sandwich on the way home?†This study by Dr. Greenspoon led to the very first study of marijuana in nausea and vomiting.
Dr. Greenspoon’s intelligence and touching story of his late son Danny would surely inspire most people to try and join in on the fight against marijuana’s illegalization, so the question is raised- Should the current marijuana laws set by the federal government in the United States be changed? The current legislation in most states says that if someone is caught with anything from a stem to a seed, the police can immediately take them to jail with a possession charge. If someone is caught with less than an ounce of marijuana, their license can possibly be revoked for a year, and a hefty fine must be paid, and sometimes they might have to spend a night or more in prison for their non-violent, victimless “crimeâ€. Possession of more than an ounce is a felony which stays on record for life, but what is the big problem and why are key government officials against its legalization? Legalization of marijuana has been a very hot topic among the public lately, and for good reason. People like Danny could use medical marijuana to cure chronic pain and disease, and if regulated and taxed, our number one cash crop (yes, marijuana) could potentially earn each state over one billion dollars a year. Marijuana is currently illegal because of the war on drugs, even though it’s possible tax revenue and medical benefits outweigh the negatives completely.
Although marijuana’s medical uses have been a key argument for the supporters of legalization, a new breakthrough has recently been brought to the public’s attention. Marijuana’s tax benefits have been researched for years but no government official has raised the question publicly until now, in California, where nearly a third of the population consumes the drug. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is a non-profit organization that has been around for over 30 years trying to help get the public to try and reform the current laws on marijuana. NORML has worked with politicians in California who support the legalization of marijuana (all of which are trying to run for governor) to analyze the benefits of legalization.
A tax of $1 per half-gram of marijuana would raise nearly one billion dollars a year, and retail sales from the legal market would range anywhere from $3-$5 billion, which is another $250-$400 million in sales taxes. That’s only from buying the drug itself! When it’s legalized, the possibilities for new industries will be endless, from tourist sites such as coffee shops and paraphernalia shops to the use of industrial hemp in materials, medicines, food, and even dietary supplements. These additional industries would make over eight billion dollars a year total, and they would strengthen our economy by providing thousands of jobs, not to mention saving the state literally millions of dollars a year by not having to arrest people for marijuana. Over seven hundred thousand people are arrested each year for marijuana, and only 75% of those people are only arrested for possession and it fills our prisons with non-violent drug offenders. It costs over twenty thousand dollars a year to keep just one of those people in prison. One of my own friends was recently charged with possession of marijuana, even though he had less than a gram on him. It will be on his record forever, and he will probably be on probation during the summer.
So, after all the possible economic benefits, why does the government continue to vote against legalization? If legalized, our country would have thousands less people in prisons wasting our tax dollars, and courts, police, and lawyers could deal with real crime, and black market profits from cannabis alone would drop to zero immediately and eliminate a lot of violence that happens because of drug dealers. By not legalizing marijuana, the government is just driving the prices up, driving the profit margin up for these violent drug dealers, and making more and more drugs to get put into circulation. I could walk down the street from my house right now and guarantee that I could come back with as much marijuana as someone needs.
Because of the “black market†for marijuana all over the country, including down the street from my house, marijuana’s current illegality is comparable to Prohibition in the 20’s and 30’s. Bootleggers stepped in then to create and sell alcohol and drug dealers do the same thing nowadays. People were killed over that then, and people are killed over drugs now, because violence is the only way to resolve disputes in the black market, where drugs are sold. These violent drug dealers are unstoppable, because if you take out one or even a whole gang of them, they will just be replaced by others overnight. Last week, three people were shot and a sixteen year old was killed right in front of my house by gang members on Hank Aaron Drive, for what? Apparently one of the kids shot was mistaken for someone who had been taking the shooters’ drug customers. What kind of message does that send to people across America?
The chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, Joseph A. Califano, argues for a public health campaign to inform society about the “dangers†of marijuana. He claims that youth treatment and emergency room visits that are related to marijuana usage have increased, although the total number of people using the drug is on a decline. Califano says that although the message to young people about the dangers of nicotine has gotten through to them, there is no public health message about the dangers of marijuana. Reports released by CASA tell about consequences that could occur if marijuana was to be legalized, and another report tells about how marijuana is a “gateway drug†and that it leads you to try other, “harder†drugs such as cocaine, meth, or even heroin and that you can become addicted to marijuana quite easily.
