An analogy can easily be made to the difference between purchasing a basil plant for $6 versus buying individual sprigs of basil at the grocery store for $2 each.
Medical marijuana aside, serious social, philosophical, and political problems are associated with keeping the drug illegal. First, there is a significant logical contradiction inherent in the legal status of marijuana vs. that of either alcohol or tobacco. Both alcohol and tobacco are widely known to be physically addictive and directly harmful and yet both alcohol and tobacco remain legal. Marijuana, on the other hand, has potential health benefits and is associated only with mild addictive symptoms but marijuana is illegal. The status of marijuana as an illegal substance makes no sense when it is compared with tobacco and/or alcohol.]
Second, the legal prohibition on alcohol in the early twentieth century, which culminated in a United States constitutional amendment, proved to be a dismal failure. Rather than create a more temperate society, the prohibition of alcohol allowed for the proliferation of organized crime and also caused people to resort to dangerous means of distilling alcohol illicitly. The marijuana prohibition has had similar effects: the buying and selling of marijuana enables organized crime syndicates to thrive by increasing their product diversity and marketing segments. Moreover, illegal methods of growing marijuana often entail using dangerous electrical wiring procedures for in-house hydroponic systems. Procuring marijuana illegally also exposes users to dangerous situations including street crimes.
Economically, the prohibition on marijuana makes no sense. A group of economists, including Harvard's Jeffrey Miron and Nobel Prize-winning Dr. Milton Friedman recently petitioned President Bush to change the legal status of marijuana for financial reasons. According to the economists, prohibition is costly as well as dangerous. Their study showed that "Revenue from taxation of marijuana sales would range from $2.4 billion per year if marijuana were taxed like ordinary consumer goods to $6.2 billion if it were taxed like alcohol or tobacco," (Miron 2005)....
If adults have the right to choose whether or not to drink alcohol, or eat at McDonald's, adults should similarly be able to choose whether or not to smoke marijuana. Growing marijuana for
personal use would undoubtedly reduce the efficacy of street sales of the drug and could potentially reduce the problems associated with illegal drug trafficking including violent and petty crime. Currently, individuals wanting to use marijuana for medical use or otherwise must perform illegal transactions, risking lengthy and expensive court proceedings, possible prison time, and the
social stigma associated with being labeled a
criminal. The legal status of marijuana should reflect that of alcohol; both should be approved for limited adult recreational use, and individuals should be permitted to grow their own marijuana safely and without persecution.
Works Cited
Grinspoon, Lester and Bakalar, James B. (1997). Marihuana: The Forbidden
Medicine. Yale University Press.
Joy, Janet E., Watson, Stanley J., and Benson, John a. (eds.). (1999). Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. National Academy of
Sciences Press. Report available in PDF form online at http://www.medmjscience.org/Media/pdf/marimed.pdf.
Miron, Jeffery a. (2005). Milton Friedman, 500+ Economists Call for Marijuana Regulation Debate; New Report Projects $10-14 Billion Annual Savings and Revenues. Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition in the United States. Reproduced online by the Marijuana Policy Project website at http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/mironreport.html.
New, Emerging Evidence of Marijuana's Medical Efficacy. The Science of Medical Marijuana. Online at http://www.medmjscience.org/Pages/science/emerging.html.
Vinciguerra, Vincent, Moore, Terry, and Brennan, Eileen (1988). Inhalation Marijuana as an Antiemetic for Cancer
Chemotherapy. New York State Journal of Medicine, October 1988; 88: 525-527. Reproduced online by the Science of Medical Marijuana website at http://www.medmjscience.org/Pages/science/vinciguerra.html.
