Marijuana Legalization Investigation - Part 1
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Marijuana Legalization Investigation - Part 1
Marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug in the United States. So would it be safer and more beneficial for society if we started regulating it and taxing it?
What if there was a way to help end the war on drugs… And help clear the states budget deficit at the same time? Some say the solution is right under our nose. The Problem is that solution, marijuana, is just as controversial and complicated as the problems themselves..
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According to the national institute of health—marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug in the United States. So would it be safer and more beneficial for society if we started regulating it and taxing it? 9 on your side’s Carley Wegner tries to smoke out the truth behind legalizing marijuana.
On April 20th the organization Norml launched a new t-v ad. It’s one of the first to outright support the legalization of marijuana. It claims “You can tax it, you can regulate it, apply age restrictions, you can create millions of new job, we can save our economy.“ Sounds appealing right? Well it’s a lot more complicated than it sounds.
We sat and down and talked with Pitt County Sheriff Mac Manning. He says, “I just don’t see where there’s any argument that legalizes marijuana or any other illicit drug would have benefit to society as a whole.“ Manning *admits* many people are smoking marijuana - even potential deputies. “I’m a little taken back by the number of applicants we have now that who mark on their applications—being truthful—that they have experimented with marijuana.“ But he’s adamant that’s not a case to legalize it. Others disagree. “The truth is there are number of reasons why marijuana prohibition has failed—it simply doesn’t work—at this point we know it doesn’t work.“
David Ward is a criminal defense lawyer and doesn’t see any reason why we shouldn’t legalize marijuana. Ward say, “it’s easier for a 12 year old to go out and buy a bag of marijuana than it is for them to go out and buy cigarettes or alcohol and that’s due largely to the fact that it’s unregulated. We need to look at what we are spending to enforce laws and policies that aren’t working and contrast that to the benefits of legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana.“
In 2005 a visiting Harvard University professor conducted the “The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition” report. It claims replacing prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation—would produce tax revenues of at least $2 point 4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like most consumer goods. It also says if marijuana were taxed like alcohol or tobacco, it might generate as much as 6 point 2 billion annually. Furth more, it says legalizing would save 7 point 7 billion dollars per year state and federal combined from not having to enforce prohibition. But Sherriff Manning says he’s not sure legalizing marijuana would lower the cost to law enforcement because even if you are allowed to smoke it—there will still be court cases and arrests—just like there is for alcohol. Manning says “look at all the case loads that is generated for dui laws—where as your dealing with a substance like marijuana it’s illegal across the board it’s much easier to enforce to a certain degree if you find it than what are all the circumstances in having it.“ But Ward argues, “I would say to the sheriff—it is there- people are using it! That particular suggestion is like taking an ostrich approach and burying your head in the sand and acting like it’s not there.“ And that’s one of ward’s biggest arguments for legalizing marijuana—people are using it and society would be better off if we could regulate it. Ward says, “ it’s present. So what are we going to do about it? Are we going to leave it unchecked or are we going to try and put some systems in place to protect our kids and to promote responsible use.“
But would legalizing really protect our youth or create even more teen drug abuse? More on that tonight at 11.
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Lets look at the cold hard facts…How many deaths are caused by cannibus every year in the United States? Then compare that to the number of deaths caused by alcohol. There is no reason for this drug to no be legal. It is impossible to overdose on cannibus by itself. But it is allowed to legally sell a drug that can kill a person in one night if they drink too much alcohol. It really just does not make sense to have the government saying that this drug is bad, but hey heres a drink for you. The only reason cannibus was made illegal in the first place was for racist reasons. Newspapers and the media at the time would overdramatize the effects of cannibus, i.e. Reefer Madness, to scare the public into thinking it was a bad drug. The samething was done durig the Temperance Movement in the fight for Prohibition. It only took the government then 13 years to realize the mistake. Hopefully our government will begin to talk about the legalization and get over the negative stereotypes given to cannibus and its users.
The bottom line is pot should be legal. Mexico just legalized possession of small amounts of all drugs. Switzerland just legalized heroin. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 and their experience has been positive. Now if you are caught with a 10 day supply of your drug or less you face an administrative court, not a criminal court, but in practice they are just not arresting people. A group of 10,000 very serious policemen, prosecutors, attorneys and citizens have formed a group to legalize ALL drugs, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (http://leap.cc ) They see what happened when we legalized alcohol in 1932 as a good example of how drug legalization would work. This foolish war on drugs has lasted 37 years and cost us over a TRILLION dollars and we are not an inch closer to stopping drugs. How many millions of Americans are we going to lock up in prison for decades? Mark Montgomery boboberg@nyc.rr.com
It seems that the general consensus is that most people smoke marijuana. Though this is the case there are other ways of using this important medicine such as vaporization, this provides the medicine people need without all the ash and other chemicals like CO. Another way is eating the product either sprinkled over foods and baked or processed into butter that is then use in baking cookies and other confections. Smoking is passe’ and the science IS there for the reading. It is just that the department of Health and Human Services maintains the monopoly and control over its use. Currently seven people are provided cannabis in the form of cigarettes from the US government. Why them and not us. I know but perhaps you should look it up and get as angry as I was. Legalization is the only way.
Firstly weed is as natural as the air and trees. Secondly nature/God put it here for you and I and now it seems the governments benefit. It is the only solution to the problem facing this country. With the debt climbing every day from poor spending, jobs being lost from poor economy, ozone being lost from stupidity…it could fix all this and more!! Alcohol which has caused more deaths in this country is legal simply for tax purposes, why can’t the government/people see the benefits from the legalization of a substance which is NATURAL!! It is here, USE IT!!
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