textfiles/reports/ACE/pot-rpt.txt

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Grade Level:       Type of Work           Subject/Topic is on:
 [ ]6-8                 [ ]Class Notes    [Report on Legalizing    ]
 [ ]9-10                [ ]Cliff Notes    [Mariguana               ]
 [x]11-12               [x]Essay/Report   [                        ]
 [ ]College             [ ]Misc           [                        ]

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                  Legalization of Marijuana


                      What Is Marijuana

     Marijuana, a drug obtained from dried and crumpled 
parts of the ubiquitous hemp plant Canabis sativa (or 
Cannabis indica).  Smoked by rolling in tobacco paper or 
placing in a pipe.  It is also otherwise consumed worldwide 
by an estimated 200,000,000 persons for pleasure, an escape 
from reality, or relaxation.  Marijuana is known by a 
variety of names such as kif (Morocco), dagga (South 
Africa), and bhang (India).  Common in the United States, 
marijuana is called pot, grass, weed, Mary Jane, bones, etc.
     The main active principle of cannabis is 
tetrahydrocannabinol.  The potency of its various forms 
ranges from a weak drink consumed in India to the highly 
potent hashish.  The following consists of pure cannabis 
resin.
     Marijuana is not a narcotic and is not mentally or 
physically addicting drug.  One can use mild cannabis 
preparations such as marijuana in small amounts for years 
without physical or mental deterioration.  Marijuana serves 
to diminish inhibitions and acts as an euphoriant.  Only 
once in a while will it produce actual hallucinations.  More 
potent preparations of cannabis such as hashish can induce 
psychedelic experiences identical to those observed after 
ingestion of potent hallucinogens such as LSD.
     Some who smoke marijuana feel no effects; others feel 
relaxed and sociable, tend to laugh a great deal, and have a 
profound loss of the sense of time.  Characteristically, 
those under the influence of marijuana show incoordination 
and impaired ability to perform skilled acts.  Still others 
experience a wide range of emotions including feelings of 
perception, fear, insanity, happiness, love and anger.  
Although marijuana is not addicting, it may be habituating.  
The individual may become psychologically rather than 
physically dependent on the drug.

                  Legalization Of Marijuana

     Those who urge the legalization of marijuana maintain 
the drug is entirely safe.  The available data suggested, 
this is not so, Marijuana occasionally produces acute panic 
reactions or even transient psychoses.  Furthermore, a 
person driving under the influence of marijuana is a danger 
to themselves and others.  If smoked heavily and a great 
deal of consistency, its use has been clearly associated 
with mental breakdown.  In many persons who smoke 
chronically, the drug reinforces passivity and reduces 
goal-directed, constructive activity. The chronic use of 
pure resin (hashish) has been associated both with mental 
deterioration and criminality.
     One of the major complications of marijuana use is the 
tendency on the part of some users to progress to more 
dangerous drugs.  Users in economically deprived areas 
usually go on to heroin, whereas more affluent individuals 
tend to move from marijuana to more potent hallucinogens 
such as LSD.
     There is no established medical use for marijuana or 
any other cannabis preparation.  In the United States, its 
use is a crime and the laws governing marijuana are similar 
to those regulating heroin.  Many authorities now urge that 
the laws be modified to mitigate the penalties relating to 
conviction on marijuana possession charges.

            The Case For Legalizing Marijuana Use

     The United States stands apart from many nations in its 
deep respect for the individual.  The strong belief in 
personal freedom appears early in the nation's history.
     The Declaration of Independence speaks of every 
citizen's right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness."  The Constitution and Bill of Rights go further, 
making specific guarantees.  They forbid the government to 
make unwarranted entry into dwelling places.  They forbid 
seizure of personal property, except when very clear reasons 
are approved by the courts.  They allow every citizen to 
remain silent in court when accused of a crime.  Legal 
decisions have extended these rights, so that every citizen 
may feel safe, secure, and sheltered from public view in the 
privacy of his or her home.

