cannabisnews.com: Smoking Up The Debate on Pot





Smoking Up The Debate on Pot
Posted by CN Staff on September 24, 2002 at 18:28:22 PT
By Jason W. David
Source: Daily Trojan
America: Stop messing with us. Your contradictions are resounding, your ignorance is unbelievable and your stubbornness is unreasonable. How can you continue to claim that you house the most free citizens in the world when you continue to decide what we can put into our bodies?Other nations are at least trying to open their eyes.
In Canada, a recent report released by the Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs declared that cannabis should be legalized. In England, possession of small amounts of marijuana is no longer an arrestable offense.In the United States, however, marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, implying that it has no officially accepted medicinal uses, has a high potential for abuse and has no safe level of use under medical supervision. It sits on the same shelf that heroin, LSD and peyote do, while cocaine and PCP are listed in Schedule II, allowing doctors to prescribe them."What's happening is that most of the rest of the world is moving forward much more rapidly than we are," said Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) based in Washington, D.C. "The U.S. is increasingly alone. At a point it has to become obvious that this doesn't make sense. The evidence becomes overwhelming if people choose to look at it."The crusading MPP is helping defend an initiative being placed on the November ballot in Nevada that would decriminalize the possession of three ounces or less of marijuana. It has the backing of the state's largest law-enforcement group, the Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs, which figures that decriminalizing the recreational use of the drug would free officers to concentrate on more serious and life-threatening incidents.Since 1986, nine states have passed legislation allowing the growth and use of marijuana with a doctor's approval because marijuana alleviates side effects of AIDS/HIV treatments and chemotherapy as well as symptoms associated with Multiple Sclerosis and arthritis. The basis of our so-called democracy — the Constitution — does not delegate to the federal government the power to control marijuana or other drugs, therefore reserving restrictions to the states as the 10th Amendment mandates. Nevertheless, violent abuses of the system occur.Abuses such as a brutal raid by 20 assault rifle-wielding Drug Enforcement Agency officials on the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz, Calif., that occurred on Sept. 5 despite the fact that the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department deemed the organization in compliance with state law.The overdramatized fears surrounding marijuana are revealed in the nightmare that is American history. As more and more Mexican immigrants crossed the border following Mexico's revolution in 1910, American prejudice and hatred toward them grew. Eventually, police officers in Texas portrayed their common form of intoxication — marijuana — as a catalyst for violent crimes, arousing a "lust for blood" and giving its users superhuman strength. Newspapers in New Orleans associated marijuana with African-Americans, jazz musicians, prostitutes and underworld whites — the epitome of "un-American" citizens.Harry J. Anslinger, the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962 and an unabashed racist, first doubted the seriousness of the problem but then quickly changed his mind, asserting in public appearances and radio broadcasts that marijuana use led to killings, sex crimes and insanity.A 1936 movie called "Reefer Madness" included scenes of high school youth smoking marijuana and immediately going insane, playing "evil" jazz music and going on murder sprees. It was madness that idiots actually believed this propaganda. The Marijuana Tax Act was passed in 1937, making marijuana illegal throughout the United States.The bottom line is that marijuana was criminalized because of America's itch to persecute individuals and protect private interests (hemp threatened numerous big businesses, including William Randolph Hearst's paper mills) and not because of scientific evidence. Here's the truth.A 1999 study by the National Academy of Sciences found that the proportion of users who become dependent on marijuana is 9 percent, far lower than tobacco and alcohol, which have rates of 32 percent and 15 percent, respectively. The study also states that there is no evidence that marijuana "serves as a stepping stone [to harder drugs] on the basis of its particular physiological effect." The study also shows that there is no evidence that it causes cancer in humans, that earlier studies claiming changes occurred in the brain of heavy marijuana users cannot be replicated with more sophisticated techniques, and that there is no causal relationship between marijuana and laziness. The study explains that there is little evidence that decriminalization of marijuana would lead to a substantial increase in its use.Obviously, some information finds a way to stay