When debating one’s personal beliefs, legalizing marijuana is one of the most controversial. While this argument continues to drone on, the question that needs to be asked never comes up, “why should marijuana be legal?” Some might say legalizing marijuana would only serve to get stoners high and ruin the country. However, the benefits outweigh any damage legal marijuana could hypothetically create.

Before asking why marijuana should be legal, understanding why it’s illegal is important. For most of human history, marijuana has been completely legal. It’s not a recently discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing law. Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that it’s been in use. Its known uses go back further than 7,000 B.C. and it was legal as recently as when Ronald Reagan was a boy. Marijuana’s illegalization began in 1913. Kind of. California, apparently passed the first state marijuana law, though missed by many because it referred to “preparations of hemp, or loco weed.” A year later the Harrison Act passed, outlawing opiates and cocaine. But it wasn’t until 1915 when the state of Utah passes state anti-marijuana law, when marijuana was first noticed by the government. Several years later In 1929, a man named Harry Anslinger was put in charge of the Department of Prohibition in Washington, D.C. Recent years had been disastrous due to the catastrophic nature and ultimate failure that was prohibition. Anslinger was afraid for his career. Up until then, he had said that cannabis was not a problem. “It doesn’t harm people,” he explained, and “there is no more absurd fallacy than the idea it makes people violent”. In what seemed like an overnight transition, Harry Anslinger had become a new man. Anslinger started making claims that marijuana would put its users into a “delirious rage.” Before being gripped by “dreams... of an erotic character.” Then you will “lose the power of connected thought.” Finally, you will reach the inevitable end-point: “Insanity.” Harry Anslinger became obsessed with one example of this “insanity” , and that was the case of Victor Licata, a boy from Florida who hacked his family to death with an axe. Anslinger explained to America: This is what will happen when you smoke “the demon weed.” The case became notorious. This was the very first example of fear mongering alongside marijuana. But what evidence did he have? It turns out Anslinger wrote to the 30 leading scientists on this subject, asking if cannabis was dangerous, and if there should be a ban. Twenty-nine replied no. one scientist said yes. Anslinger took the one scientist who said yes, and presented him to the world. The press, obsessed with Victor Licata’s story, cheered them on. Many years down the road, somebody decided to actually take a look at the psychiatric files for Victor Licata. The research revealed Licata never had cannabis in his system.

In a panic that gripped America, marijuana was banned. The U.S. told other countries they had to do the same. Many countries said it was a dumb idea, and refused to do it. For example, Mexico decided their drug policy should be run by doctors. Their medical advice was that cannabis didn’t cause these problems, and they refused to ban it. The U.S. was furious. The U.S. then proceeded to cut off the supply of all legal painkillers to Mexico, killing thousands. So, with regret, Mexico nixed the doctor idea and launched its very own drug war.

Eventually in 1970 the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act was put into place. This act replaces and updates all previous laws concerning narcotics and other dangerous drugs. Emphasis on law enforcement. This act also includes the Controlled Substances Act, where marijuana is classified a Schedule 1 drug (reserved for the most dangerous drugs that have no recognized medical use). This act marked the beginning of a long and heated hate towards marijuana in the US. But it wasn’t until the next year when the real battle began. 

In 1971 president Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs. When this “war” began, Nixon made it clear that all drugs are bad, the end, no exceptions. Can you really blame him? Gang violence usually involved drugs, and when violence makes its way into the social zeitgeist, the easiest way to ease the people is through direct acknowledgement. Countless ad campaigns and after school specials were created to get the message across. This fearmongering seemed to work. The war on drugs had effectively villainized marijuana through fear. This propaganda movement has convinced parents of a past generation that all things smokable are going to kill you and your family. But this war wasn’t cheap. Approximately $51,000,000,000 has been spent on this campaign. The war on drugs doesn’t only affect the tax-payer’s wallet however.  In 2015, 643,121 people were incarcerated for weed related incidents, 89% being for possesion. The amount of time and money being used to wage a war on a drug that has been proven to do less damage than either tobacco or alcohol is stupefying.

Before a side can be chosen, the understanding of marijuana’s effect should be a viable beginning. So why does marijuana get us high? Many media reports over the past few decades explain that THC induces a “flood of dopamine” but this has been disproven. NIDA (the National Institute for Drug Abuse) believed that THC, acting through cannabinoid receptors, also activates the brain’s reward system, which includes regions that govern the response to healthy pleasurable behaviors like sex and eating. Like most other drugs of abuse, THC stimulates neurons in the reward system to release the dopamine at levels higher than typically observed in response to natural stimuli. This “flood” of dopamine contributes to the pleasure that Stoners seek. While THC does affect the cannabinoid receptors, it does not flood dopamine into your system. In fact, numerous human studies suggest that at best, consuming cannabis produces only a modest amount of dopamine, certainly nowhere near the five to ten times amount that’s often quoted. Nonetheless, while robust evidence suggests stimulants like cocaine and amphetamines do, in fact, trigger a flood of dopamine, the same cannot be said about cannabis. Not all users of marijuana do so because they want to get high, however.

