War With Marijuana

War Against Marijuana A total of 3,470,545 Americans have been arrested for marijuana offenses. In 1997 state and local law enforcement arrested 695,200 people for marijuana violations. That number is the highest ever recorded by the FBI. Of the 682,885 arrests made in 1998, approximately 88% were for simple possession. The remaining 12% were for sale and manufacture. Every 52 seconds, a marijuana smoker is arrested in America. This is truly a waste of law enforcement and a waste of our tax money. These people getting arrested are generally responsible adults capable of making their own decisions. Marijuana was made illegal in 1937, but hemp was kept legal to use. Hemp provides from four to fourteen tons of dry fibers per acre per year. It can be made into paper, cloth, and cellulose for plastic. If drug laws would allow hemp farming, we’d have an alternative resource for paper, which would save our trees. When you look at the one-dollar bill, you are looking at a hemp farmer, George Washington grew hemp. The US Drug Enforcement Agency is ignorant to realize that there is a big difference between hemp and marijuana. Hemp can not be used to get high, and it never was used for that, but it still was put in the same category as heroin. Our tax dollars go to feed all the people that are held in prison on marijuana related charges. Those people are now struggling to feed their children, knowing that they won’t get much help, because they are “criminals” according to a good percentage of society. Our society thinks marijuana isn’t acceptable because it is illegal. Marijuana was made illegal because congress put up a fight, and went against narcotics. It was found a narcotic when it was classified along with opiates. It was deemed too dangerous to allow research, and dismissed all attempts to argue over it. We know that the legal drug addictions present now, do not cause any crimes. The actions from them, but not the use. You can’t baby all alcohol users, making sure they don’t drink too much. You can’t tell someone that they can’t smoke marijuana, when their beliefs are otherwise. On June 21, 2000, Val Walton a news staff writer for The Birmingham News reported that a 46 year old man could face life in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to running a drug operation that sold thousands of pounds of marijuana. The man pleaded guilty to his charges of continuing a criminal enterprise and drug trafficking. Since this is a federal offense, he is not provided with parole as an option. He could face 20 years to life in prison. Now this man is not innocent, he was carrying an illegal firearm to engage in money laundering. His home was searched and authorities found at least 40 weapons, $30,000 worth of jewelry and more was found in a safety deposit box. This man should spend some time in prison for these offenses with no doubt. But the 20 years to life is for the marijuana, and the added 5-year sentence is for the weapons charge. This is just one of the thousands of cases, and not the usual, most are just for marijuana offenses. Marijuana is classified as a minor psychedelic drug. If it is used in large amounts, it could lead to a psychedelic effect. So can medication and alcohol, and it is okay to drink alcohol. This is not a new drug either; it dates back to 4,000 years ago in China. The emperor smoked it, and promoted its use for an all-purpose medication. It spread to India and other neighboring countries. Early Hindus used it for a variety of purposes as well. We have used it as a medical aid for thousands of years, and still are used for a variety of purposes, just not legally in most cases. There are many myths about Pot used to discourage use. One is that Pot is nearly ten times more potent and dangerous than in the sixties. This is based on government data, and samples from the 70’s recently compared to domesticated marijuana of today show that it’s potency has increased moderately by a factor of two or so. The government ignores that it was available in premium varieties in the sixties, like Acapulco Gold, as well as hashish and hash oil, which is every bit as strong as today’s marijuana. Another myth is that Pot kills brain cells. This myth came from animal experiments in which changes, not actual cell deaths were observed when animals were exposed to high doses of pot. There is no physical evidence that it causes permanent brain damage. User’s should know that it does cause short-term memory loss has been found in chronic smokers, after about 6 to 12 weeks of abstinence. This is probably what makes people think it will damage you brain cells. Other drugs including alcohol have been noted to cause brain damage though. People try to say it will cause you to become sterile and lower testosterone in males. In contrast to alcohol use, there is more of a chance you will become impotent or have low testosterone levels from drinking alcohol. In females it has been shown that it may temporarily lower fertility or increase risk of fetal lost, even mildly disrupt ovulation. Again, if you drink alcohol the same risks are at stake, even worse ones. Experts generally recommend that drugs not are used during pregnancy, but there is little evidence that marijuana use implicates fetal harm, unlike alcohol, cocaine, or tobacco. A variety of studies indicate that THC may exercise reversible immune-suppressive effects by causing the activity of the immune system cells to be inhibited. It is dubious whether they are of import to human health, since it is based mainly on theoretical laboratory animal studies. Chronic pot smokers have been shown to suffer damage to immune cells, the ones that are defense mechanisms. It is unclear how much damage is caused due to THC, as opposed to all the other toxins that occur in smoke. Water pipes and other devices can filter out many of those toxins. Many AIDS patients smoke marijuana to help stimulate appetite and reduce nausea. Cannabis doesn’t actually damage T-cells, which are depleted in HIV patients. Some studies even found that exposure to marijuana increased T-cell counts in subjects who were not AIDS patients, but had a low T-cell count. Laboratory studies have suggested that high doses of THC might interfere with cell replication, Producing abnormal numbers of chromosomes. There is no evidence that it damages cells and chromosomes. A review done by Dr. Leo Hollister from the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs said: “The evidence on immune suppression has been contradictory and is more supportive of some degree of immune-suppression only when one considers in vitro studies. These have been seriously flawed by very high concentrations of drugs used to produce immune-suppression. The closer that experimental studies have been to actual clinical situations, the less compelling has been

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