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Cannabis, more commonly known as marijuana, has been illegal under the system of prohibition ever since 17. The trend of marijuana's prohibition is very closely linked to that of alcohol. As history has proven prohibition does not work. It is important to understand why. To do so the three stages of prohibition - exaggeration, silence, and severe penalties - and the effects of prohibition in the last half-century will be considered.
Research has proven that marijuana damages the short term memory, distorts perceptions, impairs judgment and complex motor skills, alters the heart rate, can lead to severe anxiety, and can cause paranoia and lethargy. While all of that is true, I personally do not think that compares to the effect of alcohol and tobacco. For instance, alcohol's cause of cirrhosis to the liver, to cigarettes lung cancer, to coronary heart disease, or the plain fact that they are both carcinogens to speed up all cancers, are all good examples of how bad alcohol and tobacco can be. Alcohol is a factor of half of highway fatalities, half of all arrests, half of all homicides, and a fourth of all suicides, costing America $15 billion a year(National 15). It is important to keep in mind that while I compare these three drugs marijuana is not addicting, like alcohol and tobacco are (Schlosser 41). However, all drugs from alcohol to tobacco to marijuana have a social impact. All drugs are capable of disrupting the home, affecting the way the user performs at work, and causing a withdraw from society. I think all drugs equally share this power, because these social impacts are mostly a mental problem of people around the user. Therefore no drug is worse than any other drug when it comes to social impacts, they all are equally bad.
The first crop of American hemp was grown in 1611(Grinspoon 11). However, the modern practice of smoking marijuana was not introduced until the 10's. This was a time of drug intolerance. America was in the stages of prohibition of alcohol. Marijuana was introduced and smoked by the same people who where users of opiates, immigrants. In the 10's it was a common belief that immigrants were inhumane, and violent, and these attitudes were associated with marijuana. Because marijuana was used by the same users of opiates, it was immediately defined as a narcotic(Musto 45). By 11 all but two states had anti-marijuana legislation. By 17 all states had made marijuana illegal. And in 17 the federal government created the Marijuana Tax Act(National 14). The details of the tax are irrelevant because no tax stamps were ever issued. Ironically not once during this time period was any research made on marijuana and it's effects. It was assumed that marijuana was a narcotic, possessed a psychological dependence, provoked violent crime, and caused insanity(National 14).
One of the three strategies of fighting marijuana was silence. It was believed that if youth did not hear about marijuana, then they would not become curious about it and experiment with it. In the 10's it was deemed that no schools could talk about marijuana. The Motion Picture Association of America banned all films that showed narcotics from 14-156(Musto 46). This strategy did not produce much, so the anti-marijuana population quickly moved into the next step, exaggeration.
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The purpose of exaggeration was to scare possible users from trying marijuana. The American Journal of Medicine wrote, Marijuana users will suddenly turn with murderous violence upon whoever is nearest to him. He will run amuck with knife, axe, gun, or anything else that is close to the hand, and will kill or main without reason(Musto44). This is from F. T. Merrill from the Opium Research Committee on marijuana, While numerous crimes were traced to its abuse, its peculiar virulent effect, leading sometimes to insanity, makes its use dangerous to the individuals and to society in general . . . leads to uncontrollable irritability and violent rages, which in most forms cause assault and murder(Grinspoon 17). I found a medical handbook as late as 170 that reports these myths. It says the word assassin is derived from the word hashish. The word amuck comes from the characteristic of the drug which means to kill and was the word the natives of Malay would shriek as they dashed down the street, maddened by hashish, in a murderous frenzy(Williams 140). In a California police officers guide it says, Marijuana is the immediate and direct cause of the crime committed, it continues, the user is very often dangerous to handle or control, has no fear, feels no pain, and may commit crimes of violence. . .He may suddenly get the idea that his best friends or his own immediate family are about to take his life and proceed to kill them . . . in fact, no act is too fantastic or horrible to the user of marijuana.(Williams 141)
The penalties for marijuana come and go with the populations belief on it's level of harm. If the people believe it to be bad during a particular decade, the penalties will be stiff, if people are lenient about it for a decade, the penalties will be light. Drug use continued to decline through the fifties, and the fifties was when drug penalties started a steep incline. One of the first mandatory prison sentences was legislated at that time. Possession of marijuana was a mandatory minimum of 10 years. Dealing to a minor was a mandatory death sentence(Musto 46). During the sixties and seventies the penalties declined as use increased. Eventually 11 states decriminalized personal possession of marijuana(Thies 8). In the eighties drug use declined and penalties rose again. Currently under the three strike program there is a mandatory life sentence without parole for the third strike. Judges are no longer able to use discretion in a case in finding a verdict, they are required to punish on the most serious readily provable charge(Schlosser ). For those found growing a major marijuana plantation, 60,000 plants, it is a mandatory death penalty(Schlosser 8). One modern cause of prohibition is the belief that if marijuana policy is relaxed, then more people will use marijuana. Nationwide usage of marijuana in 184 was 6. percent. In the eleven states that have decriminalized marijuana a very close 7. percent use marijuana. In 188 the percentages were 15.4 and 16.1 respectively. Decriminalization of marijuana is defined by states that no longer arrest people for marijuana possession. In ten of the states there is a $0-100 fine for possession. The fine is derived from the federal government system of withholding federal highway money for states not having any minimum punishments(Thies 87). Holland is another example of the effect of legalizing marijuana. Holland legalized marijuana in 176 and has since had a 40 percent reduction in marijuana users(Schlosser 4). While it is true that marijuana has decreased in America also in that time period, it can not be said that legalizing marijuana increases usage. It is obvious that social policy, not legal policy, is in direct effect of Holland's marijuana usage.
