Final Essay

Decriminalizing Marijuana: Pass the Joint

By

B.D. Quimby

27 July 2007

The possession and sale of marijuana has been outlawed since 1937 in the United States and in over 100 countries world wide since 1961. What is the truth to those laws and is it really all that farfetched to believe they may be rescinded? Considering decriminalizing the use of marijuana, there are benefits: enhanced tax savings, reduction of the national deficit and significant diminishment of the problems of overcrowded jails and prisons.

What is marijuana, its history and the affects of smoking it? Marijuana is derivative of a plant that breeds wild all over the world. Tetrahydrocannabinol, the key active ingredient also known as THC provides psychoactive and medicinal affects to the user.

In the United States, Indians had been using marijuana’s medicinal and euphoric values for generations. Media attention came about as the cannabis came through the southern border of America with the Mexicans who were seeking jobs. Since pot was around for so long, the assumption of the media frenzy and hard-core anti-marijuana campaigns that followed were the surface of a deeper issue of disregard for the Mexicans that threatened life as it was known in that day and age. Prejudice still ran deep during that era of the early 20^th century. Radical alarmist Harry J. Anslinger, named Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics headed by the Treasury Department of the United States was hell bent on controlling marijuana and devised the Uniform Narcotics Act. Anslinger used fear inducing claims against marijuana like: persons using will become murderers, heroin addicts, and sexual deviants, alter their personality, go insane, and die. Last but not least he also claimed communists were backing the support of its use to overthrow the US government. The result was a country immobilized by fear demanding the Government take immediate action. Thus, in 1937 the Marijuana Tax Act was born and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman with absolutely no public forum or research of any kind. The Tax Act required those who use, sell or grow weed to have a special tax stamp issued from the United States Treasury Department. Since no stamps were issued, there was no question as to the legality of marijuana. In 1951, the Boggs Act was signed into law by President Truman classifying marijuana as a federally prohibited controlled substance. The passage of the Narcotic Control Act in 1956 heightened the penalties for drug possession and distribution. Marijuana became illegal in more than 100 countries world wide in 1961 as Anslinger touted the recent passages of American legislature regarding marijuana at the United Nations in the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Harry Jacob Anslinger retired from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1963 and warned predecessor Henry Giordano that nearly insurmountable tasks lay ahead for the War on Marijuana. Not to be regarded lightly, Giordano initiated his own attack on the users of marijuana claming it would turn them into “unmotivated dysfunctional losers”. (Zeese) Newly inaugurated President Richard Nixon was determined to shut down the transport of marijuana in 1968 and launched Operation Intercept focusing attention on the southern border to Mexico. This effort flopped and after just three weeks it was disassembled. Embarrassed, but not giving up, the President then issued the command to police officers across America to ‘smoke out’ the pot by whatever means necessary. As arrests began to soar at an alarming rate, the American public again commanded the government do something about it. Hence, support on the Federal level for a reformation of the stiff penalties of the laws against marijuana, insisting they were not working brought forth a senate hearing regarding Marijuana Legislation. It was here, that Dr. Stanley Yolles, the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health affirmed the “removal of mandatory minimum penalties in all cases of drug abuse”. (NORML) In an effort to comply the Senate, Congress passed the Controlled Substance Act in 1970 diminishing punishment of the use of weed. Things took a turn for the worse when the US Supreme Court gave school officials the legal right to strip search students believed to be using drugs in 1980. Under the leadership of the duo President Ronald Reagan and Vice-President George H. W. Bush, William Bennet was named a “drug czar” in charge of federal drug fighting initiatives through the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In 1988, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act was passed significantly raising the penalties of drug use. According to then President Bush, “Drug trafficking should be grounds for the death penalty”. (Zeese)

Pot smokers have long cited a general relaxed feeling of happiness, intoxication, increased hunger and sleepiness when using. It does not negatively impact one’s health any worse than cigarettes. In fact, it has some health benefits unlike smoking cigarettes but they are legal. Smoking marijuana does not lead to bigger and better drugs. Users of marijuana do not typically use other drugs, although other drug users do typically use marijuana. There are confirmed benefits of marijuana including: the use as an analgetic, an anticonvulsive, a sedative, a hypnotic, an anti-rheumatic, an anti-diarrheal, an antibiotic, an antipyretic and an appetite promoter. Cannabis is effective treatment for neurological disorders, effects on the eyes primarily for glaucoma, a bronchodilator and anti-nausea agent in cancer therapy. (Mechoulam) Finally, our United States Drug Enforcement Administration has acknowledged that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC has medicinal value and that the legal synthetic version is actually quite dangerous. (Zeese) As the usage of marijuana began to become a common place activity all across America, in 1967 the Federal Government ordered scientific testing be done to determine it’s affects on users. Dr. Leo B Hollister, Assoc Chief of Staff Palo Alto Veterans Hospital, issued a statement saying that smoking pot made people “happy, intoxicated, and sleepy; something that pot smokers had been saying all along.” (Zeese) Social acceptance of marijuana and its positive affects are known, but most of the general public today dispels the information due in large to the fear-invoking baseless claims set forth by our own government.

