CBS -- Marijuana should never have been made illegal in the first place

[Galaxy]

Make Marijuana Legal
Posted by CN Staff on May 12, 2009 at 04:37:33 PT
By Ethan Nadelmann, Special To CBSNews.com
Source: CBS News

CBS -- Marijuana should never have been made illegal in the first place.

Ask why it was made illegal - by many state governments and eventually the federal government during the first four decades of the past century - and the answer cannot be found in expert medical testimony or any objective assessment of the costs and benefits of prohibiting marijuana.

In many western states, it was simply a matter of prejudice against Mexican-Americans and Mexican migrants, with whom marijuana was popularly associated. Rancid tabloid journalism also played a role, as did Reefer Madness-like propaganda and legislative testimony.

We know the result. Marijuana became dramatically more popular after its prohibition than it ever was before.

Over one hundred million Americans have tried it, including the three most recent occupants of the Oval Office. Billions, perhaps tens of billions, of dollars are spent and earned illegally on it each year. Marijuana is routinely described as the first, second or third most lucrative agricultural crop in many states. And taxpayers are obliged to spend billions of their own dollars each year in support of futile efforts to enforce an unenforceable prohibition.

Clearly marijuana prohibition is unique among American criminal laws. No other law is both enforced so widely and harshly yet deemed unnecessary by such a substantial portion of the populace. Police made roughly 800,000 arrests last year for possession of marijuana, typically tiny amounts. Thatâ??s almost the same number as are arrested each year for cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, Ecstasy and all other drugs.

Meanwhile recent polls show that over 40% of Americans think that marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol; and itâ??s closer to 50% among Democrats, independents, adults under age 30, and voters in a growing number of western states.

This is an issue on which politicians can be counted on to follow, not lead, public opinion. But some at last are saying publicly that legalizing marijuana needs to be on the table. For California Governor Schwarzenegger, itâ??s the prospect of new tax revenue and costs savings when the stateâ??s budget deficit has never been larger. For Arizona Attorney General Terry Goodard and the City Council of El Paso, Texas, itâ??s the realization that legalizing marijuana would help reduce the violence and profits of Mexican drug gangs.

Others point to the fact that marijuana prohibition is a remarkable failure in the eyes and ways of young people.

Over eighty percent of high school seniors say that marijuana is easy to obtain - and even easier to buy than alcohol. Itâ??s hard to see how making marijuana legal for adults would make it any more available to young people than it is already.

Is marijuana addictive? Yes, it can be, in that some people use it to excess, in ways that are problematic for themselves and those around them, and find it hard to stop. But marijuana may well be the least addictive and least damaging of all commonly used psychoactive drugs. Most people who smoke marijuana never become dependent. Withdrawal symptoms pale beside those of other drugs. No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose, which cannot be said of most other drugs.

Marijuana is not associated with violent behavior and only minimally with reckless sexual behavior. And even heavy marijuana smokers smoke only a fraction of what cigarette addicts smoke. Lung cancers involving people who smoke marijuana but not tobacco are virtually nil.

Itâ??s no surprise that the Drug Enforcement Administrationâ??s own administrative law judge, Francis Young, came to the conclusion in 1988 that â??marijuana may well be the safest psychoactive substance commonly used in human history."

But when all is said and done, the principal, and most principled, argument in favor of ending marijuana prohibition is this: whether or not I or anyone else consume marijuana should be none of the governmentâ??s business-so long as Iâ??m not behind the wheel of a car or otherwise putting others at risk. Itâ??s time to get the government off my property and out of both my pockets and my body when it comes to marijuana. Enough is enough.

Source: CBS News (US Web)
Author: Ethan Nadelmann, Special To CBSNews.com
Published: May 12, 2009
Copyright: 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc.
Website: CBS News - Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News
URL: Make Marijuana Legal - CBS News

Galaxy Reviewed by Galaxy on 05-13-2009. CBS -- Marijuana should never have been made illegal in the first place Make Marijuana Legal Posted by CN Staff on May 12, 2009 at 04:37:33 PT By Ethan Nadelmann, Special To CBSNews.com Source: CBS News CBS -- Marijuana should never have been made illegal in the first place. Ask why it was made illegal - by many state governments and eventually the federal government during the first four decades of the past century - and the answer cannot be found in expert medical testimony or any objective assessment of the costs and benefits of prohibiting Rating: 5

[Traguu]

I agree with everything that you said but unless you said this everyone thinks that the reason that they dont legalize it is cause it would be to hard to tax (and to easy to grow yourself) but they could sell it at 10 dollars an 1/8 and make a profit. It would give people who have no skills or a job both of those. They could use all the farmland in the country that the government pays farmers not to grow their crop on. The real reason is that the big drug companys have lobbyist that are in the pockets of the politicians. The drug companys are the ones that are at risk the most think of all the usses it could be used for and think of all the money that would be lost by the company. I will finish this later as I am late for work. Doug

[gypski]

Itâ??s time to get the government off my property and out of both my pockets and my body when it comes to marijuana. Enough is enough.

Amen. :thumbsup:

[Medicaldelivery]

Itâ??s time to get the government off my property and out of both my pockets and my body when it comes to marijuana. Enough is enough.

Amen. :thumbsup:

You can't get the government "Off Your Property" because you're on their property. Your house is located on U.S. government soil, so that makes it theirs, but I get your point.

They don't have a reason to keep it illigal, and tell "Free people" how to live and what to put in their bodies. They don't want you to put what you want in your body, they want you to put what they want in your body, even thou it might be bad for you, like our ever precious alcohol.