Year after year articles can be found accusing marijuana of being addictive. In 17 the federal government had an extensive research of marijuana and found that there is no physically addictive traits. Since then all published medical journals and books make it clear that marijuana is not addicting. Dr. Jack Henningfield, of the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Addiction Research Center, and Dr. Neal Benowits, of University of California, ranked six drugs, heroine, cocaine, nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, and marijuana, on their ability to produce psychological dependence. Nicotine was found to be the most addicting, and marijuana the least addicting. Not only did marijuana rank as the least addictive, but it also ranked least likely to get a tolerance, and least likely to show any signs of withdraw after quitting smoking marijuana(Schlosser ).
The attack on marijuana using the system of strict penalties, silence, and exaggeration has caused ignorance. While all new research since 17 has put down almost all former negative claims of marijuana, many strong arguments are made and used in forming laws using the ignorant ideas of the thirties. People tend to remain to believe what they have always believed, and the extent of most people's education of marijuana is what their parents have taught them. While it is the responsibility of all parents to teach their children what they believe is right and wrong, it is not an acceptable method of forming laws.
If the purpose of prohibiting marijuana is to eliminate it's use, then the prohibition of marijuana is another example of how prohibition fails. In 17 68. percent of the population of 18-5 year olds had tried marijuana at least once, and 5 percent were regular users. Those numbers have decreased to 50 percent and 1 percent respectively, but the point is that drugs are still readily available(U.S.).
Another effect of the prohibition of marijuana has been a huge increase of government spending on fighting crime, and prison overcrowding. In 1880 .061 percent of the population was in prison, by 10 it reached .1 percent, and in 15 .5 percent of the population is in prison. So each citizen of the US has had to triple the amount of tax dollars he/she spends on housing inmates from 10 to 15. 6 percent of these inmates are in prison for drug offenses. There has been a 1100 percent increase in those arrested for drugs from 180 to 1, even though marijuana usage dropped to 1% from 5% in that same period. While violent offenders have only increased by 50 percent. 58 percent of marijuana felons have no relevant prior crime history, 1 percent were not considered organizers, leaders, managers, or supervisors, and percent did not even own guns. These people are not necessarily to be considered endangering our society(Schlosser ). What is the point of these statistics? Just to show that a lot of money is spent each year on prison of otherwise non-violent or law abiding citizens.
Ignoring money spent on prison, the DEA spends $1. billion a year on fighting marijuana. The total efforts of the federal government equate to $0 billion spent, $ billion of marijuana seized, 4 million people arrested, a quarter million sentenced beyond a year, and essentially no permanent change in usage from the sixties to now(Schlosser 8). Was it worth it?
I want to talk about Mark Young, a victim of the US District Attorney. Young was a resident of Illinois and was on a fishing trip in Florida with some old friends. He brought with him some famous Illinois marijuana and his friends enjoyed it greatly. They thought they could get an easy market for this marijuana in Florida; so they asked Young to introduce them to the grower. Young did introduce them to the grower, and was essentially cut out of the deal from that point onward. Some time later he was arrested and charges with conspiracy to manufacture and faced a minimum of life in prison with no parole. He had not been convicted in a crime for almost twenty years, but had two minor possessions against him from his youth, so this was his third strike. Keep in mind that he had never handled any money or marijuana for the transaction, and was not receiving any benefits for this deal. The US DA offered him a deal to tell on as many people as he could to get a lesser sentence. He refused for two reasons, first he did not know any other dealers or growers, but more importantly he had principles and refused to tell on anyone. Therefore the DA prosecuted him to the full extent of the law, and the jury not knowing the sentence, found him guilty of conspiracy to manufacture. The judge was forced to sentence him life without parole. Today he is still in prison and was quoted as saying, They've only proved I'm capable of smoking a joint, or of introducing a guy to another guy who needs some pounds. That's the most they've proved me capable of. What [the prosecutors] are doing, they're destroying these families and passing out life sentences, taking people's lives, putting children on the street--I mean horrendous acts. I don't know of anyone that would do anything that malicious for a salary(Schlosser 46).
My personal opinion is that the state has no right to interfere with anybody's private conduct. Also the government has no right to protect anybody from their own folly. The government can feel free to educate all they want on the effects of using marijuana, education being the best way one can fight anything that is disapproved by that one. However that same government should not be allowed to say if one can or cannot practice that behavior in private. This is the same opinion held in the 170's when the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse published their report and summarized that marijuana should be legal to grow and smoke in private(National 15). They suggested to continue to catch and arrest those that traffic, push, or commercially grow marijuana. But when it comes to growing marijuana in private, sharing it, and smoking it, that should be legalized. The report was approved by the president, speaker of the house, and president of the senate. This was the same side of the issue that former President Carter took(Musto 45). He stood behind what the commission had said and made a mediocre attempt to pass this legislation.
The original reasoning for prohibiting marijuana seems to have been based on lack of knowledge of the drug. However, this brought forth a hate and fear of this drug that set the stages for the future and is still echoed in people's arguments against marijuana. Arguments for this kind of drug seem to be passed down from generation to generation. So even though new research has disproved most myths, some people will remain to believe what they have always believed. The effects of prohibition have been mostly of spending tax dollars on catching and housing marijuana users and dealers and growers. Ironically one effect that has not been achieved is to curb or completely prohibit the use of marijuana in our society. While a lot of money has been spent, there has been little to no return on the dollar. It is important to realize that behind every statistic of a marijuana user in jail is a person, like Mark Young. And behind every person like Young there is a family, with a wife and kids and parents and friends. All of these people can be devastatingly effected be ones arrest, especially the children. These people arrested go in as merely people who enjoy smoking marijuana, and sometimes come out as criminals. Prohibition began as a misunderstanding, has not achieved it's goal, and is against an American philosophical approach, and I think it is time to reconsider.
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