Who is Scared of Legalization?

Pharmaceutical Industry, that's who.

Via Good Morning America, I have found this story. Meiko Hester-Perez has a ten year old autistic son. Not too long ago, he weighed forty-six pounds. You see, her son, Joey Perez, had become unwilling to eat and because of this, his weight fell to very dangerous levels. She became worried and began to give him marijuana in the form of brownies to stimulate his appetite. His appetite improved and became healthier. He also had a change in his routine. He usually took enough medication to kill Lindsay Lohan but now he takes only three medications and special brownies.

What this story shows us is that the pharmaceutical industry is probably afraid of legalization. Should marijuana be decriminalized, the necessity for massive amounts of medication would inevitably decrease. The pharmaceutical industry is scared that their huge income would fall and then their wallets would then be thinner than Kirstie Alley. Boo-freakin'-hoo

Drunk v. Skunk: A Comparison Between Alcohol and Marijuana

-Note: skunk is slang for incredibly strong weed.

More than once in the comments and in one of my posts, we've discussed how alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana. I have never shown any proof for this, until now.

It is well-known common knowledge that alcohol is incredibly dangerous and possibly fatal is consumed irresponsibly. The lethal dosage for alcohol at which half of the population would from is .40% which is five times the legal driving limit. Furthermore, on average, drunk driving kills one person every forty minutes in the United States alone. An MSNBC article conservatively estimates the deaths related to alcohol to be about 75,000 while a more comprehensive analysis estimates one hundred thousand people die each year from alcohol related causes. MSNBC includes deaths from drunk driving accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, cancer, and other diseases related to drinking too much alcohol, while the other, in addition to those causes, cites suicides, accidental drownings, accidental falls, and homicides that are attributed to alcohol.

On the other hand, it is practically impossible for anyone to overdose on marijuana. One would have to smoke one-third of their body weight in fifteen minutes to overdose on marijuana. Also, unlike alcohol which causes liver damage no matter how it's consumed, marijuana can be consumed without harming the lungs (eating it in food) or minimizing the damage (vaporizer). As mentioned in past articles, marijuana does not impact driving much, but neither I, nor any advocate for legalization, would ever agree that smoking pot while driving is acceptable.

One last thing I would like to look at is prohibition as a policy. As everyone knows, or should know, alcohol was prohibited from 1919 until 1933. Marijuana has "enjoyed" a much longer stay under prohibition. But how effective was/is each prohibition? Let's delve in. Prohibition of alcohol in the United States is somewhat well-known. Despite the ban, speakeasies arise providing people with illegal alcohol that is in turn provided by gangs and organized crime. This effectively introduced organized crime and gang violence to America. Doctors began to lobby for repealing of the eighteenth amendment and finally in 1933, it is repealed. Besides the negative externality that is gang violence, prohibition also caused feelings of distrust in the government because of endorsed propaganda.

As for marijuana prohibition, the effects are similar: gang violence is increased because gangs fight over marijuana and territory in which to sell it, feelings of distrust in the government, and widespread consumption despite the ban.

Unpotpular

Recently, an Alternet writer wrote an article that puts into words the frustration I've been having about marijuana legalization. With each year, more and more citizens are becoming more welcome to the idea of legalization and yet most politicians are afraid to touch the pro-legalization subject with a ten-foot pole. Even our own President Barack Obama laughed off the subject of marijuana legalization.

Yes, I understand there are more important, pressing issues, but to laugh at the movement is akin to insulting the intelligence of all those in favor of legalization by emphasizing that marijuana legalization is a joke. It's as if one is saying "You silly stoner, politics are for legislators!" How can it just be laughed off when 800,000 people each year are arrested for having marijuana*?

And I don't get it. Politicians have obviously used marijuana before (see former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, current NY governor David Paterson, former President Clinton, and ... President Obama!). This hypocrisy is easily responsible for delaying the legalization of marijuana for many years. Another major reason which I would agree with is the idea that the people who are being arrested for marijuana are those with little "political voice." Between those reasons and the scientific studies that show marijuana is not harmful to use and even beneficial, I cannot comprehend how so little progress has been made in the movement to legalize cannabis.

As for what can be done to change this, the author of the article provides statements from some spokespeople. I think in order for progress to be made, the general populace needs to be educated with correct unbiased information. Furthermore, more people need to stand up instead of staying silent.

* A note on the 800,000 people arrested for marijuana: prisons across the United States are filled to the brim and an increasing influx of convicted marijuana users is pushing out truly violent criminals into society.

Marijuana as Medicine

Last week, I visited my parents and my father asked what I’ve been doing for my classes. I told my father that I was writing a blog, to which he asked what I was writing about. While he probably hoped it was something discussing important topics that could possibly help a prospective career, I told him I was writing an informative blog on how marijuana legalization is an effective policy. At this point, he must have concluded in his mind that I was a pothead because he effectively became stone-faced. I noticed this and decided to make a last ditch effort to sway his mind before his new perception of me became cemented in his mind. I told him about the study that showed how marijuana consumption can be an effective medicine to treat and prevent Alzheimer’s disease because of its effect to prevent the plaque formation in the brain found in Alzheimer's. As I expected, he perked up and eagerly asked me more questions concerning how this could be true. You see, his mother, my grandmother, passed away a few years ago as a result of a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Despite marijuana’s ability to treat this degenerative and terminal disease, it is obvious that most of marijuana’s medical uses go unnoticed by the public.

