New research is underway examining the effects of marijuana on multiple sclerosis and stroke victims, which is one of the key reasons why more funding, and fewer obstacles, for research are needed. Already, twenty-one states have opened the door to potential research, but only six states have launched research campaigns into the medicinal benefits of pot: California, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, and Tennessee ("21 States"). Federal legalization would ensure that more research on marijuana's health benefits will be completed. Because marijuana is illegal, citizens who want it must turn to criminal avenues of distribution unless they are one of the few living in California who can acquire medical marijuana. Many of the existing illegal avenues of distribution are run by organized crime networks. In order to protect their interests, such criminal organizations will stop at nothing, including murder. The violent crime that is related to the marijuana trade results largely from the fact that individuals cannot grow their own plants or purchase marijuana from a respected vendor. If marijuana were legalized, organized crime would certainly not stop. However, in a recent United Nations report entitled "Drugs: Cash Flow for Organized Crime," author Antonio Maria Costa states plainly, "drug dollars are the cash cow on which Transnational Organized Crime relies. It uses the profits from drug trafficking, estimated at 30 billion per year, to bankroll terrorists, capitalize other illegal enterprises, expand criminal markets, and to subsidize war, violence, anarchy and lawlessness." Therefore, even if for no other reason, marijuana should be legalized to take one product away from the real criminals.

Keeping pot illegal also promotes negative stigmatizing and labeling...

For example, if a nineteen-year-old drives across a state border with an ounce of weed, he or she could be sent to a federal penitentiary. From there on, the individual will be forever ostracized from his or her community. Finding a job could be difficult and making his or her way back into mainstream society could prove impossible. Once labeled a criminal, the person might turn toward illicit and potentially dangerous professions. Time spent in prison could have fostered interest in other, more dangerous drugs like heroine or crack. Keeping marijuana illegal creates an artificial category of crime that is contributing to the overcrowding of the American prison system. It is painfully unfair to imprison people for smoking weed, an act that construes absolutely no harm on anyone except possibly the lungs of the user.
Whether or not an individual approves of the mind-altering potentials of pot, the drug should be made legal and available to all adults. Marijuana is just the dried leaves and buds of a plant. Smoking marijuana can make people cough due to the inhalation of carbon monoxide and other potentially harmful substances. However, so can the smoking of cigars or cigarettes, which are not only both legal but also laced with chemical additives that most marijuana does not have. Marijuana is a mind-altering substance that, like alcohol, should not be used before operating heavy equipment like cars. However, like alcohol, marijuana should not be prohibited in law. The ban on marijuana also restricts access to a drug that can alleviate the suffering of the physically ill, which should be the real crime.

Works Cited

Costa, Antonio Maria. "Drugs: Cash Flow for Organized Crime." United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 1 Feb 2005. Retrieved 6 Mar 2005 online at http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/speech_2005-02-1.html.

Hager, Paul. "Marijuana Myths." Online at http://www.drugtext.org/sub/marmyt1.html.

Joy, Janet E., Watson, Stanley J., and Benson, John a. (eds). Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. Institute of Medicine. Washington D.C.: National Academy Press, 1999. Online at http://www.medmjscience.org/Media/pdf/marimed.pdf.

NIDA InfoFacts: Marijuana." National Institute on Drug Abuse. Online at http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/marijuana.html.

21 States Have Authorized Medical Marijuana Studies, but Only Six Implemented Programs." The Science of Medical Marijuana. Online at http://www.medmjscience.org/Pages/science/fact1.html.