Cannabis News Marijuana Policy Project
  Legalizing Marijuana Would Benefit Many
Posted by FoM on June 19, 2001 at 13:37:56 PT
Staff Editorial 
Source: Michigan Daily  

medical Just one month ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously to ax yet another proposal to legalize medicinal marijuana, with Justice Clarence Thomas boldly stating that the plant has no valid medicinal uses; at the American Medical Association’s annual policy-setting meeting in Chicago last week, the AMA was urged by one of its own committees to support the “compassionate use” of the drug. Hopefully, the AMA will adopt this proposal, thus lending some credibility to the many patients who’ve found it helpful.

Lawmakers in Canada are well on their way to decriminalizing the wacky weed. Terminally ill patients all over the country are able to live more comfortably by smoking a bit of illegal pot. Public support is growing faster than cannabis in a closet. It’s time for the U.S. government to get off its high — or rather, decidedly not high — horse and legalize marijuana.

So far, all the federal government has done is spout rhetoric about marijuana: Their propaganda tells us that it is dangerous, often laced with deadly substances and leads inevitably to hard drug use. They ignore the facts that legalization and minimal regulations would nearly destroy the possibility of accidentally purchasing spiked marijuana and that just because many hard-drug users also use or once used marijuana doesn’t mean that most marijuana users move on to harder drugs. In fact, most of them don’t.

First, marijuana appears to be less harmful than some other legal drugs. Unlike the nicotine found in cigarettes, THC, the active chemical in marijuana, has never been proven to be physically addictive. While the alcohol found in beer, wine and other such beverages has caused many deaths-by-overdose, there have been no documented cases of fatal marijuana overdoses. It makes little sense that these proven-harmful substances remain legal and widely advertised while marijuana is illegal and condemned.

Secondly, contrary to the opinion of Justice Thomas, evidence suggests that marijuana does have valid medicinal applications. It has enabled many cancer patients ravaged by chemotherapy and AIDS patients on numerous nauseating medications to eat again, preventing their weakened bodies from consuming themselves. It has been used to ease the pains of quadriplegia, to soothe the seizures of epilepsy and the pain of multiple sclerosis. People unfortunate enough to be stricken with terminal diseases should not also be denied their sole relief or sent to jail for trying to lessen this pain through marijuana use.

This brings us to the next contentions in the case for legalization: Possession arrests and prison overcrowding. About 85 percent of marijuana-related arrests are possession arrests. Every day, law enforcement officials waste their time and our tax dollars by arresting people merely for possessing the drug. Additionally, U.S. prisons are just teeming with marijuana offenders, people who have never done anything to harm anyone else. If marijuana was decriminalized and these “offenders” set free, there would be more space in our prisons for dangerous, violent criminals (e.g. rapists, child molesters, murderers, etc.) who pose an actual threat to society.

The public may never know why the federal government is so insistent about keeping pot illegal, why it insists upon wasting its scarce prison space on creatures as harmless as marijuana smokers or why it refuses to acknowledge the plant’s potential benefits. At least, not until some prominent lawmaker finds him or herself afflicted with a terminal disease.

Complete Title: Just Say Yes: Legalizing Marijuana Would Benefit Many

Source: Michigan Daily (MI)
Published: June 18, 2001
Copyright: 2001 The Michigan Daily
Contact: daily.letters@umich.edu
Website: http://www.michigandaily.com/

Related Articles:

AMA Council Still Supports Medical Marijuana
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10103.shtml

AMA Discusses Marijuana Medical Use
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10075.shtml


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Comment #6 posted by ilikeweedpot on October 09, 2001 at 14:03:21 PT:

