Why should Marijuana not be Legalized
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Why should Marijuana not be Legalized
Introduction
In the United States of America, the movement for the legalization of Marijuana use is rolling like a tide according to the backers and observers. In May 2009, a renowned US governor said that it was time to bring the debate of legalizing Marijuana to the public- though he himself was personally against it. In the legislative front, the push for legalization is on high gear in several US states like Nevada and Massachusetts. The argument is “let us treat this soft drug like alcohol to the various taxes and put in place laws to control its sale, and also set a minimum age ceiling on the buyers and the quantity that one can buy (Westport & Praeger, 2008).
Several polls conducted in the recent past indicate a stepped up support from the general mass for the making of marijuana sell and use legal. This implies not only should restrictions be lifted, but also remove all laws against supply, sale, and production of this drug. As if this is not enough, the Obama administration has come out clear saying that, it will no longer be raiding drug stores and other dispensaries, which sell medicinal marijuana if it’s legal under federal laws in the states.
The campaign for the legitimization of marijuana sale is decade long old and it has been sequential efforts over this time; it is well organized, generously founded by rich proponents and has included in the recent past the use of internet campaign machinery. With all this efforts there is need to sensitize the general mass about what exactly the dangerous of marijuana legalization will be. Therefore, if there is any debate it should start at the following reasons: emergency admissions from Marijuana related complications have shot up by 164% from 1992 to 2002 (MacCoun & Reuter, 2001).
The harms of Marijuana
Converse to popular beliefs of those who are for the legalization of this drug, the current restraining, balanced and bipartisan medicine policies of the US are working plausibly well and have contributed a great deal in reductions in the pace of marijuana use in the United States. For instance a survey carried in a thirty day period indicated that abuse of marijuana by citizens of the US aged between 12 years or older in the year 1979 stood at 13.2 %(Caulkins & Sevigny, 2009). A similar survey in 2008 showed that percentage had gone down to around 6.1% , this is representative of a 54% reduction in the use of marijuana over a period of 29 years is a big success not a failure.
Most of those who support the claim that Marijuana should be legalized front that, there is no statistics indicating the number of deaths from Marijuana as are the case with tobacco smoke yet tobacco smoking is legal word over. To some extent, this is true because Marijuana cannot directly kill the users, as is the case with the use of heroin or alcohol and tobacco smoke. Some actually claim Marijuana eases symptoms, although the associations that represent the patients and the food have not approved this and Drugs board has not said a word yet. “If pot is harmless, why do we have more than 100,000 persons hospitalized in one year for Marijuana use?” pose a director at Rand Drug Policy Research centre (Caulkins & Sevigny, 2009).
Research over the past two decades has established an undisputable link of repeated Marijuana use to severe mental problems, with most at risk being the youth. According to the British Lung Foundation, smoking only three or four joints of Marijuana is equivalent to doing 20 tobacco cigarettes. This could be the reason the admissions for Marijuana use have gone up by164 %, representing the highest percentage as compared to all the other drugs.
In the US, if marijuana was to be made legal, the figure of marijuana abusers will rapidly increase. As of today, there are about 15.2 million users as compared to those who use alcohol whose number stands at 129 million, while the number is 70.9 million for tobacco use. If marijuana is legalized, there will be a swift increase in the number of users and addiction levers will sky rocket. According to available statistics, alcohol-related treatment costs average about $185 billion annually whereas taxes collected by both federal and state governments stands at $14.5 billion; equally tobacco smoking costs in excess of $200 billion in treatment and other related costs save for only $25 billion raised as revue from tobacco sales. This figures clearly indicate that the cost incurred for legal tobacco use are way above 8 times the sales tax collected from tobacco sales, and that of alcohol are 12 times the overall tax collected from alcohol sales. This represents a more disastrous economic tradeoff if the number of such drug and substances were to be increased legally (MacCoun & Reuter, 2001).
The cost of legalizing marijuana use would not only be monetary, legalized marijuana will not be restricted to adults only but the youth will have easy access to the drug. Legalization of marijuana will lead to increase in drug-impaired driving. Already marijuana has been rated as one of the main causes of highway deaths, crashes and injuries! Some nationwide road statistics of weekend nighttime road users, out of these involved in accidents, 8.6 % had a positive test for marijuana or its related metabolites, representing a near four percent of drivers with high blood alcohol levels. Elsewhere, study carried out of critically wounded drivers admitted to level-1 shock disturbance care centers, 26.9% or more than a quarter were found positive for marijuana use. In Washington State, a study of gravely wounded drivers showed that 12.7% turned positive for a marijuana test (MacCoun & Reuter, 2001). These surveys and studies demonstrate a high prevalence of driving under influence of drugs especially marijuana.
