PEOPLE YOUR AMERICAN GOVERNMENT IS CALLING YOU DANGERS TO THE ENVIROMENT, ILLEGAL DRUG ABUSERS, CRIMINALS, AND NON COMPASSIONATE TOWARDS THE ILL
THEY ARE ALSO CLAMING THAT
Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Ignores the Facts
August 12th, 2008 A few weeks ago, Congressman Barney Frank and Ron Paul introduced
H.R. 5843, an ill-considered piece of legislation aimed at legalizing marijuana, a topic more often heard in college dorms at 2 oclock in the morning than in the hallowed halls of our Congress. Indeed, at a press conference announcing the effort to legalize pot, Congressman Frank cracked jokes about how this law could create a marijuana futures market and acknowledged that the chance of the bill passing were not high.
Fortunately for the millions of parents and public health and safety officials across the country who are working hard every day to keep drugs away from young people, this law will not pass. With so many important pieces of legislation waiting before Congress, its unfortunate that some have focused their attention on such a frivolous law.
Whats really disappointing, however, is that there are still some who cling to outdated 70s-era perceptions that marijuana is just about fun and partying and self-expression. It isnt. Marijuana is actually about dependency, disease, and dysfunction. And as decades of research and data reveal, marijuana is now a much bigger part of our Nations drug problem than most people realize.
So why should marijuana remain illegal? Because the harms that would come from making this drug more widely available vastly outweigh whatever benefits its enthusiasts claim for it. Marijuana is a Schedule I Controlled Substance under a federal law that evaluates the balance of risks and benefits of drugs with input from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The reason why marijuana is illegal is to protect public health and public safety. Simply put, marijuana is a substance that intoxicates those who use it, injuring their health and the well-being of those around them. Consider some of the evidence:
- While marijuana is the most used illegal drug, with an estimated 15 million users on a monthly basis, researchers agree that if legal disincentives were not in place, the number of users would soar, leading to far greater negative social impact on everything from school performance and roadway and workplace accidents, to the prevalence of serious mental illness and rising emergency room episodes. Not only that, but marijuana use is now currently the leading cause of treatment need for those abusing or dependent on illegal drugs and for young people, has surpassed alcohol in addictive risk and impact on dependency requiring treatment.
- Marijuana potency has grown steeply over the past decade. According to the latest data on marijuana samples analyzed to date, the average amount of THC in seized samples of the drug has now reached a new high of 9.6 percent. This compares to an average of just under 4 percent reported in 1983 and represents more than a doubling in the potency of the drug since that time. This has serious implications in particular for young people, who are being placed at not only increased risk for schizophrenia, depression, cognitive deficits and respiratory problems, but are further at significantly higher risk for developing dependency on other drugs, such as cocaine and heroin than are non-smokers.
- Buying and using illegal drugs is also not a victimless crime. The money that so-called recreational users spend on pot has negative consequences that can touch the lives of people around the world. When Americans spend money on illegal drugs, they are providing financial support to groups that use violence and terror as a way of doing business. Drug-fueled violence in Mexico over the last two years has cost at least four thousand lives by most estimates, financed by recreational users with disposable income in this country. According to estimates, illicit-drug purchases in the United States contribute more than $13.8 billion to Mexican traffickers. The majority of that income comes from marijuana sales, which accounts for 61 percent of that income, or $8.5 billion, eclipsing the potential revenue from cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine combined. Estimated revenue for cocaine is $3.9 billion, methamphetamine $1 billion, and heroin less than $400 million.
Some pro-drug interest groups have argued that keeping marijuana illegal itself does damage, since people run the risk of arrest if they break the law. But in fact, marijuana offenders represent only a very tiny fraction of state prison inmates in the United States.
A recent review of those actually convicted and sentenced for marijuana offenses shows that they are overwhelmingly drug traffickers or multiple, often violent, offenders, and not those arrested for simple possession or use. Heres a chart that shows a breakdown:
Finally, any elected official who is concerned about crime in their community should consider the long-established link between marijuana use and committing crimes. According to data from the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring system, the great majority of men arrested for any violation in America have drugs in their system at the time of arrest, with marijuana being the most often detected. The rate testing positive for marijuana ranges from a third to more than a half of all male arrestees at the time of arrest.
Were optimistic that members of Congress will continue to see through the haze. The reason that marijuana is, and should remain, illegal is that the drug itself is harmful to our citizens and to our communities. That is the
assessment of the medical and the law enforcement community. Increasingly, that is the assessment of a growing number of young people, as well, since
marijuana use has plummeted by 25 percent over the past six years.
SIR I CALL YOUR BULLSHIT
you cant say its bad because its a schedule one narcotic... when its shouldnt be a schedule one narcotic in the first place
it shouldnt be a narcotic in the first place
yah those people in the seventies were just idealists and they didnt have as strong pot back then so it dosnt even matter we have no clue what were talking about today cuz pot potency has risen a couple percentiles?
no the pot was the same strength there was just lots of sticks and stems and leaves in the sample unlike today... (we all know that more potent marijuana is just a myth right... not a fact?)
but here it is being used as a fact that thats the reason that kids that smoke marijuana are so fucked up, it has nothing to due with the fact that most troublesome kids come from broken homes or bad enviroments and thats whats fucked them up... and they use marijuana to fucking COPE cuz you assholes up on capital hill you fucking trust fund babies that know nothing about a hard life except which new fucking house and car should i buy and what tropical island should i vacation on... and hear that this plant is bad and could cost the richest people in america and the drug companies billions of dollars if legalized so you do all you can to stop it... no sir fuck you.
pot has been around much longer than you, only for the last 5% of human existence has it been looked down upon... and not as a gift from the gods
GAHHHHHHHHHHH FUCK NOW I HAVE TO GO TO WORK
