Should marijuana be legalized

¶ … MARIJUANA BE LEGALIZED?

As a substance controlled by U.S. federal law, marijuana, also known as pot, Mary Jane, and weed, has been a very hot topic within the last several years due to a number of issues related to its illegality and the possibility of its legalization in the United States. For example, there are many Americans who feel that marijuana should be legalized in all of the 50 states with limits set on how much a person can grow for their own personal consumption which then would be taxed like alcohol and tobacco. However, there are others who argue that legalizing marijuana would be tantamount to condoning drug use and would end up in the hands of children and young persons who would then be "addicted" to marijuana and possibly move on to harder drugs like cocaine and heroin. This argument against legalizing marijuana, much like other arguments supported by U.S.-based anti-drug groups, is completely unfounded, due to the fact that studies on marijuana and its addictive traits have conclusively shown that such is not the case.

Overall, the U.S. policy on illegal drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other substances, dates back at least eighty years to the days prior to Prohibition when alcohol was made illegal in the United States. However, much like today's current "war on drugs," Prohibition failed miserably which eventually forced the U.S. government to repeal Prohibition in 1933. By looking at some basic statistics provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, it will become clear that the current prohibition on marijuana is bound to fail, due to its relatively easy access and the ability to grow marijuana almost anywhere, especially in a person's home.

Between 1990 and 2008, almost six million American citizens were arrested for either purchasing, distributing or smoking marijuana, "a greater number than the entire populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North and South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined." In 2000, more than 730,000 law-abiding American citizens were arrested for marijuana violations, "an increase of 800% since 1980, the highest ever recorded by the FBI" ("The Legalization of Marijuana," Internet). In addition, the total number of Americans arrested for marijuana offenses in 2000 "far exceeded the combined number of arrests for violent crimes" like murder, armed robbery, rape, and aggravated assault ("The Legalization of Marijuana," Internet).

As to the above argument concerning children, recent studies conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) have shown that in most cases, parents who smoke marijuana do not give it to their children and use various types of measures to protect their children from second-hand marijuana smoke. Overall, "responsible marijuana smokers present no threat or danger to America or its children," due to the fact that responsible parents, much like keeping alcohol in their homes, generally do not use marijuana in front of their children and keep their "stashes" safely hidden away ("The Legalization of Marijuana," Internet).

One very important aspect related to smoking marijuana concerns the number of deaths reported on an annual basis linked to using other legal and illegal substances. For example, according to the U.S. Bureau of Mortality Statistics, 400,000 Americans die annually as a direct result of smoking cigarettes; 100,000 die prematurely from drinking alcohol; some 20,000 die from abusing legal prescription drugs like Oxycontin, Valium, Percodan, and other drugs prescribed by physicians; 2,000 die from the effects of consuming too much caffeine, mainly from heart failure, while the number of Americans who die from smoking marijuana currently stands at zero, an indication that smoking marijuana does not directly cause any known fatal and debilitating disease ("The Legalization of Marijuana," Internet).