The current war on drugs is a complete failure! Innocent people are being prosecuted for having recreational amounts of marijuana and are treated as criminals.

Is this right? Legalizing and decriminalizing marijuana would allow responsible citizens to be free to enjoy hemp products as they choose. But because of the unfair war on drugs, people are hunted down like animals and thrown into a biased legal system.

Law enforcement propaganda about marijuana is false. Evidence shows that marijuana is good for people—as a medicine and also as a consciousness enhancer. The government constantly lies and uses scare-tactics to “educate” the public so that marijuana remains illegal. However, marijuana is so commonly used that over 30 million people in the United States regularly smoke it.

Marijuana can be used to relieve people suffering from certain ailments. It has been proven that people suffering from AIDS, cancer, chronic pain, glaucoma and stomach ailments smoke marijuana and find it to be the most effective treatment for their illness.

Drug arrests account for 25 percent of all people in prison. Legalizing marijuana would enable our police and courts to deal with real criminals. It would stop their pointless crusade against a plant which is much less dangerous to society than alcohol or cigarettes.

Marijuana, taxed like alcohol and cigarettes, would save the country billions of tax dollars. Also, used as paper, it can save forests and trees. Hemp is a better quality paper and can be easily grown in huge fields every year.

Many other uses for marijuana are not available to the public today. Educate yourself, through the Drug Policy Foundation or other sources, and find the truths about this remarkable drug.

Opponents say this is a “gateway drug” and it is the root of all evil. However, studies have shown that when it is legalized, drug use decreases (i.e. Holland and its current drug policy).

History teaches us that it is vain to hope that marijuana will ever disappear. Isn’t it the right of the people to have it controlled in a civil manner? Legalize it, don’t criminalize it any longer.

Tricia Dalby

Senior

Journalism/Political Science