Absolutely each and every claim made by the government on marijuana use has been dismissed by their own federally sponsored studies. It has not increased crime, it does not compel people to kill or become sadists. It is clear that by the preponderance of the governments own research and expenditures that marijuana is not dangerous, has health benefits and that waging a war against it is a complete waste of resources better used else where. If America were to end the prohibition, we would clearly see a better economy, money spent on issues that need immediate attention and increase the value of our prison conditions and the rehabilitative efforts therein.

During the Clinton Administration, 3 million people were arrested for marijuana use alone. By 2002 those numbers increased to 5 million. (FBI UCR 1993-2000) Sixty thousand individuals are behind bars for marijuana offenses at a cost to taxpayers of $1.2 billion per year. (The Federation of American Scientists' Drug Policy) Taxpayers annually spend between $7.5 billion and $10 billion arresting and prosecuting individuals for marijuana violations. (NORML)

In 1972, the Chairman of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, Raymond P Shafer recommended to then President Nixon he ought to decriminalize pot because studies were showing it did not enhance crime. Nixon refused and created the Drug Enforcement Administration instead. This also marks the year that Ann Arbor Michigan instituted a city ordinance reducing smoking and possession of marijuana to a minor offense. The year following Oregon became the first US state to completely decriminalize pot under the direction of then Governor Tom McCall who passed the Oregon Decriminalization Bill. Four years afterwards, studies showed no increase in marijuana use and a significant savings on tax money otherwise budget for police enforcement of drug control. At this juncture, 10 more states had also decriminalized marijuana: California, Hawaii, Colorado, Nebraska, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, New York and Maine. In 1976, President Jimmy Carter was all in favor of decriminalizing cannabis until Dr. Peter Bourne, Carter’s Chief Drug Policy Advisor was caught red-handed sniffing cocaine; dubbed by the media as the Quaalude Affair ending any hopes of national reform. (Zeese)

The War on Marijuana officially began in 1937 and through 1947 cost $220 million. Between the years of 1948-1963 the War on Marijuana cost $1.5 billion. Anti-marijuana efforts on behalf of the government cost $9 billion dollars between 1964 and 1969. Seventy-six billion dollars were spent on drug enforcement between 1970 and 1977. Federal expenses on the War on Drugs was a monstrous $214.7 billion from 1980-1998. The total amount of monies spent on waging the war against marijuana from 1937-1998 was in excess of $301.2 billion, $220 million. (NORML)

Since the sales of drugs is a $57 billion industry, add that together and think of what our country’s economy would look like with $360 billion (or more) in Federal money. Education and healthcare needs would be a non issue. Couple that with the fact that 400,000 people would not be wasting space in our prisons, leaving more than ample room for the truly publicly dangerous offenders such as murderers, rapists and child molesters. (NORML)

Almost 90 percent of these arrests are for possession only. (FBI UCR 1990-2000) Police arrest more Americans per year on marijuana charges than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. (FBI UCR 2001)

With all of this evidence, why are we still allowing this to continue? We need to prioritize our rationale for dispelling marijuana, learn what it really is, and reap the benefits it has to offer. This is a huge stumbling block within our society and we could grow and prosper immensely if we were to abolish these laws.

Works Cited

Abu Usaybia, Uyunu al-Anba fi Tabaquat al-Atibba,

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965.

"Plastic Cement: The Ten Cent Hallucinogen". International Journal of the Addictions

2: 271-272 Fall 1967.

Raphel Mechoulam, Cannaboids as Therapeutic Agents, CRC Press, Inc., 1986

Kevin B Zeese, Drug Abuse: Opposing Viewpoints, Greenhaven Press, 1988

Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Uniform Crime Reports: Crime in the United States (1993-2000). Table: Arrest for Drug Abuse Violations. U.S. Department of Justice: Washington, DC.

The Federation of American Scientists' Drug Policy Analysis Bulletin.

Marijuana Arrests and Incarceration in the United States. 1999.

Still Crazy After All These Years: Marijuana Prohibition 1937-1997:

A report prepared by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) on the occasion of the Sixtieth anniversary of the adoption of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Washington, DC; Federal Bureau of Investigation's combined Uniform Crime Reports: Crime in the United States (1990-2000): Table: Arrest for Drug Abuse Violations. U.S. Department of Justice: Washington, DC.

Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2001.

Uniform Crime Report: Crime in the United States, 2000. Table 29: Total estimated arrests in the United States, 2000. U.S. Department of Justice: Washington, DC