An essay I wrote for school. Questions, comments, criticism, ridicule, whatever just give me feedback. The Legalization of Marijuana Marijuana prohibition by the United States government should stop immediately. The prohibition of marijuana costs taxpayers billions of dollars annually, unnecessarily jails people who have not committed violent crimes, and is extremely ineffective. Marijuana prohibition denies United States citizens the right to make their own choices regarding their health and it prevents suffering patients from being given medication. Prohibition also eliminates a highly useful crop, hemp, from the United States’ economy. Marijuana is the common name for a psychoactive drug made from the dried flowers, leaves, and stems of the cannabis plant. There are three species of this plant, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderilis. Sativa and indica are the two main species used for their intoxicant effects. Strains of Cannabis sativa are also bred for industrial hemp, which does not have psychoactive properties. The active substance in marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly called THC. Cannabis plants also contain many unique chemicals known as cannabinoids, including CBD, which actually blocks the psychoactive effects of THC. Marijuana is smoked or eaten to produce a high. The effects of cannabis intoxication include euphoria, a sense of tranquility, giddiness, a stimulated appetite, sedation, mild closed-eye visuals, and altered perceptions of time. It can also produce increased or distorted sensory perceptions and racing or unusual thoughts. Negative effects of cannabis intoxication can include short-term memory loss, paranoia; panic, increased heart rate, loss of motor coordination and confusion. Drivers should not operate a car high on cannabis. Most of the negative effects of cannabis smoking confusion, and paranoia can be prevented by ensuring a positive set (state of mind) and setting. Cannabis is one of the oldest, most widely used psychoactives in use on the planet. Its use has been dated back to 3,000 B.C. in China, India, and other Asian countries. Its use in America traces back to 1611 when cannabis was grown near Jamestown for hemp production. Hemp played a major role in Colonial America’s economy. Many of its early advocates included political figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. It was not until the 1920’s that cannabis became known for its intoxicant effects in the United States. During this time recreational marijuana use was primarily associated with Hispanic immigrants and African-American jazz musicians. Marijuana began gaining attention and widespread, ridiculous propaganda was circulated in tabloids. Marijuana users were said to be capable of “great feats of strength and endurance during which no fatigue is felt” and there were exaggerated reports of violent crime associated with marijuana smokers. We now know that cannabis has quite the opposite effect in its users, producing fatigue and pacifism. The health-related effects of marijuana smoking were also grossly exaggerated in the media cannabis was said to “end in the destruction of brain tissues and nerve centers and does irreparable damage. If continued, the inevitable result is insanity which those familiar with it describe as incurable and with out exception ending in death.” In light of current knowledge about cannabis these claims seem silly. There is no evidence that marijuana causes brain damage or any long-lasting impact on the brain’s functions and there is not one documented case of death caused by cannabis alone. However, racism combined with “Reefer Madness” propaganda set the stage for the prohibition of marijuana in the United States. Twenty-seven states prohibited marijuana before Henry Ansliger, the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics at the time, proposed the Marijuana Tax Act. Ansliger and other prohibitionists’ sole voice of opposition The American Medical Association (AMA) voiced concerns about a lack of reliable data to support prohibition and the potential of prohibition to deny patients a common and crucial medication at that time. Instead of considering other sides of the debate, the AMA was told that they ought to “come here with some constructive proposals rather than trying to throw obstacles in the way of something the federal government is trying to do”. The House was falsely informed that the AMA approved of marijuana prohibition. They debated for ninety seconds and approved the Marijuana Tax Act with out a recorded vote. The Senate approved the bill in a similarly hasty fashion. President Roosevelt signed the act into law August 2, 1937. The government’s attempt to the public from “the Devil’s weed” through prohibition is unfair and unnecessary. Marijuana prohibition denies American adults the right to make responsible personal choices regarding health and which substances they wish to consume with out government interference in their private lives. Marijuana smokers go to jail for committing actions that do not harm others or their property. “Victimless crimes” are no crimes at all. Marijuana poses relatively small threats to users’ health. According to the Lancet, a British medical journal, November 4, 1998 issue: “The smoking of cannabis, even long-term, is not harmful to health. It could be reasonable to judge cannabis as less harmful than alcohol or tobacco.” The health risks associated with marijuana use are lung problems, mild effects on the heart, and psychological impact. All of these aspects have been greatly exaggerated, and their harms can all but be eliminated through responsible consumption. It is clamed that marijuana smoke is up to five times as harmful to the lungs as tobacco smoke. However this is misleading. Marijuana smoke does contain more carcinogens than tobacco smoke, but cannabis plants do not