Argument in Favor of Legalizing Marijuana

Legal prohibition of marijuana does not stop consumers from consuming it. Nor does it stop people from producing and selling it. In fact, labeling marijuana as a forbidden fruit may only encourage people to try it. Additionally, all of the efforts to enforce prohibition are much more costly than beneficial. Marijuana is also much less harmful than other drugs even though its adverse effects are similar to the effects of alcohol. Furthermore, accumulating evidence reveals that marijuana might actually have many health and medicinal benefits. Therefore, instead of being criminalized, marijuana should be legalized and regulated by the government to reduce federal costs and generate additional revenue.

Many people are against the legalization of marijuana because they believe the drug’s negative effects on the body are as harmful as other more dangerous drugs. Marijuana is classified as a hallucinogen and presents a drug abuse pattern of psychological dependence, some tolerance, as well as many undesirable side effects. Specifically, marijuana is associated with significant neuropharmacologic, cognitive, behavior, and somatic consequences. Both acute and long-term marijuana use is known to have negative effects on short-term memory, concentration, attention span, motivation, and problem-solving, all of which can have a detrimental effect on learning. Additionally, marijuana also has adverse effects on coordination, judgment, reaction time, and tracking ability (Joffe and Yancy). These impairments make a substantial contribution to accidental drug-related death and injuries among adolescents.

Another major concern about legalizing marijuana is that it would increase marijuana use. Some research suggests that changes in legal sanction can influence a person’s initial decision to use drugs, meaning that people who are in an experimentation phase and those who have not tried marijuana before would be the most affected by changes in marijuana laws. Furthermore, a person’s age when they first use a drug is a risk factor for problem use in the future. Another important influence on adolescent drug use is parental drug use. While some adults may currently refrain from using marijuana on the basis that the criminal risk outweighs the benefits, this could change if legal sanctions are destroyed. Parents could become influential sources of exposure for their children, and also provide easy household access to the drug (Joffe and Yancy 636). Therefore, many people believe that legalizing marijuana will only encourage more people to start using the drug.

Despite all of the concerns about the negative consequences of legalizing marijuana, there are much bigger problems with the effectiveness of the current prohibition policy. A former judge that once held the record for the largest drug prosecution in LA as a federal prosecutor began noticing how many low-level drug offenders had their lives ruined as they passed through the courts (Gray 35). Currently, 87% of marijuana arrests are for nothing more than possession of small amounts of marijuana (Nadelmann 1). Furthermore, even when high-level drug offenders are arrested, convicted, and incarcerated, there was no difference in the availability of drugs in the areas served by the offender. Other drug dealers would always quickly take their place, sometimes even within just a few hours (Gray 35). The system in place now is ineffective in discouraging people from using the drug and has very little control over its availability.

Criminalization of marijuana used to be more lax during the 1960s. Police put less energy towards the enforcement of marijuana laws as drug use intensified. The DEA thought that the fight against marijuana detracted from their more important work combatting other dangerous drugs like heroin. Subsequently, drug incarcerations for every one thousand arrests began to drop in 1960 and remained low through 1979. In 1977, the Carter administration proposed removing criminal sanctions for possession of small amounts of marijuana. By 1978, the perceived risk of regular use of marijuana reached its lowest point ever, with only 10.7% of high school seniors reported using the drug daily (Joffe and Yancy 633). Despite laws threatening consequences to users, an exponential increase in marijuana arrests, and the widespread use of drug testing, the same percentage of high school seniors just marijuana now as in 1975 (Blumenson and Nilsen 6). Currently, police make about seven hundred arrests every year for marijuana offenses alone, which is almost the same number as arrests for all other illicit drugs combined (Nadelmann 1). In 1972, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Use Abuse reported that the social costs of criminalizing marijuana far exceeded the benefits. The implications of criminalizing marijuana mean that the fifteen million people who currently use the drug must obtain it illegally. This creates and continuously supports a ten billion dollar black market that is controlled by organized crime groups (Blumenson and Nilsen 7). Additionally, this drug money is dangerous and leads to the deaths of tens of thousands of individuals, including children and innocent bystanders (Gray 35). Furthermore, The Marijuana Policy Project estimated that state and federal governments spent at least 7.7 billion dollars on marijuana prohibition in 2004. In addition to the high cost, there could have been 2.4 billion dollars flowing into state and federal governments through taxes if marijuana was legalized and regulated instead of criminalized. These statistics estimate that the cost of criminalizing marijuana is about ten billion dollars each year (Blumenson and Nilsen 10). This money could be better spent in other ways.

In regard to the concern about marijuana’s negative side effects on the body and mind, many recent studies provide evidence for refuting these claims. For instance, a government-funded study in 1997 assessed effects of former heavy marijuana use on health using fifty-six pairs of monozygotic twins. The conclusions of this study revealed that there are no statistically significant differences in the physical and mental health of marijuana users in comparison to nonusers. Specifically, even though marijuana is thought to have negative effects similar to smoking tobacco, the study found no significant increase in the prevalence of chronic lung disease in marijuana users (Eisen 1142). Additionally, most people who use marijuana never become dependent on the drug. Many people who use marijuana use it similarly to alcohol, meaning it might be used to stress relief at the end of a long workday, to aid sleep, or for alleviating depression (Nadelmann 2-3). Even for the few who do become addicted, criminalization hinders treatment for those who want it because drug users fear legal repercussions. Criminalization also makes treatment spaces less available to those who truly need them due to the large number of people sent to treatment facilities by the court (Blumenson and Nilsen 10). Marijuana has also been shown to have no effect on mortality, and there have been no cases of anyone dying from an overdose (Nadelmann 2). Instead of being harmful, there are now many studies being conducted about marijuana having health and medicinal benefits.

Criminalizing marijuana has been an ineffective way to deter people from using the drug and has only helped to fund the black market at a very high cost to the federal government. Many of the arguments against legalizing marijuana have been disproven by government-funded studies, which show that marijuana is not associated with any physical or mental health risks but may actually have health benefits. Legalizing marijuana and regulating its use would be beneficial for the economy, reduce incarcerations, and contribute to the health of consumers.

Works Cited

Blumenson, Eric, and Eva Nilsen. "No Rational Basis: The Pragmatic Case for Marijuana Law Reform." Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law 17.1 (2009): 1-37. Print.

Eisen, Seth A., Sunanta Chantarujikapong, Hong Xian, Michael J. Lyons, Rosemary Toomey, William R. True, Jeffrey F. Scherrer, Jack Goldberg, and Ming T. Tsuang. "Does Marijuana Use Have Residual Adverse Effects on Self-reported Health Measures, Socio-demographics and Quality of Life? A Monozygotic Co-twin Control Study in Men." Addiction 97.9 (2002): 1137-144. Print.

Gray, James P. "Drug Prohibition Is the Problem: Reflections from a Former Judge." Tikkun Magazine 27.3 (2012): 34-71. Print.

Joffe, Alain, and Samuel W. Yancy. "Legalization of Marijuana: Potential Impact on Youth." Pediatrics 113 (2004): 632-38. Print.

Nadelmann, Ethan A. "An End to Marijuana Prohibition." National Review 56.12 (2004): 1-7. Print.