 Even if you have no understanding of marijuana as a drug, you may have heard of medicinal use of marijuana. Recently, medicinal marijuana has been pushing marijuana into the main stream. So much so that some marijuana growers even took the liberty to start an event called the Emerald cup, an event where growers trade and smoke each other’s weed. The medical marijuana industry doesn’t stop with smoking. GW, a pharmaceutical company, has developed a revolutionary way to transform cannabinoids into medicine called Sativex. GW is so protective of their medicine’s recipe, that they have patents for the way they grow, harvest and dry their marijuana plants. Due to its “criminal” record, Legal Marijuana has begun to cultivate an outlaw image. This image seems to be the main source of misconceptions about legal marijuana. Now you may know that Marijuana can be used as a medicinal product. What you may not know however, is medicinal marijuana’s rich history. 

For decades, politicians and businesses criticized marijuana, believing it was being used to brainwash America’s youth. Some film makers even made cautionary tales of using “the marijuana”. The progression of fear was starting to shape an overwhelming distrust of weed. This all changed on Nov. 24, 1976, when a Washington, DC man named Robert Randall employed the little-used Common Law Doctrine of Necessity to defend himself against criminal charges of marijuana cultivation. Judge James Washington ruled Randall's use of marijuana constituted a “medical necessity”. Randall couldn’t have known the set of events he set into motion. But how did marijuana possibly act as medicine for this man? Well Robert Randall suffered from a disease called Glaucoma, an ailment that causes increased pressure in the eyeballs, slowly deteriorating the afflicted party’s sight. Marijuana counters this pressure build up in a very interesting way. Have you ever wondered why red eyes are a stigma with smoking weed? Marijuana is filled with Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. When smoked, THC lowers the users’ blood pressure which, in turn, causes blood vessels and capillaries to dilate. The ocular capillaries dilate, which increases the flow of blood to the eyes and reduces intraocular pressure. Increased blood flow creates the redness. This process lowers the pressure in the eyes which counters glaucoma’s rampant spread. While medicinal marijuana doesn’t cure glaucoma, it allows glaucoma patients to keep themselves from going blind.

 At this point you’re probably wondering, “Why should I care?”. Well you may not know it yet, but if marijuana becomes legal where you live, you will be impacted even if you don’t smoke. Take Nevada for example. Nevada recently legalized recreational marijuana use state wide. In the first four days, over 500,000 dollars in tax revenue was collected.  In simple terms, selling weed funded Nevada state government half a million dollars in less than a week. Half a million dollars that will likely be put directly back into Nevada schools, roads and communal protection agencies. Not only will Nevada be safer and cleaner, but the people of Nevada can now see why it is legal marijuana has been fought for so long. An entire state-wide dispute was settled in a matter of days. Half a million is chump change compared to the big picture. In fact, Nevada alone is projected to make 30 million by the end of 2017. Nevada Isn’t even the highest selling marijuana state. By the end of 2018, California, which will begin legal recreational marijuana sales in 2018, is expected to bring in a smoking $5 billion in sales each year. No pun intended. 

Some folks still believe that legalized marijuana will still bring harm. A direct comparison to a more available substance might help. Take Alcohol for instance. Alcohol has been down the same road as marijuana. For 13 years (1920 – 1933) the US went through a period called Prohibition. This means the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages was banned nationwide. During these 13 years alcoholism, family violence, and saloon-based political corruption rose substantially. This rise became clear when organized crime saw the rise of famous mobsters such as Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd and Al Capone. So, if you haven’t already figured out, prohibition didn’t work. Prohibition only served to make more opportunities for illegal things to happen. Sound familiar? Well maybe history isn’t repeating itself and all the similarities are coincidences are more than just that. A more detailed comparison might help clear things up. Every day, 28 people in the United States die in an alcohol-related vehicle crash. one person every 51 minutes. Drunk driving fatalities have fallen by a third in the last three decades and drunk driving crashes still claim more than 13,000 lives per year. Fatalities of drivers under the influence of marijuana? 125 in the last 7 years. Yet because of the popularity of marijuana fearmongering, alcohol is seen as a fun thing to bring people together, while marijuana is seen as something only the lowest parts of society indulge in. 

Alcohol isn’t even the only snake in the grass when it comes to drugs. Tobacco cigarettes are very easily accessible, and for about six dollars a pack, an eighteen-year-old can smoke and cause a lifelong addiction that’s extremely hard to break.  A large amount of people like to toss marijuana and cigarettes into the same bin simply because both can be smoked. Before a fair comparison can be made, knowing what is inside a cigarette is step number 1. Cigarettes are a very special object. Each cigarette includes nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, and DDT. Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known cancer-causing (carcinogenic) compounds and 400 other toxins. While Marijuana hasn’t been proven to not give cancer, it does substantially less damage than cigarettes. Yet despite this, marijuana can put a person behind bars and leave them with a criminal record, and cigarettes are multimillion-dollar legal business that profits off addiction. 

So, the poignant question rises again, “why should marijuana be legalized?”. Marijuana has a rich history, a history that has only recently been tarnished by the efforts of a government official in fear of losing his job. Legalized marijuana not only acts as a tax-revenue magnet, but it also keeps sight in the eyes of the sick. This was made clear after the verdict in the case of Robert Randall. Marijuana has clearly had a positive effect on those that use it, both physically and mentally. It also feeds back into the economy by creating jobs and funneling tax revenue back into schools, infrastructure, and local human welfare programs.  Unlike other common drugs, like tobacco and alcohol, marijuana does not cause a vehicular death every 51 minutes or cause verified long term addiction. It helps people heal, and doesn’t lead to the same destruction that alcohol and tobacco lead to. The damage Marijuana supposedly causes is nothing compared to the clear and present good it can bring.  
