Should we rethink our laws on marijuana?
“Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use,” to quote a past president.
More than 76 million Americans have admittedly tried marijuana. The overwhelming majority of these users did not go on to become regular marijuana users, try other illicit drugs and none overdosed on marijuana. Only 5 percent of Americans have used marijuana in the past year and only 3 percent in any given month, so most marijuana users do not go on to harder drugs but instead quit marijuana.
Convicted marijuana offenders are denied federal financial student aid; even convicted child molesters, rapists and murderers don’t see such penalties. Under federal law, possessing a single marijuana cigarette or less is punishable by up to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine, the same penalty as possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine or crack.
Yes, many hard drug users did use marijuana previously but they also smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol beforehand, but no one states we should ban these things (as we shouldn’t) as “gateway drugs.” Correlation is not causation. If so, then the causation of marijuana to harder drugs is pretty ineffective.
Is smoking marijuana a good thing? No, of course not. There are negative health effects and many people do abuse it, but the harm we create to not only society but ourselves in making it illegal is worse then the harm of the drug itself. It is strange, that in our society and in most states those who are sick cannot even use marijuana because even that is illegal. While some who are ill can get better with the drug Marinol, not all do and such a decision should be up to patients and their doctors, not our justice system.
This is why organizations such asNORML and DRCnet are so important to ensure that we as a society and nation do not waste precious resources locking up people for things that we might not like.
September 13, 2009 Examiner