A survey released by the government shows marijuana use among high school seniors has increased by about 62% since 1994, while cocaine use has increased from 5.9% in 1994 to 9.8% in 1999, and ecstasy rose from 5.6% in 1999 to 8.2% in 2000. That’s only around four percent of an increase in “hard†drugs, even though the increase of marijuana users has nearly doubled. This just proves that many people, like my good friends and I, are actually smart when it comes to this subject and have never even thought about trying one of the “harder†drugs like cocaine, ecstasy, or heroin that can permanently damage you for the rest of your life. Another article shows that while only 9% of marijuana users become dependant on the drug, 32% of tobacco smokers, 23% of heroin users, 17% of cocaine users, and 15% of alcohol drinkers become dependent on their respective drug.
The initial CASA reports are also backed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. The same reports claim that average levels of marijuana’s active ingredient has increased from around one percent (in the 70’s) to around 9 percent or even higher today. People against legalization argue that marijuana is the most abused drug by people under eighteen, and that if it was legalized the percentage of abusers would skyrocket. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), marijuana is a schedule I drug, which means it has a “high potential†for abuse. The DEA also says that marijuana has no “accepted†medical use in the United States.
Scientific research has been done for years to determine whether or not marijuana has any medical use, but other research has also been done, proving that marijuana does affect short term and long term memory loss. Whether you smoke a joint or a lot more over a long period of time, you will be negatively impacted. This includes your short term memory, attention span, motivation, concentration, problem solving, coordination, judgment, reaction time, and most importantly, your health. Because coordination and reaction time are effected, marijuana is said to contribute to deaths and injuries by adolescents operating motor vehicles while under the influence because it is “affects senses as much as alcohol†which is false. While driving sober, the rate of getting into an accident is 1.3. If you were driving under the influence of alcohol, the risk raises, multiplying that 1.3 over 15 times. But with cannabis, it only raises to 3. Although this proves that you shouldn’t drive while you’re under the influence of any drug, marijuana should not be illegal because of the possibility of it happening, especially when its medical effects are far greater than someone driving under the influence.
Nearly three months ago I quit my restaurant job in hopes of working at “Telecycle†close to Interstate 285. Two of my good friends Tucker and Mitch work there, and I personally know the head manager Steve’s children Andrew and Abby through school and other social events. On the day I was supposed to go in for the initial interview, I was called and told not to come in, because it was not the best time for Steve. I said it was fine and didn’t investigate the matter any further until I got to my friend Tucker’s house, where his mother was nearly in tears. She had just gotten off of the phone with Steve, who told her his daughter Abby was diagnosed with cancer in her left knee, and the only way to possibly get rid of it was for her to undergo a grueling six months of chemotherapy. After her second month, her brother Andrew said that she was not doing too well and was very sick from the treatment, before informing us that his mother recently agreed to allow Abby to smoke marijuana in hopes of her severe nausea getting better. It worked, and although she is still not allowed to leave the house, she is feeling much better and Andrew said she doesn’t look as sick as she was beforehand. His mother was totally against the legalization of marijuana before, but like many, she has put her faith aside and is now an avid supporter of medical marijuana.
I am also one hundred percent for the legalization or decriminalization of marijuana. I have heard plenty of stories about how medical marijuana helped people going through different types of chemotherapy, and I know that it would help our government and country a lot more than hurt it. All they would have to do is legalize it and tax it, and then the government would make a lot of money instead of paying millions of dollars to arrest and jail non-violent offenders who are charged with something small like possession. Ever since my friend was charged with possession of marijuana, he can not stop worrying about his future and how his soon-to-be charge will show up for every job and college he applies for. Our country needs to crack down on drugs that have no medical benefits, and are extraordinarily bad for your health and well-being, not to mention how doing hard drugs can affect your family and close friends.