PLEASE MAKE WEED LEGAL!
I THINK MARIJUANA SHOULD BE LEGAL. THERE ARE FAR FEWER ACCIDENTS CONCERNING WEED THAN ALCOHOL. IF THE GOVERNMENT LEGALIZED OXYCOTTON BUT REFUSE TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA, THEN THERE IS SOMETHING SERIUOSLY WRONG WITH OUR GOVT. I MEAN, WHAT DOES WEED ACTUALLY DO TO YOUR BODY THATS SO BAD? IT DOESNT HAVE THE TAR OR NICOTINE LIKE CIGARETTES DO SO ITS VERY HARD TO GET ADDICTED TO IT, IT TAKES PAIN AWAY SUCH AS GUACOMA. THE ONLY THING I CAN THINK OF THATS BAD IS THE SHORT TERM MEMORY LOSS. I CAN LIVE WITH THAT. THE GOVT. CAN ALWAYS LOOK AT IT THIS WAY: SOMETHING ELSE TO TAX. THEY WOULD BENEFIT FROM IT AS WELL. CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW MANY PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD TODAY WOULD PURCHASE POT? I MEAN MY GOD! THE NUMBERS WOULD BE IN THE BILLIONS. IT WOULD BE SO COOL IF YOU COULD GO TO YOUR NEAREST DRIVE THROUGH OR GAS STATION AND SAY "A PACK OF MARIJUANAS IN A HARD PACK OR A PACK OF MARIJUANA LIGHTS 100'S". THANX FOR READING AND KEEP TRYING TO MAKE THIS WONDERFUL PLANT L.E.G.A.L.

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Comment #5 posted by ekim on June 21, 2001 at 17:25:32 PT:

Hey M what about a term paper
This brings us to the next contentions in the case for legalization: Possession arrests and prison overcrowding. About 85 percent of marijuana-related arrests are possession arrests. Every day, law enforcement officials waste their time and our tax dollars by arresting people merely for possessing the drug. Additionally, U.S. prisons are just teeming with marijuana offenders, people who have never done anything to harm anyone else

Hey M what about a term paper on how much the ticket law has saved the city of Ann Arbor in the past 30 years. Just think of all the cells that went empty and the court docket that was not overcrowded. To say nothing about the man-hour or cop-hours that were not wasted. We here in Kalamazoo are being asked for 40 million to build a new jail. If we had a ticket law I bet we would be like Ann Arbor and not need a new one.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #4 posted by m segesta on June 21, 2001 at 10:44:20 PT:

I'm Not Always Proud
I'm not always proud to say this place is my alma mater, especially when people are talking about how certain schools within the U discriminate in their admissions policies, or when Dr. Johnson at the Institute for Social Research comes out with his annual Youth of Amerika (ye gods, I have started spelling my country's name with a "k" like everyone else here does!) Survey on How Much Money He Can Take From the Feds and Put in his Pock......oops, I meant, his annual survey on drug use by kids -- the huge cost of which is, of course, justified, because of "the children."

But reading this lil' gem here, I am so proud!

M

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by ekim on June 21, 2001 at 06:36:29 PT:

www.prayes.com
We in Michigan are trying to get a petition on the ballot that will let anyone 21 and over have three plants and three ozs. of cannabis. If anyone out there can help please do. We are all volunteers. For 30 years Ann Arbor has had a ticket law for possession, that has saved countless thousands from a permenent scar on there records. If everyone that has ever gotten a ticket in Ann Arbor would get just 50 people to sign the petition we would have enought to qualify.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #2 posted by Neil on June 19, 2001 at 19:05:33 PT
Rewrite in order
Just one month ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled cowardly and corruptly to ax yet another proposal to lift illegal laws regulating medicinal marijuana, with Pseudo-Justice Clarence Thomas boldly but incorrectly stating that the plant has no valid medicinal uses; at the American Medical Association’s annual policy-setting meeting in Chicago last week, the AMA was urged by one of its own committees to support the ninth and tenth Amendments to the United States Constituion. Hopefully, the AMA will adopt this proposal, thus lending some credibility to the U.S. Constitution which was established by and for "WE THE PEOPLE' many of whom find it helpful.


[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #1 posted by lookinside on June 19, 2001 at 19:02:34 PT:

sheesh...
here i was ready to write something scathing...and i agree
with everything these folks said...burst my bubble..(way to go)


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