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Running Head: The Case for Legalizing Marijuana

The Case for Legality:


Why Marijuana Prohibition Must End
Joseph Guanzon
Salt Lake Community College
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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.

First, a brief history of marijuana is in order. Cannabis is one of humanitys oldest

cultivated crops with the oldest known use of cannabis sativa plant going back roughly 12,000
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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

maniacal insanity. (Levinthal, 2014) Congressional records indicate an exaggeration of the

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

added). (Galliher & Walker, 1977)


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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

to the United States Constitution outlawed the manufacture, sale, or transportation of

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
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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

generating upwards of $6 billion in tax revenue. (Miron, 2005)

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.
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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.

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