Pubdate: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 Source: LSU Reveille (LA Edu) Copyright: 2004, LSU Reveille Contact: http://www.lsureveille.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2879 Author: Hannah Anderson Website: http://www.lsureveille.com/ Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) High Times "Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison," wrote Henry David Thoreau. The government's war on marijuana is as disgusting as it is hilarious. Almost half of the country has smoked pot at least once. In a recent poll by Zogby International, 41 percent of Americans agree that "the government should treat marijuana more or less how it treats alcohol." Given pot's ubiquity, why shouldn't laws regarding the substance change? Opponents of its legalization say it's a harmful drug with horrible ramifications. But doesn't tobacco have similar ramifications? And don't thousands of people die of cirrhosis of the liver from drinking alcohol each year? Repeatedly, studies have shown marijuana is not physically addictive, though some users can become psychologically dependent. However, accurate and complete research is lacking because the government usually studies the plant only to find its harmful effects and pharmaceutical companies have no incentive to spend money on a weed that grows in the wild in all 50 states. Regardless, as long as a pot smoker doesn't transgress on the rights of others, what gives the government the right to stop an otherwise law abiding adult from partaking in a substance that only harms his own health? The current illegality of marijuana causes much more harm than good. For many teenagers, deviance is integral to pot's allure. Eric Schlosser notes in his acclaimed book "Reefer Madness" that Great Britain, which has the toughest marijuana laws in Europe, also has the highest rate of usage among teenagers. Moreover, the illegal marijuana industry in the United States has created underworld dons just as horrible and violent as liquor bootlegger Al Capone. Didn't America learn anything about moral legislation from Prohibition? As in the case of the anti-alcohol laws of Prohibition, marijuana was originally made illegal through racism and paternalism. Official concerns about the rising number of Mexican immigrants in the Southwest led to a surge in anti-marijuana laws, often pushed by sensational stories in William Randolph Hearst's news organizations. Until the 1960s marijuana was considered to be a drug for poor people and minorities. The laws were supposed to protect people who were considered too ignorant to make the best choices for themselves. This kind of overbearing noblesse oblige explains why marijuana remains illegal today. Ironically, though Congress continues to fund testing for drugs in all sorts of places like schools and small businesses, law makers refuse to test themselves. Shouldn't they be obligated, as public servants, to prove they aren't under the influences of drugs? Certainly, they are given more responsibility than high school football players. Etched into the white Georgian marble at his memorial in Washington, D.C., are the words Thomas Jefferson, a hemp grower himself, wrote to Dr. Benjamin Rush over 200 years ago: "I have swore upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every from of tyranny over the mind of man." And that's what the war on marijuana is--tyranny over the mind of man.