Pubdate: Mon, 13 Apr 2009
Source: Cauldron, The (Cleveland State U, OH Edu)
Copyright: 2009 The Cauldron
Contact: http://www.csucauldron.com/home/lettertotheeditor/
Website: http://www.csucauldron.com/home/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4482
Author: Laura Krawczyk
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

GETTING LIT DESTINED TO BECOME LEGAL?

If you knew anyone who started smoking pot anytime from the 60s to 
roughly the end of American occupation in Vietnam, then you could 
assume fairly accurately where they stood politically, that they wore 
patchouli, and had cued up Dark Side of the Moon to The Wizard of Oz 
at least once after it came out. But in contemporary culture, the 
tendency to get torched has chiefly found its way into intellectual 
circles, much as opium and its derivative laudanum had in the 
Romantic and Victorian era political and literary radicals. We've 
come a long way from a "reefer madness" society, and pot being merely 
a left-wing counterculture, and yet the topic remains a contentious 
issue throughout America.

In a conservative effort to reduce costs of the criminal justice 
system - prisons having long been overcrowded - a more liberal action 
may be taken after reinvestigating punishments for nonviolent 
offenders. Yes, that may mean reducing sentences or perhaps even 
decriminalizing drug offenders, although the proposed committee plans 
to look into more than just incarceration rates. The bill for the 
commission is championed by Senator Jim Webb, a Vietnam vet and 
former secretary of the Navy, and it has strong bipartisan support in 
the both the Judiciary Committee and the Crime and Drugs Subcommittee.

Considering that in just seven years, from 1984 to 1991, the prison 
population for drug-related crimes increased five fold, the issue is 
long overdue for a solution.

The year 1996 saw the first laws relaxing restraints on marijuana 
use, in California and Arizona, legalizing the plant for medicinal 
use, and has since spread to a total of 13. Given the proven 
advantages of medicinal marijuana, among the list reducing eye 
pressure in glaucoma patients, muscle spasms in multiple sclerosis 
patients, and restoring chemo or AIDS patients' appetites - with no 
viable or effective alternative - it's appalling the number of states 
that have yet to legalize marijuana for this function. Not to mention 
the drastically lower toxicity of the chemicals, mainly THC, in 
comparison to drugs prescribed for the aforesaid ailments.

Therefore, it's not so much this issue as the decriminalization and 
personal use legalization of the drug with which I will concern myself.

The ground for opposition to the drug still comes predominately from 
morally imperious right-wingers. The last government study into 
America 's drug policy dates back to the Nixon presidency, when the 
Schafer Commission recommended he decriminalize marijuana. You don't 
need to guess what his answer was.

In the first online Town Hall meeting a few weeks ago, questions from 
all over the nation flooded whitehouse.gov about the advantages to 
the economy from legalizing marijuana. Not only did President Obama 
brush off the proposition, but he threw in a little quip, saying "I 
don't know what this says about the online audience." Of all people, 
Obama should realize the changing face of marijuana smokers, our 
leader himself so unabashedly admitting in his autobiography not only 
to marijuana use, but cocaine.

It's time we get past the image of pot turning vulnerable young teens 
into hooligans and whores, and realize not only the advantages, but 
also lack of disadvantages compared to any of the nation's legal 
drugs such as tobacco or alcohol. Holding onto tradition for 
tradition's sake is not enough reason to fill our prisons with 
clearly innocuous offenders, or forfeit the potential $40 to $100 
billion in tax revenues (estimated by Stephen Easton of the Fraser 
Institute) - California's Board of Equalization estimates $400 
million in tax revenue for the state alone.

So let's face the truth. The moral minority is not the biggest loser 
here - just like cigarette smokers, buyers of the hallucinogenic herb 
are more than likely going to be the most disappointed if 
legalization occurs, on account of the inevitable price hike. It'll 
probably be cheaper than a possession fine or prison sentence though.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom