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It was days away from Janes 26th birthday. She left class at the community college that
evening and decided to stop in at her friends house for a visit. This friend wasnt just anyone, he
was also Janes marijuana dealer. Prior to her arrival several other friends came to hang out and
have a good time. It was clear to Jane that most everyone here had been smoking weed. This was
a typical night several days a week at her friends house, but this night would be different.
Shortly after exchanging money for a quarter-ounce of weed, the S.W.A.T. team stormed into the
house with rifles drawn, yelling orders at the occupants. All the party-goers were cited for
marijuana-related offenses, but a mishandling of the case led the prosecution to drop all charges.
This was a close call for Jane, and a night shed never forget.
The story above happened to someone I know well. I changed her name to keep some
level of anonymity but I use it as an example of a seemingly harmless situation that could have
gone incredibly wrong. The claim of being a seemingly harmless situation can be summed up by
simply changing the item consumed from marijuana to wine. If Jane stopped by a gathering of
friends who were responsibly drinking wine, there would be no breaking open the door with guns
pointed at anyone. Instead of changing the product to wine, we cold instead change the location
of the business transaction from a dealers house to a licensed retail store operating within the
legal framework of a state that has legalized recreational marijuana. In this situation as well there
would be no need for police intervention. The legal status of the product in question is the only
reason for any police presence at all. This simple argument could be made about anything illegal;
cocaine, meth, weapons grade uranium, or maybe counterfeit currency. While some of those may
also have a case for legalization, I will try to address why marijuana should be legalized.
cultivated crops with the oldest known use of cannabis sativa plant going back roughly 12,000
The Case for Legalizing Marijuana 3
years. (Warf, 2014) As the time went by, the use of cannabis spread throughout the world. The
psychoactive chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) of the cannabis plant has been used for
medical purposes, as part of a religious or spiritual ritual, and as a method of relaxing (Hand,
Blake, Kerrigan, Samuel, & Friedberg, 2016) while the fibers of the hemp plant could be used as
textile to make products such as clothing or even paper. (Small & Marcus, 2017) Even closer to
home here in the United States, the cannabis plant was used for a myriad of medical issues from
the treatment of migraines, coughing and inflammation, along with diseases such as tetanus,
rabies, and gonorrhea. (Hand, Blake, Kerrigan, Samuel, & Friedberg, 2016)
The use of cannabis in medicine had declined with the advent of aspirin and the
hypodermic needle allowing opiates to be used more efficiently. It wasnt until the Harrison Act
of 1914 and moreover the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 that a nationwide prohibition was fully in
place. The man at the head of the 1937 law was the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics
(FBN), Harry Anslinger. Anslinger used persuasive rhetoric when discussing the dangers of
marijuana. He once said that marijuana was as dangerous as a coiled rattlesnake, and inextricably
linking its use to murder, suicide, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries, and deeds of
negative effects of marijuana while also citing newspaper editorials as fact. The only medical
professional invited to speak to congress regarding the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was Dr.
William C. Woodward who worked as both a doctor and a lawyer, and was on the legal counsel
of the American Medical Association. Dr. Woodward why medical professionals were not
involved in drafting the legislation and was quotes as saying no medical man would identify
this bill with a medicine until he read it through, because marihuana is not a drug (emphasis
Most Americans learn about the prohibition of alcohol during history class in school. In
an effort to curb the societal ills associated with the consumption of alcohol, the 18th Amendment
intoxicating liquors. A little more than a decade later in 1933, the 21st Amendment repealed the
prohibition of alcohol, the prohibition of marijuana effectively started just four years after. With
the abject failure of the prohibition of alcohol earlier in the decade it is confusing as to why the
U.S. government believed it would be successful in prohibiting marijuana. Perhaps even more
puzzling are the actions by the Nixon administration several decades later. In the early 1970s
Pennsylvania Governor Raymond Shafer was selected by President Richard Nixon to chair the
National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse. The report indicated that the commission
did not support the prohibition of marihuana, and even recommended decriminalization. If Nixon
and his congress had followed the recommendation, Janes scenario earlier would never have
happened.
An additional pitfall of marijuana prohibition has been the disproportionate affect it has
had on African Americans. A black person is roughly 3.5 times more likely to be arrested for
possession. Even more troubling is the fact that the racial disparity is growing. During the years
2001 to 2010, the rate at which black people were arrested rose by roughly a third. This is all
despite the fact that black and whites use marijuana at similar rates. (American Civil Liberties
Union, 2017) A legalization of marijuana would take the criminal status away from both whites
and blacks, but would have the greatest legal impact on the African American community.
Like the prohibition of alcohol, marijuana prohibition has driven the business
underground but with drug cartels in place of the mob. The increase of states that have legalized
marijuana for either medical or recreational purposes over the last few years has driving prices
The Case for Legalizing Marijuana 5
down. The illegality of marijuana increases the price and a shrewd business owner will anticipate
all costs, including getting arrested. They weigh the risk versus the reward and set their prices
accordingly. When a legal market is established, it drives the prices down due to the legal sellers
no having the increase operational risk costs. A fully legal market across the entire nation would
remove a significant revenue stream from the drug cartels in the same way the 21st Amendment
removed the mobs biggest money maker. Another benefit of legalization is the reduction in
prison populations. In 2016 the Department of Justice calculated the annual cost of a federal
inmate at nearly $32,000. (Department of Justice, 2016) Legalizing marijuana would create an
annual savings of nearly $8 billion after ending the need to enforce the prohibition while
A call for the end of prohibition is not an endorsement of marijuanas use, its simply a
recognition that prohibition is a failed policy. We spend billions of dollars annually and lose out
on billions more, all to prohibit use of a plant that has been used for thousands of years. The
societal cost of prohibition in terms of increased crime and racial disparities in enforcement far
outweigh (both fiscally and morally) the perceived risks of the use of the drug. I certainly believe
it is time to end the failed war on prohibition, and I have no doubt that Jane would agree.
The Case for Legalizing Marijuana 6
Works Cited
American Civil Liberties Union. (2017, April 17). The War on Marijuana on Black and
White. Retrieved from www.aclu.org: https://www.aclu.org/report/report-war-
marijuana-black-and-white?redirect=criminal-law-reform/war-marijuana-
black-and-white
Department of Justice. (2016, July 19). Annual Determination of Average Cost of
Incarcaration. Federal Register, p. 46957.
Galliher, J. F., & Walker, A. (1977). The Puzzle fo the Social Origins of the Marihuana
Tax Act of 1937. Social Problems, 367-376.
Hand, A., Blake, A., Kerrigan, P., Samuel, P., & Friedberg, J. (2016). History of medical
cannabis. Journal of Pain Management, 378-394.
Levinthal, C. (2014). Drugs, Behavior, and Modern Society 8th ed. Boston: Pearson.
Miron, J. A. (2005, June). The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition.
Small, E., & Marcus, D. (2017, April 17). Hemp: A New Crop with New Uses for North
America. Retrieved from Center of New Crops & Plant Products:
https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-284.html
Warf, B. (2014). High Points: An History Geography of Cannabis. Geographical
Review, 414-434.