In 2014, police in the United states of America arrested people for possession of marijuana every 51 seconds, totaling over seven hundred thousand arrests. In 2014 there was also zero deaths cause from marijuana, as there is every year, while tobacco and alcohol still kill hundreds of thousands routinely every year and remain completely legal without question. Ever since 1937 when marijuana was made illegal, it has remained as the drug with the most arrests year after year, with the total number continuing to grow rapidly. And while the arrests have continued to increase, so has the research on marijuana and it seems that everyone has been coming to the same conclusion, why is it a crime to smoke marijuana? What makes the drug so bad that The United States government feels that it is completely suffice to spend billions of dollars’ year after year to throw harmless people in jail for smoking what is a generally harmless substance? It’s not because of health threats, it’s not because of addiction, it’s because the government needed a substance that they could use scare white Americas of minorities by demonizing an innocent plant. Marijuana needs to be decriminalized in the United States of America because it was only made criminal to benefit the agenda of racist liars who were too much of fools to see the potential greatness that can stem from the plant.

In 1930, The Federal Bureau of Narcotics was invented by the US Treasury Department to crack down on all illegal substances being sold in the United States. This was very important at the time because the trade of drugs was considered lost revenue since the substances were illegal, they obviously couldn’t be taxed, which meant the government was losing out on thousands of dollars. Enter Harry J. Anslinger, who was appointed its head right from the start, and would continue to been charge for another 32 years. He would become one of, if not the most prominent figure in the war on drugs in the United States. As Martin Booth describes him so eloquently, “The most important player in the history of both American and international anti-narcotics law enforcement and legislation” (Booth, 179).   

In the year 1930 prohibition was beginning to crumble, so naturally that’s where the governments focus needed to be. Marijuana wasn’t even close to Anslingers radar at the time, in fact, when he was originally asked about the drug he didn’t seem to have any concern with it at, even calling the idea that is could make people act violent an “absurd allacy” (Adams, P.1) However, it didn’t take long for Anslinger to take a very different stance on the drug during his time in office. Anslinger was a very smart man and knew from the second he accepted the job that he needed to come out strong and bold, and a simple war on narcotics that were already placed as illegal wouldn’t suffice. Also at the time too few may people were taking narcotics to justify starting a full-time drug war against them. So Anslinger made a choice to start his own war against a new drug, and that drug was marijuana.  

Anslinger knew to make an impact, what he first had to do was demonize marijuana and “prove” to the public how dangerous it is. He did this by making up outrageous lies about the drug, such as it made young people… “slaves to this narcotic, continuing addiction until they deteriorate mentally, become insane, turn to violent crime and murder” (Adams, 1). He would find old newspaper stories from the twenties with even the slightest mention of marijuana connecting to violence, and spin it to look like marijuana was the main cause while completely ignoring the facts in front of him. Anslinger had no problem lying because he knew there was no other way to do it since marijuana, was and still is, generally harmless. When he asked 30 scientists about the dangers of the drug, 29 out of 30 told him it would practically harmless, but of course the public never heard that. All the public heard was the theory of one scientist who agreed with Ansliger, who also like him was dead wrong about the dangers of marijuana, but the press didn’t care and went ahead and had field day (Adams, 1). Anslinger continued to pump fear into the hearts of the American people for years, with quotes such as “"If the hideous monster Frankenstein came to face to face with the monster marihuana, he would drop dead of fright” (Booth, 177). And it was once Anslinger had the American public in his hands, he could conduct what would be the true evil behind his plan, turning his drug war into a race war. 

Now being in the early twentieth century, most of America was very racist and had no problem showing that publicly, especially towards African Americans and Latinos. So Ansliger being the bigot he is, created this evil image for marijuana, and pinned it directly to blacks and Latinos, essentially creating the perfect storm. One of his most famous and outrageously racist quotes shows nothing more than that…

There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others. (Reiman,3)

Its quotes like this that show the true evil and filth behind Anslingers motives for making marijuana illegal. And the public without hesitation ate it right up because at the time, the research on marijuana was so little, that there was no stand-alone figure who could disprove Anslinger. Johan Harri, author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drug said it best, “He was able to do so because he was tapping into very deep anxieties in the culture that were not to do with drugs — and attaching them to this drug,” (Harri, Chasing) Anslinger had succeeded, he created a smear campaign against a completely harmless drug, and turned it into a full-on race war. All of this would eventually lead to Ansligers big finale, The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, effectively prohibiting all sales and use of marijuana in America. But, it didn’t stop there, as 33 years later another set of laws would be passed by an equally racist liar in American politics, Richard Nixon and his Controlled Substances Act of 1970. 

