Speech On Marijuana Legalization

Doobie, jimmy, joint, reefer, spliff, Jay, jazz cigarette, blunt, doob, L, ganja, grass, pot, bud, trees, and mary jane. There, I've said it. Feels good, too. Now, why are these words thought to be "bad". Some people feel weird even saying the word, marijuana. But why is that? Why are we taught from such a young age that marijuana is bad. Why are we able to go into any store and buy tobacco, which kills 400,000 people annually; alcohol, which kills 100,000 people annually; and caffeine, which kills 2,000 people annually. According to the New England Journal of medicine, you would have to smoke 1500 pounds of marijuana in under 15 minutes to OD.

My proposition is that we, as the citizens of the United States, demand that marijuana be de-criminalized and legalized. The financial reasons, as well as health, counter-balance the means of criminalization. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws or NORML, is a US-based non-profit corporation whose aim is, according to their most recent mission statement, "move public opinion sufficiently to achieve the repeal of marijuana prohibition so that the responsible use of cannabis by adults is no longer subject to penalty." According to their website, NORML "supports the removal of all criminal penalties for the private possession and responsible use of marijuana by adults, including the cultivation for personal use, and the casual nonprofit transfers of small amounts," and "supports the development of a legally controlled market for marijuana."

There are many non-profit organizations dedicated to Marijuana reform and de-criminalization. Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) is a Washington DC-based non-profit political organization founded in 1998. According to SSDP's mission and value statements, the organization neither encourages nor condemns drug use. Rather, by involving the American youth (the D.A.R.E generation) in the political process, they are committed to providing education on harms caused by the War on Drugs and promoting an open, honest, and rational discussion on alternative solutions to U.S. drug problems. SSDP seeks to overturn drug policies that impede young people's access to education. SSDP functions through chapters in U.S. high schools and colleges promoting student and teacher activism for sensible change in American attitudes towards drug abuse and drug policies. As of May 2005, there are over 115 chapters in the United States.

The Marijuana Policy Project, or MPP is an organization in the United States "working to minimize the harm associated with marijuana". MPP advocates legalizing possession and sale of marijuana, arguing that a regulated marijuana industry would separate purchasers from the street market for cocaine, heroin, and other hard drugs. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, MPP's activities forced prohibitionists to expend unprecedented amounts of time and resources fighting legalization initiatives. Members of this group include TV host Montel Williams, Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, Former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, Actor Jack Black, Actor/singer Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, Comedian and political activist Bill Maher, Author Tom Robbins, Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow, and the Former Surgeon General of the United States Joycelyn Elders.

More than 500 economists (Including a trio of Nobel Prize winners -- Milton Friedman of Stanford's Hoover Institution, George Akerlof of UC Berkeley and Vernon Smith of George Mason University) have signed an open letter to President Bush and other public officials calling for "an open and honest debate about marijuana prohibition."

Denver, Colorado lawmakers have listened to the facts and as of now, a 21 year old person is able to obtain and consume marijuana. They are also allotted up to one ounce of marijuana in their possession. What does Denver know that we don't?

The history of marijuana criminalization has roots as crooked as the politicians at the time. Andrew Mellon became Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury. He appointed his future nephew-in-law, Harry J. Anslinger, to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Secret meetings were held by these financial tycoons. In reality, the Mexican cultivation and sales of marijuana in the United States was taking money away from the business at the time. Hemp products hurt the US oil, lumber, and clothing corporations so drastically that the men in charge decided to outlaw it. For their dynasties to remain intact, hemp had to go. These men took an obscure Mexican slang word: 'marihuana' and pushed it into the consciousness of America. Congress banned hemp and marijuana because it was said to be the most violence-causing drug known. Anslinger, head of the Drug Commission for 31 years, promoted the idea that marihuana made users act extremely violent. In the 1950s, under the Communist threat of McCarthyism, Anslinger now said the exact opposite. Marijuana will pacify you so much that soldiers would not want to fight.

A Harvard University professor of economics, Jeffrey Miron, has crunched the numbers, and he's determined that legalizing marijuana would save $7.7 billion annually in money spent on enforcing dope laws. That breaks down to $5.3 billion in savings for state and local governments, and $2.4 billion in cost reductions at the federal level. Miron estimates that tax revenue for legalized pot would run about $2.4 billion annually if it were taxed like all other goods. Yet if marijuana were taxed at rates comparable to the aggressive levies placed on alcohol and tobacco -- and it should be -- Miron determined that it would yield $6.2 billion in annual revenue. In his study, "The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition," Miron places the illicit U.S. market for marijuana at about $10.5 billion in annual sales. (Figures close to $11 billion seem to be the consensus among people who guess at such things.) Decriminalization would result in lower production costs as dope farming and processing go mainstream. It would also lead to what Miron believes would be only a modest increase in demand because "the people who care about it are already consuming it."

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