Legalization of Marijuana-a Political Movement

Legalization of Marijuana—A Political Movement

Legalization of Marijuana-A Political Movement
--“They lie about marijuana. Tell you that pot-smoking makes you unmotivated. Lie!! When you’re high, you can do everything you normally do, just as well. You just realize that it’s not worth the fucking effort. There is a difference.”

--Bill Hicks
The Marijuana, cannabis, or hemp plant is one of the oldest psychoactive
plants known to humanity. Cannabis preparations have been used as remedies
for thousands of years and the active ingredients of the hemp plant can be put to
use in a multitude of medical conditions. This topic has been argued back and forth for many years. There will always be one side that says smoking marijuana is a damaging aspect to humans and society, and there are those who will always say that marijuana is not harmful. In 1995, based on thirty years of scientific research, editors of the British medical journal, Lancet, concluded that the smoking of marijuana is not harmful to health. This study included long term help too. On the flip side, the FDA states that “smoked marijuana, a Schedule I controlled substance (Schedule I is the government's most restrictive category), has no medical value and a high risk of abuse” (Walters 1).
Marijuana was federally prohibited for the first time in 1937. Today, more than 83 million Americans admit to having tried it. The prohibition of marijuana has a great effect on the United States and the World. The U.S spent 19.179 billion dollars of the national budget, to help fight the war on drugs, in 2003 (ONDCP). Despite the increased amount of money spent on prohibiting marijuana each year, marijuana and the availability rates are increasing. There are an estimated 30 - 40 million people who have used illegal drugs in the past 12 months. If the current prohibition policies suddenly became wildly successful and these people were imprisoned, a prison would have to be built...