The Case for Cannabis

Published in the 4/22 edition of La Vie (Lebanon Valley College's weekly rag). I wrote the case for cannabis, the perspectives editor wrote the case against. Yes, I schooled her. I schooled her good.

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There is no other way to say it: marijuana prohibition is the dumbest, most harmful thing America has ever done to its citizens. It is the culmination of American legislative stupidity - placing the welfare and pocketbooks of every taxpaying citizen in jeopardy.

To legalize or not to legalize is not even a question. The defense for prohibition formulated in the 30s has been debunked by the magic of science and mathematics. Crazed reefer addicts aren’t cruising our streets looking for helpless virgins to rape. Drugs sold by Pfizer wreak more havoc on the brain than the finest Moroccan hashish.

It is time for America to face the music: the slew of prohibition laws are stupid. There is no shame in admitting to the mistake; oversight happens all the time and people make stupid mistakes everyday. Now it is high time for the mistake of marijuana prohibition to be corrected. Are these swine going to acknowledge the harsh truth that they were, and still are wrong?

Ah, the truth. A rare and dangerous commodity in this day and age. The truth of the $150 billion we spend per year on enforcement and court costs, with 50% of arrests being marijuana related. Or the truth of the $68 billion per year we spend on prisons, with 33% of those in jail there on marijuana charges.

No, President Obama, perhaps legalizing marijuana won’t help us “grow our economy”. Maybe it would save us, the taxpayers, the billions we lose annually on this waste of a war. Maybe it would help trim the profit margins of the Mexican drug cartels that make $25 billion every year off of American drug habits. On that note, if drugs were legalized, would there be violent drug dealers at all?

This isn’t just about the Mike Phelps and Andy Goetz’s of the world anymore. Marijuana legalization is no longer a case of “fight the power, man.” Our economy is hurting, and while legalization marijuana wouldn’t be a cure-all it would certainly be a boon. Mexico is burning, and the reason why there are violent drug dealers is because America created drug laws. Prohibition has created more problems for the US and the world, in terms of money as well as quality of life, than will ever be worth it.
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I think I could have done better, but I'm happy with what I had. With a 400 word count limit, I couldn't lay down as much as I would have liked, but I think I got the point across.

- Rev.