Brandon Rhoades
Professor Broyles
Eng 102- Rough Draft
08/11/12
Abolishing the Abolishment on Marijuana
In the United States today, marijuana is prohibited by federal law and has been a topic of controversial debate since the start of prohibition. There are several important issues that are argued in favor of and against the legalization of marijuana that will be researched and analyzed. The details concerning these issues are beneficial in understanding both sides of the debate. This paper researches and unveils the true facts suggesting the benefits included in legalizing marijuana. The result of abolishing our country's marijuana prohibition by supporting legalization will stimulate a healthier economy, improve our health care, and lower the crime rate involved with marijuana.
The legalization of marijuana has both positive and negative outcomes; although, the benefits of legalization outweigh the risks of the negative impacts. Marijuana or 'cannabis' is a natural plant with psycho-active properties that is commonly used by Americans as a recreational drug. Additionally, marijuana has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. Records show that "A native of central Asia, cannabis may have been cultivated as much as ten thousand years ago. It was certainly cultivated in China by 4000 B.C. and Turkestan by 3000 B.C." (Grinspoon, 3). The widespread use of cannabis over such a long time should be a factor in considering the harms associated marijuana. Public opinion on some of these harms includes economic factors, health care, and the rate of the country's criminal activity.
The United States has worked its economy into a financial crisis over the years and needs to start coming up with some plans to balance out the debt. The citizens of the United States are almost equally divided on the decision of legalization but when examining the facts, there are many outstanding benefits that would arise as a direct result of legalization. A benefit of legalizing marijuana includes providing the government with leverage to this problem. Marijuana is currently against federal law yet medical marijuana complies with several state laws. Every year, the government is obligated to spend money directly related to the cost of enforcing marijuana laws. Marijuana is a cash crop and can be used for clothing, paper, medicinal substances, along with many other uses. The legalization of marijuana would provide the government and our country with control over a huge cash crop that can be easily cultivated in our climate. In addition to exporting hemp and marijuana to accumulate more funds, the government would be able to tax the plant very similarly to alcohol or tobacco. If this were the case, it is estimated "According to the calculations here, legalization would reduce government expenditure by $5.3 billion at the state and local level and by $2.4 billion at the federal level (Miron, 18). These figures generated in the article the Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition reinforce that the calculated values of getting rid of the expenditure caused by marijuana offenders along with the taxation of the substance would be a substantial revision to our economy.
Marijuana has been documented as being used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. Many citizens of the United States, at some point or another, come to a point in life where they are in need of health care. Often times patients of serious disorders such as cancer, glaucoma, and others can benefit from the use of marijuana. Marijuana has unique medicinal properties that aid in pain relief, appetite increase, and controlling nausea. Many patients exclaim that the unique properties of marijuana cannot be imitated by synthetic such as spice or k2. When comparing marijuana to other readily available products such as tobacco or alcohol, it was noted "On existing patterns of use, cannabis poses a much less serious public health problem than is currently posed by alcohol and tobacco in Western societies" (Armentano). Going off this statement, it is illogical for the government to accept contracts from CEO's of tobacco and alcohol companies and not from marijuana.
So far, the amount of studies on marijuana has not been high in comparison to tobacco or other medicines. If marijuana was legal then there would be more studies that test marijuana's medicinal properties leading to the discovery of more medical uses. In the article Is Marijuana the Right Medicine for you? Zimmerman states "In the United States today, the most common medicinal use of marijuana is as an antiemetic... The Largest patient population using it for that purpose is people with cancer" There are thousands of cancer patients who rely on marijuana's medicinal properties to cope with the pain and anguish of chemotherapy. In addition to being an antiemetic, marijuana also obtains pain relieving properties that many people rely on after injuring themselves, having surgery, or when they are sick. The legalization of marijuana would benefit each patient who chooses to medicate themselves using marijuana.
A huge controversial subject on the marijuana legalization movement is the topic of criminal activity as a result of the plant's legalization. Oppositionists in favor of keeping marijuana illegal argue that crime rates will spike to unheard of levels if marijuana is legalized. Advocates believe that the result of legalizing marijuana will result in the opposite. The legalization of marijuana would create adverse affects on the criminal activity level. For example, the level of criminal offenders on marijuana would drop to zero. This would directly result in lower levels of crime as a whole due to the no longer existing costs associated with decriminalization. The end result of this would be no longer filling our prisons and jails with marijuana offenders.
Another key issue on this point is whether or not organizations involved with cultivating, selling, or smuggling will strengthen to overcome the government control on marijuana. This is a hypothetical situation which more realistically would result in drug organizations holding power of more serious drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamines, or heroin. Drug trafficking organizations control most of the power associated with these drugs already. The governmental control of marijuana would not strengthen drug organizations or gangs as no one would be able to compete against them. Authors from The Elliot School of International Affairs/Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission state that " A retail markup between 20% and 50%, and a state-level tax of 25$ per ounce, the price of legalized marijuana in California would likely be between $60 and 75$ per ounce... legal marijuana regulated by the government would be roughly the same price as it's Mexican competitor and between 2-3.6 times as potent" (Murray, 28). The advantage would be largely held by the government if it was made readily available for public consumer use due to the convenience, price, and quality of the marijuana.
In summary, the United States as a whole is in need of new more effective policies to stimulate more economic growth, provide more advanced healthcare, and lower the nation's criminal activity rate. As it stands today, marijuana is against the law and counteracts the advancement and prosperity of the United States. Through the research it has been shown that marijuana has large potential to become a solution and wiser decision to these ongoing issues. Some of the top issues in the debates when arguing either side of marijuana prohibition/legalization were analyzed to effectively prove the benefits of legalization over prohibition. The legalization of marijuana has been analyzed to be an effective addition to the federal laws set by the United States.
Works Cited
Armentano, Paul ,"Health and Societal Costs of Marijuana vs. Alcohol and Tobacco: Prohibitionists' Concerns Answered and Refuted | Alternet."Alternet | Alternative News and Information. N.p., 2 Mar. 1930. Web. 21 Aug.
2012Grinspoon, Lester, and James B. Bakalar. Marihuana, the forbidden medicine. Rev. and exp. ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. Print.
Miron, Jeffrey A.. The budgetary implications of marijuana prohibition. Washington, D.C.: Marijuana Policy Project, 2005. Print.
Zimmerman, Bill, Nancy Crumpacker, and Rick Bayer. Is marijuana the right medicine for you?: a factual guide to medical uses of marijuana. New Canaan, Conn.: Keats Pub., 1998. Print.
Areas to improve:
A few areas I believe I have had recurrent issues with involves my diction and tone of voice. When I am writing my essays I really think a lot about my word choice and tone of voice . This sometimes prevents me from fluently writing my thoughts down on paper as my mind gets caught up in processing the thoughts. I also am constantly worried about my audience and research techniques. I feel that once I start a paper sometimes my audience becomes unknown. I know who my intended audience is in the beginning but have trouble perceiving the fact that one audience would listen to a proposal as long as an essay without questions arising along the way or without problems occurring.
In terms of my organization I feel that improvement can be made in my sentence structures and fluency. I desire to use better transitions while conveying thoughts. I make attempts to end a sentence or paragraph with the start of the next topic/sentence/paragraph. Despite my attempts I feel this is an area for improvement. Additionally, I have come to learn that re-reading my work helps me to catch some lengthy or questionable sentences that are hard to understand. No matter how much I re-read I still receive graded feedback that some thoughts aren't conveyed well. This is another desired improvement area.
