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alternative method for marijuana use has been at the center
of a huge nationwide debate since its criminalization across
country in 1937. In recent years medical marijuana has become
the largest alternative method for people seeking to sidetrack
the law. Many argue that marijuana shouldn’t be illegal
at all because it is not in the same category as drugs such
as heroin and crack cocaine. The Federal Government however,
wants no part of this argument and has tried everything
to keep marijuana, for use of any purpose, illegal. Yet
the question still remains, can marijuana have a true benefit
to this country? And if so why has the federal government
taken the position it is currently taking.
According to www.norml.org, a non-profit organization that
has been fighting for the legalization of marijuana for
over 30 years, 80 million Americans have admitted to smoking
marijuana in their lifetime. Including current president
George W. Bush and former President Bill Clinton although
he claims he didn’t inhale. Marijuana commonly referred
to as Cannabis, Weed, or Mary Jane, is made from the Cannabis
plant. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is the active ingredient
in the drug, causing psychoactive and medicinal effects
when smoked or consumed in any form.
Marijuana has been illegal for only a short time compared
to the amount of time the drug has been on the market. In
the United States the first law prohibiting the drug came
in Utah in 1915 after Mormons went into the Mexican regions
and brought the plant back. The Church was a big part in
making it illegal in these parts of the country and the
first law was quickly followed with doctrines making marijuana
illegal in Oregon, Nevada, Arkansas and Montana.
Marijuana officially came under fire across the nation with
the enactment of The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Many marijuana
supporters say the basis of the act was tainted by lies
and corruption by big business execs including the head
of the Drug Enforcement Agency. They claim, the act was
passed based on the belief that the drug caused or had the
potential to cause murder, insanity and death, which we
now know, marijuana doesn’t. The act itself did not
criminalize marijuana, but it did however implement an unreasonable
amount of tax on the use of marijuana. It also applied many
fines and other punishments for the use and possession on
marijuana.
Medicinal marijuana has been used across the world for centuries.
China, Greece and India were some of the first countries
to use marijuana for its relieving purposes. While marijuana
became illegal across the world in the early part of the
20th century, in recent years it has resurfaced across the
globe for its medicinal purposes. All across the globe it
is used as an herb for various ailments and in the states
it has been used to relieve pain in those who suffer from
illnesses such as multiple sclerosis, muscle spasticity,
and even to relieve and reduce nausea, and other ailments
caused by AIDS, and Cancer.
Currently 11 states including, California, Rhode Island,
Washington, Maryland, Maine, Hawaii, and Alaska allow for
legal medical marijuana use, mainly the smoking of the drug.
While that is true for these states, on the federal level,
medical marijuana and all other marijuana uses are still
illegal.
The fight for marijuana has even gone as far as to the Supreme
Court of the United States. The Court decided 6-3 in Gonzalez
v. Raich that the federal government can prosecute anyone
who is given medical marijuana and anyone-person, facility
or clinic-who provides medical marijuana. This was also
followed by a 264 to 161 vote by the House of Representatives
against a ban of federal governments targeting people in
states that have laws on the books that allow medicinal
marijuana.
The article “Reefer Madness” published by the
New York Times on April 28, 2006 discusses the Food and
Drug Administration’s current stance on medical marijuana
use. Although the F.D.A. currently has banished any chance
that smoked marijuana can have any beneficial affects on
people, it has given the go ahead for the proper clinics
to test whether other forms of the drug may be able to help
patients. The article introduces a drug by the name of Salivex,
which the F.D.A. wants to look into as a medicinal form
of marijuana. Salitex is an oral spray which can help cure
pain and other ailments if taken properly. The drug features
the active drug in marijuana, THC. Salitex has already been
made legal in Canada among other countries.
Unlike the United States, other countries such as The Netherlands,
Canada and most recently Mexico have all decriminalized
the use of marijuana. The drug has been proven to not have
the same affects as other hallucinatory drugs and most importantly
is not fatal-practically impossible to overdose. In fact
compared to the 270,000 people killed a year through the
use of tobacco and cigarettes and the 430,000 people killed
a year through alcohol use, marijuana is actually safer
than the legal hallucinogens available now and even as this
article goes to print, no one has ever been confirmed dead
because of the use of the drug.
The decriminalization of marijuana is a long time coming.
According to David Cole’s “Two Systems of Criminal
Justice,” the reason it hasn’t been made legal
is because of the common market who used the drug. “The
history of marijuana laws illustrates what happens when
the criminal law begins to affect large numbers of white
middle- and upper-class people. The country’s first
marijuana users were largely minorities, mostly Mexicans.”
Soon after marijuana became illegal, and federal penalties
began to take affect, including imprisonment of two to five
years, or up to ten to twenty years for your third conviction.
As the years passed marijuana became a drug not only used
by minorities but it became the preferred drug for college
students, hippies and the white middle and upper class.
“As marijuana use spread to the white majority, enforcement
radically decreased. Police and prosecutors began to leave
users alone and instead targeted dealers and sellers…The
legislatures amended the laws, sharply reducing penalties
for possession.” (Cole, 427). Cole argues that the
flow of marijuana use is the main reason for the decriminalization
of marijuana in those states. Today as the drug is decriminalized
in the predominately white parts of the country, minorities
make up “35 percent of all drug arrests, 55 percent
of drug convictions and 74 percent of prison sentences for
drug convictions.” (Cole, 411).
In a related article by William W. Savage III, in an interview
with Honors College Professor, Ralph Hamerla, Hamerla stated
that, “People’s lives are being destroyed by
this. Not by the actual item itself, but by the policies
we choose to subscribe to in this country regarding its
legal status. You can look at the history of marijuana and
see where all these laws come from. They’re clearly
geared to demonizing the substance for the purpose of someone’s
career goals.” The article continued with the writer
urging that the only way medical marijuana would be able
to break the barriers of criminalization is if someone in
the health care industry made the argument that there is
an eminent need for the use of medical marijuana.
Medical Marijuana will continue to be a debate in the United
States as long as the use of it is illegal. While some will
argue that big business has caused the criminalization of
the drug others simply say that the affects of the drug
are bad and should not be allowed by the country. Members
of that argument also say that once medical marijuana is
allowed throughout the country it is only a matter of time
before the debate for legal use of the drug for recreational
purposes will begin. It seems that the best move would be
for the Food and Drug Administration to take a strong stance
on this debate, but it seems unlikely that they are willing
to end this debate-unless it benefits them or the federal
government in some way or another.
Sources
Cole, David (1998) Two systems of Criminal Justice. “The
Politics of Law” edited by David Kairys. 411, 427-28
Currie, Elliott (1998) Crime and Punishment In The United
States: Myths, realities, and possibilities. “The
Politics of Law” edited by David Kairys. 386.
Miller, Henry I. (2006). “Reefer Medicine.”
The New York Times
Savage, William W. (2006). “Going Up In Smoke.”
The OU Daily
www.norml.com, data retrieved May 7, 2006
Taylor, Stuart Jr. The Affirmative Action Decisions.
Part
I - Cannabis - Perspective
Part II - Cannabis - FYI
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