contain the radioactive substances found in chemicals used to treat tobacco crops. These radioactive substances are one of the main contributors to tobacco-related lung cancer. In addition, the bud of the cannabis plant, which is preferred for smoking, contains thirty-three percent of the tar that tobacco contains. The expectorant effects of THC may actually reverse the effects of smoking. Medium to heavy tobacco smokers will, on average, live seven to ten years longer if they also smoke cannabis. There is some evidence that marijuana may help asthma sufferers because its expectorant properties may clear the lungs of smog, pollutants, and cigarette smoke. No case of lung cancer has ever been successfully linked to cannabis alone. Cannabis smokers do not smoke nearly the amount that tobacco smokers do. Therefore they take in fewer harmful substances. Cannabis smokers generally quit sooner in life than tobacco smokers. Most cannabis users quit before age 30 and there are very few daily smokers over 40. In fact only five to ten percent of all people who try marijuana become daily smokers unlike highly addictive cigarettes. Other negative effects of cannabis include increased heart rate, but this rarely affects healthy individuals long-term. There is no evidence that cannabis leads to the development of any heart ailments or increases mortality rates. In rare cases, individuals who are already at risk for developing a mental disorder may have psychosis induced by cannabis. This is extremely rare and evidence for it is shaky; cannabis does not induce psychosis in individuals who are mentally healthy. Paranoia and panic can be reduced if not eliminated by providing a comfortable set and setting. Driving under the influence of any psychoactive substance is very dangerous. However, there is evidence that drivers under the influence of cannabis are safer than those who are drunk. Drunk driving is widely known as a huge safety issue on our roads, because drivers have a lack of motor coordination and are more likely to take dangerous risks. Cannabis users are, studies suggest, more aware of their inebriation and compensate by driving slowly, making drivers intoxicated by cannabis less dangerous than drunk drivers. Another important difference between marijuana and legal drugs like alcohol, cigarettes, and prescriptions is that there has never been a death from marijuana alone. Even the Drug Enforcement Administration’s administrative-law judge Francis Young has said: “in its [marijuana’s] natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.” On the contrary there are fifty thousand annual deaths from alcohol poisoning and over four hundred thousand deaths associated with cigarette smoking. All of marijuana’s negative effects on health are comparable, if not less harmful than many legal substances and can be reduced by moderation and responsible use. Enforcement of the ban on marijuana use is expensive, unneeded, and causes more damage than it prevents. According to Jimmy Carter, in 1977, “Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private, for personal use.” The annual arrest rate for cannabis charges is approximately 734,000, a figure which exceeds all violent charges combined. Six and half million Americans have been arrested for marijuana related charges. Eighty-eight of these were for possession only. Sixty thousand people are currently in jail for marijuana charges, tearing up the families, careers, and lives of peaceful otherwise law-abiding citizens. Penalties for possession of cannabis are far too harsh. Possessing one gram of marijuana is punishable by up to one year in jail and a ten thousand dollar fine, the same charges as small amounts of crack cocaine and heroin. Cultivating marijuana carries a minimum five-year sentence, which is longer than the average sentences for auto theft and manslaughter. In some states offenders may be sentenced to life for marijuana charges alone. Even defendants who do not receive the ludicrous maximum charges may lose benefits including student aid, welfare, food stamps, public housing, and driving privileges (even if the offense is not a DUI). These oppressive laws are also very expensive to enforce. The government spends seven and a half billion to ten billion dollars annually on arresting a prosecuting marijuana offenders. In addition to the monetary costs of prohibitions, the strains on law enforcement agencies and prisons are a significant consequence to harsh cannabis penalties. Jail crowding is a widespread problem across the nation, partially due to the huge numbers of inmates serving time for victimless “crimes”. Prohibition is also very ineffective: “There is no evidence that marijuana criminalization effects either the choice or frequency of use of drugs either legal (alcohol) or illegal (marijuana)”. Seventy million Americans admit to having tried marijuana at some time during their lives. This includes half of all Americans aged eighteen to thirty-five and a quarter of those over thirty-five. Rates of cannabis use are actually lower in the Netherlands, a nation in which recreational cannabis is tolerated, than they are in the United States. The rate of use by twelfth graders in the Netherlands is nine percent lower than in the United States and the rate of use by eighth graders is six and a half percent lower. In countries where cannabis has been legalized, cannabis sales are separated from the hard drug market leading to lower instances of the “gateway” effect. Only three tenths of a percent of all teens in the Netherlands have used cocaine, while one and seven tenths of a percent of American teenagers have used cocaine. The “gateway theory” is one example of a distorted claim used to support prohibition. Marijuana supposedly leads to the use of harder drugs, when in reality the very fact that marijuana is illegal is causing this effect by mixing the