While marijuana can be used to treat many diseases, most people have very little knowledge of the other uses. The most well known use of marijuana as medicine is for the treatment of glaucoma. Studies have shown smoking marijuana loosens the intraocular pressure that causes glaucoma. As mentioned before, it can treat Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, the THC found in cannabis has been found to reduce lung cancer tumor growth and its ability to spread. Another cannabinoid found in marijuana, cannabidiol, has been studied to find that it can have the same effects of chemotherapy without the negative side effects. This would mean that consumption of marijuana would stop the spread of breast cancer. Scientists have also discovered that the symptoms of HIV and AIDS can be benefited by marijuana use. HIV patients that smoked marijuana were found to have increased food intake, better moods, and a better quality of life. Furthermore, a study from this year found that THC effectively causes the death of brain cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed and having no toxic effects.

Theory Post

Tomorrow, Californian legislators are meeting to listen to and debate testimony in favor of legalization of marijuana. This is good step forwards in the movement for legalization. The populace and lawmakers must get involved and discover the true effects of marijuana. Once legislators and congressmen also understand this, the legalization of marijuana will once again become a hotly debated topic. And until marijuana is legalized, polarized sides will not concede their positions. In order for cannabis to be legalized, certain restrictions must be placed upon it to ensure that it is responsibly used. This would mean an age restriction only allowing users to be twenty-one years of age or older. Furthermore, this would establish many state and federal taxes for buyers and sellers. Once this occurs, individual state governments can establish their own laws, like no smoking and driving, etc. After this, municipalities will be able to decide if they want to allow marijuana, much like ‘dry’ counties that do not sell alcohol. This is the only effective way to end polarized sides because if it remains to be a criminalized drug, questions will remain for those who believe marijuana is a beneficial good. If marijuana is never legalized, the proponents will still wonder how many people could have had their lives improved or even elongated by marijuana.

Marijuana's Social Effects and Effects on Public Safety

Aside from marijuana’s health concerns, the most feared possible effect is that ‘pot’ legalization will create millions of stoners incapable of daily menial tasks, and then they turn to hard drugs too. And then as they figure it, society collapses. Well, have no fear because I am here to take on these dangerous worries.

First off, one of the most well-known but incorrect theories is that of marijuana being a ‘gateway drug.’ For those who do not know, a gateway drug is one that using cannabis leads to the use of and addiction to hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. There have been multiple studies both finding in favor and opposed to the theory. In 2006, a Swedish institute gave rats doses of THC daily and then allowed them to control their own heroin use through pressing a lever. As the rats used THC day after day, they gradually used more and more heroin. Yet their experiment was erroneous because of errors in the rats’ ages. They tested on rats that were 28 days old (about 6 years old for humans). The test group for adult rats showed no relationship between use of THC and addiction to heroin. Furthermore, a study by the American Psychiatric Association conducted a study which observed the lives of children ages 10-12. Their results were that those kids that tried marijuana before any other drugs were no more likely to abuse hard drugs than those who did not use cannabis before drug use. And to cap this refutation of the gateway drug theory, a study in 1999 by US National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine reported that marijuana is not a "gateway drug to the extent that it is a cause or even that it is the most significant predictor of serious drug abuse."

Another major panic is that marijuana use will cause many traffic fatalities because of its consumption. Occasionally you will hear on the local news or even the national news stations that a fatal collision was caused by a driver who had marijuana in their system. This is a common fallacy because what people may not notice is that in most of these accidents, the driver was under the influence of alcohol as well. In fact, a recent study supports the idea that fears of marijuana traffic collision are overblown and that in traffic fatalities, a driver who is high is no more a danger for car wreck casualties than one who is drug-free.

And this last part is likely an unknown possible benefit. Public safety could very possibly become greater as a result of marijuana’s decriminalization. From my street knowledge, often times in iffy situations the police are not called when they should be. People are often afraid that the cops will find marijuana and thus arrest them for possession. Consequently, problems are not resolved and people can suffer because of it. Furthermore, an estimated $300 million is spent on fighting marijuana in each state. If marijuana is legalized than all of this budget money can be used elsewhere. Police can eliminate a former focus of their patrols and instead concentrate on more stopping more dangerous criminals and preventing crimes, such as hard drug use and trafficking. In this way, there is a good possibility that marijuana legalization would create better public safety.

Intro-dub-tion to AQotWB

The issue of the legalization of marijuana in the United States is stagnant at this point in time. Healthcare reform, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the struggling economy have bull-rushed their way to the forefront of every American’s mind. Now, legalization is a topic left untouched, a seemingly futile political effort. But today, in an anemic economy trying to rebuild, legalization could be the answer to some of our problems.

Beginning in the early twentieth century, cannabis was slandered and frowned upon due to fear of its unknown effects on the timber business and the human mind. Even as marijuana became better understood, the government and those opposing cannabis produced propaganda against marijuana use. Regardless, consumption of marijuana increased year after year despite criminal charges for possession and sale of the drug. As the public’s views on marijuana changed, some states changed their laws on the criminalization of cannabis, including decriminalization the possession of marijuana and legalization of medicinal use.

Until now, there was not much incentive to legalize marijuana; the economy was already booming and marijuana was feared to be a gateway drug leading to “hard drug” use. As both this trend and the belief have been reversed, the value of legalization has never been higher. The introduction of the new highly profitable industries of marijuana consumption and hemp production would cause a creation of new jobs and consumer spending. It would also be beneficial to the health and well-being of the population because of its positive medical effects. This blog aims to follow the continuing debate on legalization of marijuana and to help persuade people to understand why such a policy would be economically and medicinally effective.