Ligalizing M
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Legalization of Marijuana
Marijuana never kicks down the door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could. Its a strange twist of justice in the land of freedom. A land with laws designed to give cops the right to confiscate and keep the luxurious possessions of major drug dealers. Marijuana legalization is the start of a battle against the increase of drug use statistics, authoritarian control of human rights, and disease war.
Marijuana use statistics are decreasing, marijuana is less threatening to the government; therefore should be legalized. The State College Police Department has seen a decrease in the number of marijuana violations during the last two years, from 183 in 1996 to 172 in 1997. In addition, in recent years there has been an increase in use of Ecstasy, which leads to decrease in Marijuana use. On the contrary, The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that between 1994 and 1995 the rate of marijuana use among youths age 12-17 increased from 6.0 percent to 8.2 percent. Although there might be a rise in some aspects of Marijuana use, it is common knowledge that alcohol causes 100,000 deaths and tobacco 360,000 deaths annually, which far exceeds the illegal drugs as sources of death, disease, and dysfunction in the U.S.
Marijuana use should be legalized because the government must respect the value of individual liberty and responsibility. A democratic society must respect the decisions made by its adult citizens, even those perceived to be foolish or risky. To say that something is “dangerous” does not automatically supply a reason to outlaw it. Indeed, the general presumption in the society is that competent adults, with access to necessary information, are entitled to take risks of this kind as part of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which the government was founded. Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. In addition, in 1988, DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young stated that marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man and that marijuana in its natural form fulfilled the legal requirement of currently accepted medical use in the United States. On the contrary, the government should have the right to outlaw Marijuana using the Ravin’s Basic Thesis. The thesis states that there exists under the federal constitution a fundamental right to privacy; however, the government has the right to intervene and regulate if the issue involves the society as a whole. In opposition, local cops, federal agents and the courts have curbed innocent Americans civil rights in their zeal to curb drugs and to fill their coffers with the proceeds of what they take, which is why the government should not have the right to outlaw medical use of Marijuana. (Carlson, 66)
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