One of the large differences between Nixon’s dealing of drugs and Anslingers, was when Nixon began the war on drugs, people were already scared of the drug so he had a lot less work to do to when it came to demonizing the drug to the public. During the time of Nixon’s presidency, marijuana was considered an “unobtrusive issue” (Johnson, 182) which means that the public learns about the topic from what they hear, instead of what they experience. So, when Nixon began the War on Drugs by increasing the size of federal drug control agencies, making mandatory sentencing for marijuana arrests, and putting marijuana in the schedule I drug category (schedule I drugs are thought of as the most dangerous with examples as heroin, LSD, and MDMA) the public immediately feared the drug once more while simultaneously giving Nixon and the government more power over the public (drugpolicy.org). Nixon ruled with fear because there wasn’t enough fact to back his arguments, so when his aid wood finally spilled Nixon’s reasoning for going after marijuana so ferociously, his actions made complete sense. 

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did.” (Baum, 1)

And there it is, Nixon created the war on drugs for the exclusive reasoning of being able to attack his enemies without making him look bad, but rather making his enemies look like murderous drug addicts and putting them in jail for years without any option. Nixon completely manipulated the public into believing that the war on drugs was great for America, when in reality, it was only great for Nixon. And even though Nixon would later be kicked out of office due to unrelated events, his evil racist agenda would continue, and still does continue to be seen in action in the modern war on drugs.

As I said in my intro, during the year 2014 in America there was a person arrested every 51 seconds for marijuana. However, what I didn’t mention was that even though white and black people smoke the same amount generally, black people are four times more likely to be arrested and charged for it (Marijuana, ACLU.org). So, if white and black people are smoking the same amount, why are more black people getting more punished? It’s a very simple answer, even though the politicians might not seem as racist as they were last century, the laws remain as racist as the intentions they were made with. These laws that are still in place set African Americans and Latinos up to fail and make it almost impossible for them to succeed because it puts them in impoverished areas, such as Baltimore, where its already assumed they are criminals so they get punished without hesitation, and are 8 times more likely to be arrested (Report, ACLU.org). The public sees this happening and are quick to make a connection between drugs and race, when “Higher arrest and incarceration rates for African Americans and Latinos are not reflective of increased prevalence of drug use…, but rather of a law enforcement focus on urban areas… and on communities of color as well as inequitable treatment by the criminal justice system” (drugpolicy.org, Race).  Aslinger's and Nixon’s focus on taking down minorities by relating them to drugs was not only very successful, but it also made ghettos which allowed the government to focus police attention on them without disturbing white neighborhoods. It can now be seen that both men became so obsessed with destroying marijuana while carrying out their individual agendas, that they neither stopped to think about the harm the War on Drugs would come to bring to America. 

Currently, marijuana makes up for more than half of the drug arrests in American prisons, with an astounding 53 percent. Now, in 2015 there was 1,488,707 drug arrests which means roughly 789,014 were arrested on marijuana charges (drugwarfacts.org). When traced back, one can see that the cost of arresting someone and sending them to prison costs tax payers a lot of money, in fact, over 3.6 billion dollars was spent on enforcing marijuana laws in 2014, and that’s not including the money spent to keep prisoners in a state or federal prison. (ACLU.org, Marijuana). Also, currently over half the states are forced to spend 30 million in tax every year to keep prisons open since a majority are full or over populated. In total, that’s over 4 billion dollars being spent every year by the American tax payers to send what is most likely a young adult caught with under an ounce of marijuana to jail, which is currently legal in multiple states (ACLU.org, report). This has been happening ever since 1937, so it is almost unimaginable the amount of money America has spent to enforce the war on marijuana. Decriminalizing marijuana may not only save America millions of dollars however; it can also make potentially billions of dollars if legalized.  

Currently, states waste every year about 3.5 billion dollars on enforcing marijuana laws every year (ACLU). From equipping police forces to drug busts, it costs a fortune to keep up with the harsh rules currently set up against marijuana. But what people are now seeing is that not only can legalizing marijuana save us money, but it can potentially be the modern-day gold rush. Ever since Colorado legalized marijuana back in 2012, they have had the best economy out of any state in America which is no surprise when you look at just how much money can be made (US News). Not only that, but since marijuana can be taxed so heavily, the state has had the opportunity to raise the quality of life for its citizens since the government now has funds to spend. Colorado currently ranks second in job growth and GDP, seventh in strongest infrastructure, second in educational attainment, and first in overall happiness (US News). Last year it only 10 months to pass a billion dollars in recreational sales in Colorado, and its only getting started. Currently the market for legal cannabis is estimated at 7.2 billion dollars but, is projected to grow annually at a rate of seventeen percent and create more than a quarter million jobs, which is larger than the manufacturing market predictions (Borchardt, 1). And these estimates are only coming from the 8 states that have marijuana both recreationally and medically legal. If it becomes legal nationally, there is no telling the billions of dollars that can be made from the legal sale of marijuana. And as if the societal and economic benefits weren’t enough, there’s also been proof of dozens of medical breakthroughs using marijuana.