markets for cannabis and more dangerous substances. If cannabis became legal its use could be regulated and it could be sold only to adults. Drug dealers do not check ID, but the clerk at 7-11 does. This is supported by the fact that more high school seniors smoke marijuana, which is unregulated than smoke cigarettes, which are sold to adults only. Sale to minors is not the only negative impact of a black market for cannabis. Violence, gangs, and crime associated with drug dealing could be drastically reduced if cannabis was regulated and sold by businesses. Along with regulation of the business aspect, legalization would allow the actual product to be regulated, eliminating the danger of marijuana being “laced” with another substance, or being contaminated with bacteria or fungi. Laws controlling the sale of paraphernalia restrict marijuana smokers from buying safer methods of consumption, such as water pipes and vaporizers. Marijuana has been used as a medicine since ancient times and still has a wide variety of uses in modern medicine. Pain relief, treatment of nausea, spasms, movement disorders, relief from appetite loss associated with AIDS wasting and chemotherapy, and treatment of glaucoma are some of the uses for medical marijuana. Cannabis’s classification as a Schedule I drug means that legally marijuana has no accepted medical use even though forty-four percent of oncologists had previously advised marijuana to their patients despite its legal status. Over sixty United States and international health organizations support legalization of medical marijuana with a physician’s supervision. Other groups, such as the American Cancer Society and the American Medical Association support large-scale studies to investigate cannabis’s medical benefits further. Another non-recreational use of cannabis that is suppressed by anti-marijuana laws is industrial hemp production. Hemp is a variety of Cannabis sativa containing less than one percent of THC. The THC levels are so low that the plant cannot be used as an intoxicant, only for its fiber and seeds. Hemp fiber is used to produce textiles, paper, clothing and insulation in addition to decorative uses like jewelry. Hemp seed oil is used to make paints, cosmetics, and food products. Hemp seeds are high in nutritional content; they are an excellent source of protein, fatty acids, and dietary fiber. The United States imports over nine million pounds of hemp products that could be produced domestically, benefiting the economy. Hemp is harvested for commercial use in over thirty countries including Canada, Japan, and many nations in the European Union. A study done by the University of Kentucky showed that a hemp crop could yield up to six hundred dollars per acre, which would make hemp second only to tobacco in profit. The study also suggested that the hemp industry has the potential to employ almost eight hundred workers and produce seventeen million in worker earnings. Marijuana should be legalized in the United States. Citizens of a free nation have the right to make their own choices regarding marijuana use. The government’s attempt at eradicating marijuana use has been proven to be expensive, ineffective, and cause more harm to the citizens it is supposedly protecting. It also restricts practical uses of the cannabis plant as medicine to suffering patients, and a valuable cash crop.
I'm sure it's good, but too long for me to want to read. I glanced through. Ok info. Nothing really special. I know in essays you're supposed to have a format, but you also need some style. Nothing about it jumps out at me and makes me think. Also, your conclusion is a little lame, but when I write I find that my conclusions really suck. what I do is write a few introductions and pick one to be the introduction and my favorite to be the conclusion. I like to go out with a bang rather than start off great and go down. I'm not trying to be a bitch, but giving some honest criticism.
You're right, the conclusion is pretty lacklustre. That's a good idea about using an intro. Thanks for the criticism. Also, not to make an excuse for my crappy writing, but I was trying to keep it a little toned down, since I have to turn this into a teacher who I wouldn't like to know I'm a pothead. Should have picked a different topic I suppose.
i only read a few parts, but i think it's good. i was about to write an essay about legalization of maryjane, but my mom found out and won't let me do it. but i am anyway, even if i don't turn it in for a grade at school. mom says the government just hasn't quite figured out how to tax maryjane, but when they do, they'll legalize it. i agree, it does cost us tons of money for this "war on drugs", if they would just legaliz mj, wouldn't the government make money off it? peace & love.
The only problem I see with the conclusion is that the last sentence, rather than making a general conclusion about the whole paper, speaks about a specific issue related to the subject. The last sentence of any body of words in any formal writing should sum that body, and the last sentence of your conclusion should be like a conclusion for your conclusion. I don't think it's a bad paper at all. Yeah, I suppose nothing "jumps out" or is really creative, but creativity isn't the point in an expository paper.
pretty good essay overall. you do make some good points about legalization. being a dedicated pothead i'm all for it. i don't understand why it is the govt' feels the need to make such a big deal about cheeba when it is quite allright to push speed down the throats of our youngsters. personally i think if it's ok to send a 7 year old off to school after taking ritalin or such (the equivalent of doing a line of coke), why can't you high school kids toke on your lunch hour? i know when i did i came back to school with alot more focus and was ready to just sit & chill through class.