                    The Right To Privacy

     In recent years, Americans have referred to privacy as 
one of the basic human rights, something to be claimed by 
anyone, anywhere.  United States citizens feel strongly 
about this and often tell other countries that they must 
honor their people's claims to privacy and personal freedom.  
Foreign leaders often disagree.  They resent what they deem 
arrogant meddling by the United States.  Leaders of the 
Soviet Union, for example, regard individual privacy as 
trivial when compared to the needs of the state.
     If the United States is to be persuasive in promoting 
freedom in other parts of the world, it must respect the 
privacy of its own citizens.  Sometimes it is hard to do 
this because what goes on in people's private lives may seem 
offensive.  But, according to U.S. traditions, there is a 
strong case to be made against legislating the private 
behavior of adults, so long as that behavior does not in 
turn violate the rights of others.
     Some people feel that this reasoning should hold also 
for marijuana.  A person who smokes at home is not doing 
injury.  The marijuana user is indulging in a minor pleasure 
over which that government should have no jurisdiction.  It 
is quite clear from survey data that most people do not 
become physically dependent on marijuana.  The majority use 
it as others use alcohol - to relax occasionally and to 
indulge a festive mood.  How can a mild intoxicant, taken 
less than once a day by most users, be seen as a public 
threat?
     Even those who are "hooked", or psychologically 
dependent upon their habit, should not be penalized by the 
law.  Some people find any compulsive and unproductive 
behavior disgusting.  But that is not a reason for outlawing 
it.  Consider eating, many people develop compulsive habits 
about food.  They talk about it frequently.  They spend many 
of their waking hours anticipating, planning, obtaining, and 
consuming food.  This may be unattractive.  It certainly is 
not productive and it can be harmful if the "food addict" is 
over weight.  But there are no laws to prevent food 
addiction.  If Congress tried to forbid the eating of ice 
cream sundaes or cotton candy, many people would be 
outraged, others would simply laugh.
     The same sort of argument is raised by some people with 
respect to marijuana.  Even compulsive marijuana smoking by 
an adult is not so offensive that it injured neighbors or 
requires government intervention.  The attempt to use the 
law to tell people what they may and may not consume at home 
is an arrogant invasion of personal privacy.

         Protecting the Drug User's Physical Health

     Sometimes it is said that the law must protect the drug 
user from himself.  The argument takes two forms.  One has 
to do with the damage a drug may do to a person's health and 
the other with the individual's power of self-control or 
freedom.  First consider the health effects.
     By any reasonable standard, marijuana is a mild drug 
and as for overdosing, there is no scientifically valid 
evidence of anyone dying of an overdose of marijuana smoke.  
Of course, it is possible to commit suicide by consuming 
large amounts of marijuana.  But it is possible to die by 
eating too much salt.  Salt is not illegal.  Aspirin kills 
by overdose and that's legal.  Many people die by drinking 
too much alcohol, an addictive drug.  It too is legal.  Why 
is marijuana considered more dangerous?

              Protecting Society from Marijuana

     One argument made against the legalization of marijuana 
is that it damages not only the user but innocent 
bystanders.  This argument, like the one about protecting 
the user, has two parts.  The first deals with physical 
injury and the second with spiritual health.
     The main physical threat to society is that users under 
the influence of a drug with crash a car or airplane, or 
lose control in some way and do harm.  People who have 
recently smoked marijuana do show signs of clumsiness and 
disorientation.  They should not operate machinery in this 
condition.  One study estimates that alcohol plays a part in 
55% of all fatal highway crashes.  Marijuana may present 
similar risks, but at present there are no reliable data on 
its importance in accidents.
     According to John Stuart Mill's writings, the 
government should try to control only the aspects of drug 
use that injure society.  In this vein, it makes sense to 
have laws against driving under the influence of marijuana 
similar to those governing driving under the influence of 
alcohol.  In other words, driving while on marijuana should 
be outlawed by not the use of marijuana itself.
     Some people believe that marijuana threatens society in 
a more insidious way.  They argue that it drains workers' 
energy and makes them less productive.  This in turn lowers 
the vitality of the economy, depressing the overall quality 
of life.  In addition, drug use- including marijuana 
smoking- is seen as a plague on society that must be 
isolated.  This disease theory holds that legalizing 
marijuana would make it more widely available and that this 
would tend to increase its use as well as the use of all 
kinds of drugs.  One of the detriments of tolerating drug 
use, according to this theory, is that is encourages the use 
of more and different drugs.
     The National Institute on Drug Abuse;s 1984 report to 
Congress cited no evidence to support the idea that drug use 
is hurting economic productivity.  It said: "The fact is, 
very little is known about the complex relationship which 
undoubtedly exists between drug abuse, worker performance, 
and productivity, or the lack thereof....  Simply put, the 
number of unanswered questions currently far outnumbers the 
available answers."
     Nor is there any strong evidence that legalizing 
marijuana would increase use of the drug.  In fact, there is 
some evidence suggesting that drug use under a relaxed legal 
system might not increase at all.  Many states have removed 
the penalties for marijuana possession that were on the 
books in the 1950s and 1960s.  The change occurred during a 
reform movement that swept the nation in the mid 1970s.  Yet 
in spite of the less stringent laws, studies show that the 
use of marijuana in the affected states has, after an 
initial increase, declined.  Although marijuana became 
easier to use (from a legal standpoint), it also became less 
popular.