Whilst Marijuana may not be having high addiction levels like those experienced by users of crack-cocaine, intense use of marijuana can result to dependence, which is characteristic of other drugs. For regular users of pot, about half turn out to be dependent of the drug for some period in their usage life. In the US, one out ten people who have used Marijuana became dependent at one point in their life (David, 2006). He adds that medics in Netherlands and the UK who have treated patients with relaxed Marijuana laws are increasingly seeing withdraw symptoms among those who were heavy users of Marijuana just as is the case with those abusing heroin and cocaine and this has been authenticated in the labs with monkeys (Rudolph & Gerber, 2006).
Reasons not to legalize marijuana
Ø Health: Marijuana has negative health effects on one’s memory, the respiratory organs, heart bit rate, memory, mood, psychosis, anxiety, and problem solving. The use of marijuana is more potent currently than it was more than 20yrs ago. In the US, about 4.5 million citizens have been found to meet the clinical criteria for marijuana dependence or misuse. A bout 9% of these people have became addicts and research has shown that, marijuana users are more likely to use other drugs.
Ø Science: statistics available from scientific researches that have been done so far do not support claims that marijuana is medicinal. The FDA that is mandated to approve all medicinal prescriptions in the US has not so far approved the usage of marijuana as being medicinal. Other bodies that handle health matters that have come out with similar stands as regards marijuana use (Rudolph & Gerber, 2006) have supported this.
Ø Safety of the public: the use of marijuana results to impairment, which can be dangerous to the public in a form of road crashes, child negligence and injuries at places of work. Who could want their auto mechanic, doctor, teacher, attorney, and babysitter to smoke marijuana before attending to them?
Ø Environment: if marijuana is legalized, it will result in increased outdoor cultivation sites. These grown areas will lead to the devastation of the natural territory from diesel spills, trash and pesticides runoff.
Ø Youth: this is the most important thought that everyone should have in his or her minds. If marijuana was to be made easily available and acceptable at the same time, statistics shows that the use of marijuana and associated problems will escalate among the teens. This in the long term will harm the development of the youth; moreover, it will retard their learning ability and educational progress.
Ø Cost: the cost of making marijuana a legal drug would exceed taxes collected from its sales; hence, this will not make economic sense (MacCoun & Reuter, 2001). If estimates based on alcohol sells is anything to go by, that is for every $1 in taxes from alcohol, the federal government spends $ 10 on social budgets ; in a form increased emergency room visits, increased drug treatment, traffic crashes, crime, healthcare and school drop-outs.
Marijuana and crime
Marijuana accounts for the majority of drug traffic from the neighboring country of Mexico. If the illegal trafficking of drugs is cut, it will lead to a significant drop in the occurrence of violence related crimes (Caulkins & Sevigny, 2009). Heroin and cocaine plays a major role in crime related violence. For instances, Mexico has became a major entry point of cocaine into the United States, this according to Caulkins is what is fanning violence, so making marijuana legal is not likely to make Mexico’s drug war quiet. Neither is we going to see American prisons free of inmates who happen to be caught with a few joint behind bars. According to statistics, there are upward of 500,000 arrests that are linked to Marijuana every year, but that also encompasses repeat arrests and majority of those caught do not go behind bars (Caulkins & Sevigny, 2009).
Conclusion
Upcoming drug policies have to be smarter and more effectual in cutting the demand for unlawful drugs not forgetting marijuana. Smart-drug hindrance policies ought to be put in place to ensure a continued reduction in illegal drug use among the about 5 million or so criminal offenders who are already on probation and parole in the United states; a group of people who are among the country’s heaviest and most disturbing illegal drug dealers and users. Also monitoring programs that are aimed at rapid, severe and certain reduction of drug use should be enforced to ensure outstanding results in lowering recidivism and more reduced rates of incarceration (Caulkins & Sevigny, 2009). Not to be forgotten too are new laws and policies to curtail driving under influence of drugs to make the highways and roads safe and so proved a new path to treatment and reduce illegal drug use.
Moreover from the above discussion, it is clear that reducing Marijuana use is paramount in improving the nation’s welfare in terms of the health of the population, education and its productivity (MacCoun & Reuter, 2001). Therefore, new and stringent policies should be put in place to help improve the performance of the prevention strategies in place that are intended to protect millions of people from the effects of marijuana use. Since legalization of marijuana for general or medical use is likely to increase marijuana accessibility, hence escalate its addiction rates among the adult users and teens, legalizing it will not be a smart move for the public or safety of the public for any nation in the world at large
References
Caulkins, J.P., & Sevigny, E.L. (2009). How many people does the U.S. imprison for drug use, and who are they? Contemporary Drug Problems, 32(3): 405-428.
David M. Fergusson, Joseph M. Boden, and L. John Horwood "Cannabis Use and Other Illicit Drug Use: Testing the Cannabis Gateway Hypothesis," Addiction, April 2006.
MacCoun, R.J., & Reuter, P. (2001). Drug war heresies: Learning from other vices, times, and places. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Westport, CT: Praeger, Legalizing Marijuana: Drug Policy Reform and Prohibition Politics. 2008.