Decriminalization

Marijuana can have negative health effects when abused but more damage is done to our society by keeping marijuana illegal. More people are thrown in jail each year for possession of marijuana even though marijuana has proven no threat to society; therefore, it should be legal to buy or sell marijuana for recreational use.

Hollywood stars are regularly accused of all types of drug use. Some movies such as Comedy Central's Half Baked or the more classic Up In Smoke even base their plots around drugs for humorous antics. Some of these drugs can be highly addictive such as heroin and cocaine, leading to the hopeless addiction of its users. Others are considerably less harmful, less addictive than cigarettes, and do not invoke violent temperaments from its users like alcohol. Marijuana, the tried leaves of the Cannabis plant, is also known as Cannabis Sativa or Cannabis Indica, and I believe that marijuana has been wrongly categorized as a harmful and lethal drug throughout recent history.

One night in El Paso, a group of Texans were attacked by a Mexican who had allegedly gone crazy on the killer weed. The city of El Paso moved swiftly and passed a ban on the possession of marijuana in The El Paso Ordinance of 1914 (New Mexico Laws, 1923) . This first law that started it all was intended to be a way for the city to control marijuana; however the law was instead used to control the Mexicans. Many Americans had never heard of marijuana. Most of the Americans were concerned about the rising addictions to opium, heroin, cocaine, and morphine. Though marijuana is much less destructive or addictive than those drugs, it was falsely given the same classifications and criminalized as though it were equally as dangerous.

Harry Anslinger of the Department of the Treasury was given full control over the drug crisis in America. Another mistake in the delegation of tasks, as Harry Anslinger is with the department of the Treasury which is not in the proper branch of the government for fighting and preventing crimes. Anslinger's plan to eliminate marijuana was to get each of the states to sign a joint agreement to commit joint resources in the fight against drugs. Most of the states viewed this as federal interference with their affairs, and only nine states signed the initial agreement. After this failure, Anslinger decided to attempt a different approach. If he could not get the states to sign directly, he would sway the opinion of the public by using the Media's propaganda to make citizens believe that this little known plant was the biggest threat America had ever faced. This dishonest scare tactic paid of well through radio announcements and television. Anslinger's announcements said that marijuana would cause mental deterioration, insanity, and would be the cause for violent crimes and murders. Their techniques were highly effective, portraying normal teenagers who use the drug and would then jump out of windows, become intensely sexually driven, or perform other equally irrational and unproven claims. This campaign was picked up immediately by the press and broadcast throughout America generating fear through false accusations to the American public. The agreement was revised and re-titled, and the Uniform Narcotic Act (Schaeffer, 2006) was successfully accepted by all of the states.

Marijuana was continually misrepresented through the media's propaganda. Taking Anslinger's advice, President Truman signed the Boggs Act of 1951(Boggs Act, 1951), which put harsher penalties along with mandatory minimum sentences into effect for those convicted. The government had realized that people were still using the drug regardless of the claims and having no personal ill-effects. Using the newly turned communist Red China as a blame for marijuana and heroin within the United States, Anslinger pushed for more control and in 1956, and again based on fear and lack of knowledge, the Narcotic Control Act was signed by President Eisenhower. The Narcotic Control Act put marijuana in the same category as Heroin and gave it the same penalties. Now a conviction had a minimum sentence term of 2-10 years, and in Missouri, a second conviction could get you life in prison.

In the United Nations building of New York City circa in 1961, Anslinger used Americas influence to consolidate over 100 countries different drug policies into one worldwide agreement, making marijuana illegal worldwide. America at the time was a rising superpower and all countries felt as though they must agree with us. This consolidated law was Anslinger's greatest achievement. He was recognized by President John F. Kennedy upon his retirement in 1963 for the department he built up under the campaigns of five presidents.

Since the 1970s, more than a dozen government-appointed commissions have examined the effects of marijuana, and made public policy recommendations regarding its use.

President Richard Nixon ordered what he called Ð''the largest peacetime search and seizure operation' in his campaign against drugs. In it, two thousand customs agents were placed along the Mexican boarder to stop the heavy flow of drugs from coming into the United States. This was a ridiculous attempt and an expensive way to try to intercept drugs. Practically no marijuana was intercepted, and after three weeks, Ð''Operation Intercept' was abandoned. Nixon now with his hands empty poured even more money into the equipping and training of the police forces throughout America.

Don Cole was accused of selling marijuana to an undercover agent and stood trial. He was 25 years old at the time, and it was his first offense. Cole just returned from Vietnam, where he earned a purple heart. The supposed amount sold was less than one ounce. He was found guilty and sentenced to fifty years in prison.

As more and more middle class Americans began asking themselves Ð''why is my child in jail?' more and more people began to realize that marijuana was not the problem, it is marijuana laws. The support for reform of marijuana laws began to come from everywhere, and even federal officials began to realize that harsher punishments were not working. Sensing the public's mood, congress passed The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 to remove mandatory sentences and reduced penalties. Nixon maintained that until more is known about marijuana, the laws should not change.

Laws were originally created to control marijuana but were initially used to control the Mexican immigrants along the boarders of El Paso. Based on fear of a drug that the public did not understand, laws were made even more restrictive and penalties increased. This tactic is used improperly because increasing the penalties did not reduce the amount of users throughout the country. Instead,