Christian Boggs
English 1102
April 11, 2009
Marijuana
Ask yourself this- Would any civilized, educated being ever want a drug like marijuana to be legalized for use all over our country? Surely anyone who is intelligent would say no, drugs should never be legalized or decriminalized because they are bad for your health. But what about people who they can help? Dr. Lester Greenspoon of Harvard Law tells a story about how he once had a son named Danny. Danny had a rare series of diseases known as “Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia†which caused him severe nausea and vomiting throughout his (failed) treatment. As his chemotherapy treatment progressed, his nausea and vomiting became worse. In order to prevent this, Dr. Greenspoon did some research from different parts of the United States and discovered a boy in Houston that had the same problems as his son, Danny. The boy from Houston had claimed that marijuana eliminated the nausea and vomiting completely. Dr. Greenspoon decided that it was worth a try, and allowed Danny to smoke a joint of marijuana twenty minutes before his next chemotherapy session. Like the boy in Houston claimed, Danny’s nausea and vomiting were eliminated and the only thing Danny could say afterwards was “Dad, can we get a submarine sandwich on the way home?†This study by Dr. Greenspoon led to the very first study of marijuana in nausea and vomiting.
Dr. Greenspoon’s intelligence and touching story of his late son Danny would surely inspire most people to try and join in on the fight against marijuana’s illegalization, so the question is raised- Should the current marijuana laws set by the federal government in the United States be changed? The current legislation in most states says that if someone is caught with anything from a stem to a seed, the police can immediately take them to jail with a possession charge. If someone is caught with less than an ounce of marijuana, their license can possibly be revoked for a year, and a hefty fine must be paid, and sometimes they might have to spend a night or more in prison for their non-violent, victimless “crimeâ€. Possession of more than an ounce is a felony which stays on record for life, but what is the big problem and why are key government officials against its legalization? Legalization of marijuana has been a very hot topic among the public lately, and for good reason. People like Danny could use medical marijuana to cure chronic pain and disease, and if regulated and taxed, our number one cash crop (yes, marijuana) could potentially earn each state over one billion dollars a year. Marijuana is currently illegal because of the war on drugs, even though it’s possible tax revenue and medical benefits outweigh the negatives completely.
Although marijuana’s medical uses have been a key argument for the supporters of legalization, a new breakthrough has recently been brought to the public’s attention. Marijuana’s tax benefits have been researched for years but no government official has raised the question publicly until now, in California, where nearly a third of the population consumes the drug. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is a non-profit organization that has been around for over 30 years trying to help get the public to try and reform the current laws on marijuana. NORML has worked with politicians in California who support the legalization of marijuana (all of which are trying to run for governor) to analyze the benefits of legalization.
A tax of $1 per half-gram of marijuana would raise nearly one billion dollars a year, and retail sales from the legal market would range anywhere from $3-$5 billion, which is another $250-$400 million in sales taxes. That’s only from buying the drug itself! When it’s legalized, the possibilities for new industries will be endless, from tourist sites such as coffee shops and paraphernalia shops to the use of industrial hemp in materials, medicines, food, and even dietary supplements. These additional industries would make over eight billion dollars a year total, and they would strengthen our economy by providing thousands of jobs, not to mention saving the state literally millions of dollars a year by not having to arrest people for marijuana. Over seven hundred thousand people are arrested each year for marijuana, and only 75% of those people are only arrested for possession and it fills our prisons with non-violent drug offenders. It costs over twenty thousand dollars a year to keep just one of those people in prison. One of my own friends was recently charged with possession of marijuana, even though he had less than a gram on him. It will be on his record forever, and he will probably be on probation during the summer.
So, after all the possible economic benefits, why does the government continue to vote against legalization? If legalized, our country would have thousands less people in prisons wasting our tax dollars, and courts, police, and lawyers could deal with real crime, and black market profits from cannabis alone would drop to zero immediately and eliminate a lot of violence that happens because of drug dealers. By not legalizing marijuana, the government is just driving the prices up, driving the profit margin up for these violent drug dealers, and making more and more drugs to get put into circulation. I could walk down the street from my house right now and guarantee that I could come back with as much marijuana as someone needs.
Because of the “black market†for marijuana all over the country, including down the street from my house, marijuana’s current illegality is comparable to Prohibition in the 20’s and 30’s. Bootleggers stepped in then to create and sell alcohol and drug dealers do the same thing nowadays. People were killed over that then, and people are killed over drugs now, because violence is the only way to resolve disputes in the black market, where drugs are sold. These violent drug dealers are unstoppable, because if you take out one or even a whole gang of them, they will just be replaced by others overnight. Last week, three people were shot and a sixteen year old was killed right in front of my house by gang members on Hank Aaron Drive, for what? Apparently one of the kids shot was mistaken for someone who had been taking the shooters’ drug customers. What kind of message does that send to people across America?
The chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, Joseph A. Califano, argues for a public health campaign to inform society about the “dangers†of marijuana. He claims that youth treatment and emergency room visits that are related to marijuana usage have increased, although the total number of people using the drug is on a decline. Califano says that although the message to young people about the dangers of nicotine has gotten through to them, there is no public health message about the dangers of marijuana. Reports released by CASA tell about consequences that could occur if marijuana was to be legalized, and another report tells about how marijuana is a “gateway drug†and that it leads you to try other, “harder†drugs such as cocaine, meth, or even heroin and that you can become addicted to marijuana quite easily.
A survey released by the government shows marijuana use among high school seniors has increased by about 62% since 1994, while cocaine use has increased from 5.9% in 1994 to 9.8% in 1999, and ecstasy rose from 5.6% in 1999 to 8.2% in 2000. That’s only around four percent of an increase in “hard†drugs, even though the increase of marijuana users has nearly doubled. This just proves that many people, like my good friends and I, are actually smart when it comes to this subject and have never even thought about trying one of the “harder†drugs like cocaine, ecstasy, or heroin that can permanently damage you for the rest of your life. Another article shows that while only 9% of marijuana users become dependant on the drug, 32% of tobacco smokers, 23% of heroin users, 17% of cocaine users, and 15% of alcohol drinkers become dependent on their respective drug.
The initial CASA reports are also backed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. The same reports claim that average levels of marijuana’s active ingredient has increased from around one percent (in the 70’s) to around 9 percent or even higher today. People against legalization argue that marijuana is the most abused drug by people under eighteen, and that if it was legalized the percentage of abusers would skyrocket. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), marijuana is a schedule I drug, which means it has a “high potential†for abuse. The DEA also says that marijuana has no “accepted†medical use in the United States.
Scientific research has been done for years to determine whether or not marijuana has any medical use, but other research has also been done, proving that marijuana does affect short term and long term memory loss. Whether you smoke a joint or a lot more over a long period of time, you will be negatively impacted. This includes your short term memory, attention span, motivation, concentration, problem solving, coordination, judgment, reaction time, and most importantly, your health. Because coordination and reaction time are effected, marijuana is said to contribute to deaths and injuries by adolescents operating motor vehicles while under the influence because it is “affects senses as much as alcohol†which is false. While driving sober, the rate of getting into an accident is 1.3. If you were driving under the influence of alcohol, the risk raises, multiplying that 1.3 over 15 times. But with cannabis, it only raises to 3. Although this proves that you shouldn’t drive while you’re under the influence of any drug, marijuana should not be illegal because of the possibility of it happening, especially when its medical effects are far greater than someone driving under the influence.
Nearly three months ago I quit my restaurant job in hopes of working at “Telecycle†close to Interstate 285. Two of my good friends Tucker and Mitch work there, and I personally know the head manager Steve’s children Andrew and Abby through school and other social events. On the day I was supposed to go in for the initial interview, I was called and told not to come in, because it was not the best time for Steve. I said it was fine and didn’t investigate the matter any further until I got to my friend Tucker’s house, where his mother was nearly in tears. She had just gotten off of the phone with Steve, who told her his daughter Abby was diagnosed with cancer in her left knee, and the only way to possibly get rid of it was for her to undergo a grueling six months of chemotherapy. After her second month, her brother Andrew said that she was not doing too well and was very sick from the treatment, before informing us that his mother recently agreed to allow Abby to smoke marijuana in hopes of her severe nausea getting better. It worked, and although she is still not allowed to leave the house, she is feeling much better and Andrew said she doesn’t look as sick as she was beforehand. His mother was totally against the legalization of marijuana before, but like many, she has put her faith aside and is now an avid supporter of medical marijuana.
I am also one hundred percent for the legalization or decriminalization of marijuana. I have heard plenty of stories about how medical marijuana helped people going through different types of chemotherapy, and I know that it would help our government and country a lot more than hurt it. All they would have to do is legalize it and tax it, and then the government would make a lot of money instead of paying millions of dollars to arrest and jail non-violent offenders who are charged with something small like possession. Ever since my friend was charged with possession of marijuana, he can not stop worrying about his future and how his soon-to-be charge will show up for every job and college he applies for. Our country needs to crack down on drugs that have no medical benefits, and are extraordinarily bad for your health and well-being, not to mention how doing hard drugs can affect your family and close friends.
And you missed the biggest "instance" of them all. The money that the government will make.