                 The Failure of Prohibition

     Examining the U.S. policy on marijuana on the basis of 
performance, one must judge it a miserable failure.  The 
number of people who have smoked the drug at least once has 
grown from an uncounted few in the 1950s, when some of the 
strictest antimarijuana laws were imposed, to nearly 50 
million today.  During this period the federal government 
has made steadily increasing efforts to stop its production 
and importation, and seizures of marijuana in the ports has 
grown steadily.  Elaborate and costly international police 
campaigns have been launched, and the number of drug arrests 
in the United States has increased.   The federal budget for 
drug enforcement reflected in several agencies has gone 
above $1 billion a year.  And yet the illegal trade in 
marijuana continues.  Supplies are so plentiful that the 
price has actually come down.
     The response has been to redouble police efforts and 
hope that things will change.  The result is that more money 
is spent on a failed policy, creating an ever-growing army 
of drug enforcers dedicated to keeping the policy alive.  
The illegal market for marijuana grows even faster than the 
police force, however, because the drug users are willing to 
pay more to get what they want than taxpayers are willing to 
pay to stop it.  The drug police enjoy their work and are 
not going to quit.  And why should they as long as their 
salaries are paid?  The admission that the marijuana laws 
have failed will have to come from someone else- not from 
the police.
     Marijuana is a common weed, easier to produce than the 
bathtub gin of the Prohibition years.  It is not surprising 
that thousands of "dealers" have been drawn into the 
marijuana business.  Despite the great risks they face, 
including bullying by other dealers and the threat of 
arrest, they are attracted by the profits.  The law cannot 
change the economics of this market because it operates 
outside the law.  All the police can do is to make it risky 
to get into the marijuana business.  This is supposed to 
drive out the less courageous dealers, reduce the amount of 
marijuana available, and inflate prices.  But even by this 
measure, the police effort has failed.  As mentioned 
earlier, the price of marijuana is declining.
     There are several ways in which the policy on marijuana 
imposed a burden on society.  The obvious one is the cost of 
supporting the federal enforcement effort.  Aside from this, 
there is a hard-to-measure but significant impact on society 
because the law creates a huge criminal class.  It includes 
not just dealers who are out for profit but a much larger 
group of users.  Consider three major penalties for having 
such a large criminal class.

            Some Benefits of Legalizing Marijuana

     By lifting the ban on marijuana use and treating it 
like other drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, the nation 
would gain immediate and long-term benefits.  This change in 
the law would greatly improve the quality of life for many 
people.  Victims of glaucoma and those needing antinausea 
treatment, for example, would find marijuana easily 
available.  If the medical advantages that are claimed for 
marijuana are real, many more patients would benefit.  
Research, which has been slowed in the past by the 
government's reluctance to frant exemptions to the marijuana 
laws, would be easier to conduct.  The cloud of suspicion 
would disappear, and doctors could get on with investigating 
marijuana's medical uses with out fear of controversy.  It 
might become possible to discuss the dangers of marijuana 
use without getting caught up in a policy debate.
     Meanwhile, the black market would disappear overnight.  
Some arrangement would be made to license the production of 
marijuana cigarettes.  Thousands of dealers would be put out 
of business, and a secret part of the economy would come 
into the open.  It is difficult to say whether this change 
would reduce crime because criminals would probably continue 
to sell other drugs.  But it would have an impact on the 
amount of money flowing through criminal channels, and this 
might weaken organized crime.
     Lastly, the federal budget would benefit in two ways, 
Federal revenues would increase, because marijuana 
cigarettes would be taxed at the point of sale.  The 
companies that make the cigarettes would also pay income 
taxes, adding to the federal coffers.  Seconds, there would 
be a reduction in the amount spent on law enforcement 
efforts to apprehend and prosecute users and sellers of 
marijuana.  The drug enforcement authorities might reduce 
their budget requests, or, more likely, focus more intensely 
on hard drugs and violent crimes.  The courts would be 
relieved of hearing some drug cases, as well.
     The most important gain would be in the quality of 
government.  The sorts of temptations and opportunities that 
lead to corruption would be significantly minimized.  The 
illogical pattern of law enforcement, which now treats 
marijuana as more dangerous than alcohol, would end.  It 
would set more achievable goals for law enforcement, and 
this would lend strength and credibility to the government.

























                    Alcohol vs. Marijuana

1: Over 100 thousand deaths annually are directly linked to 
   acute alcohol poisoning.
2: In 4,000 years of recorded history, no one has ever died 
   from a pot overdose.
3: Alcohol causes Server physical and psychology dependence.  
4: Alcohol is reported to cause temporary and permanent 
   damage to all major organs of the body.
5: Cannabis is a much less violent provoking substance then 
   alcohol.

* With over 60 million people using cannabis in the U.S. 
  Today our laws and law makers should view it under the 
  same light.  As they do alcohol.

                      Marijuana Status

1970: 11% of high school seniors said they were using 
      marijuana every day.
1975: About 27% said they had used marijuana sometime in the 
      previous month.
1978: The monthly users grew up to 37% then in 1986 dropped 
      to 23%.
1979: 12 to 17 year olds reported using it within the last 
      month has dropped from a high point of 17% and in 1987 
      dropped to 12%.







                        Bibliography

1. Adams, Leon; "Marihuana".  Encyclopedia International.
   Vol 11.  p365-347.  LEXICON PUBLICATIONS.  Philippines, 
   1979

2. Lorimer, Lawrence; "Marijuana"  Encyclopedia Year Book 
   1993.  p214-215.  GROLIER INCORPORATED. Canada, 1993

3. Snyder, Solomon.  The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Drugs.  
   Series 2.  LEGALIZATION: A DEBATE.  CHELSEA HOUSE 
   PUBLISHERS.  New York, 1988