One major detail that sets apart marijuana apart from other frequently used drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, is its untapped potential to be a medical breakthrough. There’s been countless studies done showing that marijuana has the potential to be treat millions of patients. Studies have proven that marijuana has dozens of medical uses from helping treat glaucoma, stopping the spread of cancer cells, slowing down the progression of Alzheimer’s, and can even help treat Parkinson’s patients by smoothing their tremors (Loria, 1). And this isn’t only for adults, studies have also shown that in many cases, medical marijuana has been able to help treat children as well. Studies have shown that “Cannabis helped children with epilepsy by drastically reducing seizures and improving behavior for those who also have autism” (Schwartz, 2). Autism is one of the most common and rapid growing disorders in America today that still has no solid treatment. So why not use a drug that has been proved to, in more than 110 clinical trials, have countless benefits?  Not only can it help treat diseases, but marijuana can also replace dozens of current drugs on the market that have been proven to be very dangerous to their patients, especially opioids.

 Currently in America 2.6 million people struggle with an opioid addiction, with the drug of choice usually being prescription painkillers (Volkow, 1). Every year millions are prescribed drugs such as Vicodin or OxyContin, which are extremely addictive and can lead to addiction and death with over 26 million people dying from opioids in 2016 (Volkow, 2). Now, with all the research that has been done, more doctors are agreeing that marijuana can be a much safer and healthier substitute for current medicine. Painkillers are mostly prescribed for PTSD patients, head trauma patients, and for extreme injuries, all of which can be replaced with marijuana (Loria, 3). And now with more research being done every day, more people have stepped out to endorse the potential wonder drug. Former general surgeon Jocelyn Elders has just recently started the group DFCR (Doctors for Cannabis Regulation) which is made up of over 50 of the best physicians in America, to make the statement that now that we have this research, it’s time to make a change and legalize marijuana. This has been huge for the pro legalization movement because this contradicts what the American Medical Association has said, and seeing that these prominent health figures are willing to risk their reputation and job because of marijuana's medical potential, sends a message to the public and government that the drug is truly something special However, as there is with every drug, there are some negatives that are associated with marijuana.

From all the studies that have been done up to this point on marijuana, doctors have been able to conclude that marijuana is seemingly harmless when used by an adult with a fully-grown brain. However, the same can’t be said when it comes to the growing brains of children. A brain isn’t fully developed until the age of 25 so when children smoke marijuana, it can be very harmful to their mental health (Preidt, 1). It been shown that children who smoke marijuana constantly before the brain has fully developed can affect their memory and their ability to organize. It has also been linked to lower test scores in some situations of heavy users at a young age (Associated Press, 1). And what many parents are worried about is as marijuana becomes more accepted in society, more children will think it’s okay to use the drug, which will lead to more crime, more children dropping out of school, and accidents from being high on the drug. But, if looked at closely, it’s actually the very opposite. States that have legal marijuana now have the money to avoid these issues that come along with legalization since marijuana is bringing in tax money at an unprecedented rate. Colorado in 2016 made 140 million dollars in tax revenue that has since gone to projects such as building new and improved schools with proper funding, starting drug prevention programs, and helping improve the law enforcement (Ingraham, 1). All of which had very positive outcomes because Colorado teen usage of marijuana hasn’t changed, drug arrests are down 60 percent, and even the rate of DUI’s remained the exact same (Ingraham, 2). So, while there are some obvious dangers to marijuana for children, the money that the drug brings in allows the government to address those concerns and stop them from becoming true.  

When people consider the methods marijuana can become legalized, the main options that come to mind are recreational, and medical. Currently, there are 8 states with recreational marijuana, and 20 with medical. However, what many people forget is that there is a third and very viable option, decriminalization. What this means essentially is that rather then also having to set up the thousands of laws that come along with legalization such as taxing, age, quality and so on, it simply makes marijuana not an illegal substance anymore in the United States of America, removing all criminal and monetary penalties (Bonnie, 702). This is a much more viable option for one simple reason, it takes the power out of the federal governments hands, the ones who made marijuana illegal, and puts it in the hands of the states and their individual citizens. Also, decriminalization would be able to go into effect years before any national marijuana laws would be approved since legalizing marijuana is what one writer would call, “A mare’s nest of logistical and pragmatic questions” and would most likely take years. And while that may not seem like a big deal, the longer the government waits, the longer people must pay ridiculous taxes and the number of innocent minorities sent to jail will continue to rise. Not only that, but more people will also become addicted and die from prescription pain killers. And even though we’ve just scratched the surface of opportunity that marijuana can create, it’s almost impossible to be granted the right to do a study on the drug since it remains federally illegal, and until that changes, millions every year will continue to suffer.

Now that it can be seen that marijuana was made illegal because of racist politicians with personal agendas, it’s time to decriminalize the drug because of its positive economic, medical, and social aspects. It can now be seen that marijuana was the victim of a racist and vindictive witch-hunt, and it is finally time to put an end to it. No more lies of marijuana being a gateway drug and causing sickness and psychopathic tendencies. No more minorities in America should go to prison, from a substance used by almost everyone, simply because of the color of their skin or where they live. No more should people be forced to take addictive painkillers that claim millions of lives a year. It’s time for the American government to own up for their mistakes and their mistreating or the drug. Legal marijuana has the potential to change history forever, and the time for that change is now. 
