The Legalization Of Marijuana

The Legalization of Marijuana

Marijuana is an issue that has been debated for many years. As each year passes more ordinary people, elected officials, newspaper columnists, economists, doctors, judges and even the Surgeon General of the United States are concluding that the effects of our drug control policy are at least as harmful as the effects of drugs themselves (Bennett). By removing the illegal drug label from marijuana some of these harmful effects would go with it. Marijuana is a drug that comes from dried and crumpled parts of the ubiquitous hemp plant Cannabis sativa (or Cannabis indica). It is smoked by rolling it in tobacco paper or placing into a pipe. It is also otherwise consumed worldwide by an estimated 200,000,000 persons for pleasure, an escape from reality, or relaxation. By this definition it does not appear that marijuana is that much different from the legal drug, tobacco. Marijuana should be legalized due to the reasons that it's prohibition infringes on our liberty, costs the government and taxpayers billions of dollars, and there is great potential for the medical benefit that could be achieved from its legalization. The government does not have the right to restrict the public from exercising their right to freedom. Also, the government is wasting billions of dollars in the prosecution against possession of marijuana when there are clearly more important issues to which the money could be used for. Finally, Marijuana should be legalized because it can be used as a treatment to some illnesses and its potential health risks are unclear.

People deserve the right to exercise their own freedom of choice when considering using marijuana. From a philosophical point of view, individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves. According to the philosopher Herbert Spencer, what equal freedom means is that: (a) people will have the responsibility for their own lives, rather than surrendering this responsibility to others (or pretending that they have given up responsibility, which is every bit as destructive), (b) since that will be true, fewer mistakes will be made, as people will be able to see directly the consequences of their mistakes, and be able to quickly correct them (Marijuana: The Facts). So, according to Spencer the government is damaging the human race in the long run by not allowing individuals the freedom to make their own choices and thus destroying the chance for them to develop a sense of responsibility. He would say that individuals couldn't fully develop when shielded by the artificial agency of government from the consequences of one's own actions (Marijuana: The Facts). Freedom, in this sense, will allow individuals to improve themselves. By giving individuals the freedom to make their own choices they will receive the necessary practice in order to develop self-sufficiency and self-control so that one's desires, when acted upon, will not involve the destruction of the equal freedom of another (Marijuana: The Facts). The ethics of any society that criminalizes and seeks to punish 5% of its population over a simple plant must be called into question (Mcvay).

The government only has a right to limit those choices that endanger others. This does not apply to marijuana, since those who choose to use marijuana do so under their own free will and without harm to anyone else. It is even unclear if it harms the individual using it. The government also may have a right to limit individual actions if the actions pose a significant threat to the individual (him/herself). But this argument does not logically apply to marijuana because marijuana is far less dangerous than some other drugs, which are legal, such as alcohol and tobacco (norml.org). The following are statistics on Alcohol vs. Marijuana:

1. Over 100 thousand deaths annually are directly linked to acute alcohol poisoning.

2. In 4,000 years of recorded history, no one has ever died from a pot overdose.

3. Alcohol causes physical and psychology dependence.

4. Alcohol is reported to cause temporary and permanent damage to all major organs of the body.

5. Cannabis is a much less violent provoking substance than alcohol (Armentano).

Americans have referred to privacy as one of the basic human rights. According to U.S. traditions, there is a strong case to be made against the legislation of the private behavior of adults, so long as that behavior does not in turn violate the rights of others. Some people feel that this reasoning should hold also for marijuana. A person who smokes at home is not causing injury to others and the injury that happens to the individuals is not clear. It does not seem that smoking marijuana is any worse for a person's health than smoking cigarettes are. The marijuana user is indulging in a minor pleasure over which the government should have no jurisdiction (Legalization of Marijuana). Again, Spencer's philosophy tells us that freedom means that people will have responsibility over their own lives and only through our ability to choose will individuals fully develop and allow society as a whole to progress. Furthermore, the government's restriction on our freedom's regarding marijuana don't make sense because no injury is being inflicted on others, and the personal injury being undergone in unclear.

Moving on to the next issue, the government is wasting our time and money by locking up citizens who use marijuana, by concentrating its efforts on a relatively minor crime, and by spending billions of dollars on the persecution, prosecution, and incarceration of individuals breaking marijuana related laws. In 1998, the federal government spent $16 billion on the "drug war." Approximately 53%, or $8.4 billion dollars, were spent on enforcement, court, and prison expenses, while the rest was used for treatment and education. In 1991, the most recent year for which data are available, state and local governments spent a total of nearly $16 billion, of which about 80%, or $12.5 billion, was used for enforcement, court, and prison costs. The total annual criminal justice system expenditure for federal, state, and local governments is $20.9 billion ($8.4 billion + $12.5 billion). Marijuana, as usual, is lumped in with all illegal drugs; so, specific drugs do not break down this total annual expenditure of nearly $21 billion. Since, marijuana crimes account for 44% of all drug arrests, it is estimated that the war on marijuana consumers costs taxpayers $9 billion annually (mpp.org). This means that, taxpayers are forced to pay billions of dollars to persecute, prosecute, and incarcerate individuals while the government continues to ignore more important