Legalization of Marijuana

The responsible use of marijuana should be legalized since it is fundamentally no more dangerous than the use of legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol. Evidence is lacking in regard to both marijuana's addictive quality and its potential as a gateway drug. Because of investigations, arrests, trials, and incarcerations involving marijuana, law enforcement and judicial resources are unnecessarily burdened. Millions of Americans who smoke marijuana with little negative impact on society at large are threatened by a climate where the penalties for engaging in marijuana use are too severe. The currently illegal marijuana trade promotes crime by contributing to a dangerous black market for unregulated marijuana. A policy that allows for the decriminalization, legalization, and regulation of marijuana use for responsible adults is needed to give Americans freedom of choice in deciding whether to smoke marijuana.

Marijuana use among adults should be allowed in the spirit of the legalization of such drugs as tobacco and alcohol. Prior to the "Marihuana Tax Act" of 1937, people used marijuana without restriction. R. Keith Stroup, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, argues that the 1937 law was passed in a climate where marijuana was demonized by media and political interests. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics declared that a marijuana user "becomes a fiend with savage or `cave man' tendencies. His sex desires are aroused and some of the most horrible crimes result. He hears light and sees sound. To get away from it, he suddenly becomes violent and may kill." Newspapers also made hyperbolic claims; among them the Journal of Law and Criminology reported on the habit of marijuana use, alleging that "[i]f continued, the inevitable result is insanity, which those familiar with it describe as absolutely incurable, and, without exception ending in death." Throughout the remainder of the century, further legislation resulted in harsh...