Legalizing and Decriminalizing certain drugs.

There is talk of legalization of Marijuana in California, I recently had a school assignment on this topic I thought I might share.

My thoughts on the legalization and decriminalization of certain drugs.

It is obvious if we take a look at both sides of the argument that there is a level of dissension amongst our ranks. If we take a step back and look at legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco, both of which kill thousands of people each year, the case for certain drugs becomes a simple case of "well if Marlboro can kill people and make money, why can't people smoke pot, laugh, and go to sleep?"



"If Bacardi can get me drunk enough to beat my wife, why is smoking a joint, getting hungry, and watching 'Flip This House' till 3am so bad?" I am an obvious proponent for the legalization of certain "drugs." Marijuana is a plant, it grows like that, alcohol is distilled, brewed, or fermented. You literally drink rotten sugar or yeast poop...In the case of cigarettes, well Marlboro men in their suits and loafers cashing multi-million dollar checks and scarfing thousand dollar tins of fish babies have decided that it's okay to add "harmless ingredients" to make your life better by keeping you smoking.

My neighbor who grows his own plants is neither a wife-beater in a wife-beater, nor an extremely violent alcoholic who decides to drive around toasted and run into people because they were going the wrong way. He smokes his own home-grown plants, watches the Discovery Channel, and comes over to eat if his refrigerator is empty. He always gives us money if he comes over for food, he's never raised his voice, and he is one of the most passive people I know.

On the other hand, my Hispanic ex-Marine best friend, well, let's just say get a few Corona's in him and everyone becomes Taliban...point is, you never hear "frat boy dies from too many bong hits!" Alcohol is a killer, dangerous and devastating drug, and it's perfectly legal, and perfectly accessible to underage Americans. Do you want drunk teenagers driving around killing your kids, or stoned teenagers banging on drums in their garages, watching 'Half Baked' and laughing hysterically?

I don't believe drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamine should be legalized, but imagine how much more money the DEA and local police would have if they stopped harassing people for possession or carrying paraphernalia relating to marijuana. Do we really think that someone caught with an ounce of weed is worthy of taking up a jail cell when there are murderers, rapists, pedophiles and other harmful criminals who deserve to be incarcerated?

Imagine how the G8 summit would go if all the countries of the world just smoked a blunt together, laughed about the stupidity we've displayed as brothers and sisters of the earth and let freedom ring the bell of peace.

Not only will taxation bring about a certain level of monetary compensation to a struggling economy, but it will take money away from the cartels that use violent acts to traffic it across borders. Less money for the cartels, less crimes committed in the trafficking of the drug, more money for the DEA to seek out the cocaine and heroine dealers, more money for economic spending (like healthcare), less crimes committed to obtain the substance and an all together more peaceful way of life...well, sign me up.

I want to take a step back though, my argument so far has been lighthearted and silly, true, but I really want to go into a few major reasons why.

Firstly, marijuana is neither addictive, nor dangerous, this is a medical fact in the sense that it is a prescribed drug such that Vicodin or Codeine is. It is known as with most things that moderation is the key. It is true that one glass of wine may not end in you beating your wife or children. The same is true of marijuana.

Early in our days of independence of British rule and freedom as men, we might recall that we proposed that we were endowed by God certain unalienable rights. Among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Who are you to tell me that the happiness I experience from smoking a joint is not my God-given unalienable right? About the same right as I have to tell you that you should not consume alcoholic beverages or smoke cigarettes.

It is true that whilst your actions may be legal and mine not, it is also true that while you enjoy your freedom of choice and happiness, I also enjoy mine, albeit ignoring the fact that the government I must entrust to protect me has told me otherwise.

You might remember a certain "holy war" if you will against the "Demon Rum" and the subsequent laws banning consumption of said beverage. The response was the launching of the greatest crime wave in American history. Thousands died from home-brewed or improperly brewed alcohol, and a new-found (which endures to this day) contempt of American laws. It's convenient for American moralists in their time-vacuum to forget anything that happen prior to last week, but need I remind the masses that the drug alcohol was once illegal and it's re-legalization has not been contested since. Marijuana was once legal, in fact in 1619 the Virginia Assembly REQUIRED every farmer to grow hemp for various purposes.

Marijuana became the "Marijuana Menace" it is today as floods of Mexicans came to this country to live a better life after the Mexican revolt of 1910. The stigma of marijuana and it's unfounded attribution to Mexican immigrants and violent crimes became the new "war on drugs" to which over the next hundred years trillions of US taxpayer money would go to fight this incomprehensible filth based on immigrant prejudice.

Is it not in our constitution that all men are created equal? Are men from Mexico not men worthy of being treated as equals? Why then has the negative association of recreational marijuana use by a wave of immigration to "the land of opportunity" turned into the only thing American's have spent more money on than anything else in our country (with the exception of the Iraqi war against non-existent WMD's). Trillions of taxpayer money has gone to the "drug war." Imagine if you will that you could count one number continuously every second. It would take you 17 minutes to count to one thousand, 12 days (counting nonstop, day and night) to count to a million, 32 years to count to one billion, and an astonishing THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND years to count to a trillion. Now multiply that by a few numbers and that's what we're tossing at the "war on drugs." Frankly, I'd rather spend my tax dollars on myself than on some teenage kids with an ounce of pot...how about you?

No, marijuana is not evil, alcohol and tobacco are, the proponents and profiteers of alcohol or tobacco would certainly beg to differ, but how much longer can they line their pockets with the alcohol soaked, tar stained blood of victims whose life was cut short because of a dangerously legal substance?

I say enough is enough...legalize everything, or demonize it all...but something must be done...perhaps a life sentence in jail or beheading might prevent people from shooting up heroine, or ingesting alcohol, heck, threat of capital punishment like that would keep me from smoking pot...but it's about the only thing that will...there's my two cents albeit long-winded...

Sources used:

Some rhetoric and wit of this article inspired my argument.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/vidal-drugs.html

For more info on the history of Marijuana you may start with this site:
http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/mj005.htm