Thursday, February 14, 2013
The Legalization of Marijuana
The issue that I chose to talk about for my original blog editorial is the legalization of marijuana which has come about in many states over the past few years and when or if it may be coming soon for Texas. While it may seem cliche to write about this topic, it is one that I hold dear to my heart being that I am an avid supporter for the legalization of marijuana in all states, particularly Texas. I have never understood why alcohol is legal and marijuana is not, considering the ratio of alcohol related deaths to marijuana related is not even close. The Centers for Disease Control and prevention states that "every day, almost 30 people die in the United States in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. This amounts to one death every 48 minutes. The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $51 billion." (www.CDC.gov). You cannot even find a category for marijuana deaths on the CDC website because they pretty much do not exist. Many states including Washington, Delaware, Colorado and Hawaii have all passed legislation that includes the legalization of marijuana in their state. It can be for caregiver purposes, medical purposes and in some cases for recreational use. This shows that state governments as well as the federal government are recognizing the good uses that marijuana carries and are accepting the fact that pretty much everyone smokes or has at one point smoked marijuana (including a few of very own presidents). Now as far as Texas is concerned, there is a fair mix of people who support and those who do not support its passage. In June of last year, The Democratic Party founds itself in support of the decriminalization of marijuana in Texas. This could be tricky seeing as how Texas remains a Republican dominant state with a Republican governor (Rick Perry). An article on The Huffington Post on the issue said that "Texas Democrats came together at their state convention earlier this month and agreed to adopt a plank to their party platform calling for the decriminalization of marijuana." While some states want to pass it for multiple purposes, the Texas Democratic Party wants to legalize it for medical purposes and soften or completely take away jail time and punishments for citizens who have been arrested for possession of marijuana. This would make more room in jail for killers and rapists. Not for people such as myself who are hard working, tax paying citizens who like to smoke a little pot once in awhile. I know that there is concern about marijuana being a gateway drug, but there is no proof of that. Yes we know smoking is bad for our health, but hey, you can eat cannabis:). There is also concern of drug trafficking becoming a problem if we legalize cannabis, but I do not think this is the case. That, in my opinion, goes back to stricter border control and the federal and state governments regulating border security. If drug traffickers want to smuggle drugs into the U.S. and in Texas, they are going to attempt it whether pot is legalized or not. It may even help because citizens would not be needing to find sources outside of the U.S. We could regulate it within our own states, as many have been doing for years. This is an issue that has been on going in the United States for a very long time. We, as Texans, need to all support the bill HB-184 that didn't pass in 2012, but will be presented for vote again in 2013. There is so much we can do with hemp such as make paper, clothes, help the earth and cannabis has proven medical benefits. If alcohol is legal there is absolutely no reason that marijuana should not be. Its all about being a responsible user and not taking advantage of the freedoms that the government has or may grant us.
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Legalization of cannabis (marijuana) is a very controversial subject. In the blog titled, The Legalization of Marijuana, the writer, Jessica, is pro-legalization for medical and recreational use in the State of Texas.
ReplyDeleteI think there are medical benefits to using cannabis, such as nausea and glaucoma. However the FDA states "marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and has a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision". I found a Wikipedia article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_cannabis, which gives very detailed information about its medical uses, the benefits derived, and the history of use.
In the blog Jessica states, “…federal government are recognizing the good uses that marijuana carries…” According to the research I did, this is not the stance of the federal government, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_cannabis_in_the_United_States. Any use of marijuana remains illegal, per the Controlled Substances Act and is classified as a Schedule I drug (the strictest classification, same as heroin, LSD and ecstasy). In contrast to this position, there are new federal guidelines which have been enacted about pursuing the prosecution of medical users. According to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, "It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal."
I think there are many other criminals that are much worse than someone dealing marijuana and believe the law should provide for a less strict punishment so the jail systems have more room for hard criminals, such as murderers. I also think the legalization of marijuana could be a beneficial tax revenue stream for the government.
Regardless of a person’s personal view the rules are changing when it come to the legalization of marijuana.
The legalization of marijuana is a very loaded issue. Many people feel very strongly about the topic. As a “red” state, Texas has not yet seen the passage of legislation to decriminalize of possession or to allow for medical marijuana laws that many Democrats in the state have rallied behind. I think a very good point often brought up is that although alcohol is legal, it is much more of a reactive substance than marijuana, and, as mentioned in the post, is responsible for a much higher cause of accident, injury, and death. At the very minimum, I believe that marijuana should be taken out of the same class of drugs as some of the “harder” drugs, including cocaine and heroine. Marijuana has a number of health benefits in terms of medicinal use, and to restrict the potential relief that people could gain seems counter intuitive, especially when other (legal) drugs on the market are much more potent, addictive, and costly. The number of people overdosing on painkillers and anti depressants is staggering; as far as I know, it is not possible to overdose on marijuana. While drug trafficking is a concern that must be taken into consideration, especially in Texas, I think this will always be an issue. That said, I don’t really know if the legalization of marijuana will actually increase the incidence of drug trafficking. In fact, because it would be legal, it would seem that the need to acquire drugs from under ground sources would be eliminated. As this post so nicely summed it up: “ It’s all about being a responsible user, and not taking advantage of the freedoms that the government has or may grant us.” I believe this is true for any of the freedoms that we have been given through our government.
ReplyDeleteSources:
http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/schedules/index.html#list
http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/prescription/abuse-international-statistics.html