hidden. Furthermore, the effects of prohibition are incredibly harmful. Marijuana purchased through criminal markets will never have a certification of quality, therefore increasing chances of contamination with pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, molds, fungi, bacteria or other substances. It also creates a mixed drug market that puts consumers in contact with hard-drug dealers - acting as more of a gateway than marijuana could ever be.And how many people are falling victim to the military-industrial complex and its self-sustaining, corrupt practices?According to a 2000 FBI report, 734,498 individuals were arrested in connection with marijuana, the most ever. More disgusting is the fact that 88 percent of those cases were for possession, not sale or manufacture. The reason is obvious — the National Drug Control Budget has swelled, going from $1.65 billion in 1982 to $19.17 billion requested in 2002 and the MPP estimates that the war on marijuana costs taxpayers $9 billion a year. If marijuana is to be legalized, "the numbers for the drug war are going to drop pretty dramatically," said Mitchell Earleywine, Ph.D. and associate professor of Clinical Science at USC as well as author of "Understanding Marijuana." "There are 6 million people using illicit drugs other than marijuana, that's not enough to get billions and billions of national money."There are even more victims when you consider that 1,941,796 American children have at least one parent in custody on a drug charge, according to an estimate made in December of 1999 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics."It's the drug war bureaucracy," Mirken said. "The military-industrial complex sees everything as a justification for its continued existence."Is our government really saving Americans and their children from the horribly exaggerated effects of "evil marijuana," or is it simply a combination of outdated-yet-lingering puritan values and big-business greed? The most telling factor of all may be the fact that countries around the world are recognizing the validity of marijuana legalization. Is our government afraid that the truth will finally make its way to us "free" citizens?Editorial writer Jason David is a junior majoring print journalism.Source: Daily Trojan (CA Edu)Author: Jason DavidPublished: Vol. 147, No. 20 - Sept. 24, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Daily TrojanContact: dtrojan usc.eduWebsite: http://www.dailytrojan.com/ Related Articles & Web Sites:NRLEhttp://www.nrle.org/Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Smoking Up The Debate on Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14234.shtmlExperts Disagree on Merits of Legalizing Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14232.shtmlNew Breed of Voters May Stir Pot of Politicshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14214.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #4 posted by gloovins on September 25, 2002 at 01:36:46 PT
Now,
if only this writer can get a job at a major paper when he graduates then we're talkin...hope he can still write these kinds of editorials & sit on the staff the next day.Don't kid yourselves, this writer writes for credit, not a salary. It's a shame...
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by DdC on September 24, 2002 at 22:20:22 PT
Nice to hear some reality.
Yes hear, my i-Mac read this to me as a bedtime story¶8)Sacramental cannabis food, fuel, fiber, FARMaceuticals, Hardrug&Booze alternative prohibited through legislated information depravation. Seems pretty obvious considering this money driven society, recent Enron etc scamming and another Bushit in Office dragging his Skull&Bones-Khristian Koalition Klan with him. All profitting on the War. Also the trillion dollar prison industrial complex.Peace, Love and Liberty...DdC"somebody has to take governments' place, and business seems to me to be a logical entity to do it." 
 - David Rockefeller - Newsweek International, Feb 1 1999. The Electric Emperor
http://www.electricemperor.com/eecdromThe Elkhorn Manefesto 
http://www.wealth4freedom.com/Elkhorn.htmlThe Toxic Alternative to Natural Fiber
http://fornits.com/curiosity/hemp/fibre.htmHemp for Victory
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/37/37369.gif
Welcome to Reality
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by The GCW on September 24, 2002 at 20:14:45 PT
Is it: for the children or to the children?
There are even more victims when you consider that 1,941,796 American children have at least one parent in custody on a drug charge, according to an estimate made in December of 1999 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.Children. Wasn't it in Florida (just in the last day or so) where the inhumanse pee zar against freedom, said the war is mostly against teens and mostly directed against cannabis?
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by Jeaneous on September 24, 2002 at 19:09:03 PT:
Great Article
I think this article says it pretty straight. I appreciate any articles that speak out for our freedoms and this one does. 
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment