The Illegal Multi-Billion Dollar Industry: Why It’s Time To Legalize Marijuana

*This paper is a rough draft for English 101 at UNCG. Essay by Eugene Glukh. 

Marijuana has been a popular drug in American culture for decades now. It was popularized in the 1970s with the new wave of rock and even more in the 1980s and 1990s with the golden age of hip-hop. Since then the popularity of marijuana hasn’t gone down, and we’ve even seen some states legalize it, either medically or recreationally. Even though it is popular in mainstream culture, in the eyes of the law, marijuana is an illegal drug which can result in felony charges and years of jail time and ruined reputations. It is long overdue to legalize it on a federal level and turn an illegal multi-billion dollar industry into a legal one. With political figures arguing about this topic for years now, the legalization of marijuana seems more likely than ever before. With the legalization of marijuana, the United States will see major positive reform, instead of spending billions every year arresting people for marijuana and ruining countless lives we will see billions come in from legally selling and taxing marijuana, it will create countless new jobs in a legal market, and on top of all this, medical marijuana can be used to help the sick.

Marijuana, like many current illegal drugs, has only been illegal for a short period of time.  Marijuana use, as stated by Pete Guither in his Drug WarRant (DWR) blog, has dated back thousands of years, and the first marijuana laws in the US were enacted to make farmers to grow the plant, in these times a farmer could go to jail for not growing the plant. The plant was used for many different materials, but it was a vital part of the early US economy. Now, in the 21^st century it is an illegal drug that can lead to a felony record and years in jail. Laws against marijuana were first passed in California in the early 1900s, and later as it became a bigger issue, race became involved in it. A Texas senator who was for the prohibition of marijuana was quoted saying, ‘“All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy”’ (DWR). Marijuana was made illegal due to a racist and unreasonable fear of a rising immigration from groups of people that were not white. America was looking for a reason to put them in jail, a few people saw them using marijuana and before long marijuana was an illegal narcotic. Since then America has seen a harsh war on drugs, and America now has the highest person incarcerated per capita than any other country in the world, and many of these people are in jail because of lowly marijuana charges.

One of the reasons that countless people, and even many politicians have called for the prohibition of marijuana to end is because of the way the system behind the war on drugs works. The system believes in incarceration over rehabilitation, lock a person away in a cell, hope they don’t get their hands on the drugs they want that still manage to slither their way into prison, and pray that when they get out a few months or years later they will be cured. Marijuana in itself is not a very addicting drug, the New York Times article by Jane Brody states that only nine percent of people who try marijuana become dependent while alcohol holds at fifteen percent and tobacco stands at thirty-two percent (Brody). The dependency for marijuana is much less lower than two very popular legal drugs, and most scientist argue that marijuana is in general much safer than both tobacco and alcohol. On top of the fact that marijuana itself is not that bad, the way the legal system incarcerates its victims is incredibly harsh. Mandatory minimums, a legal minimum sentence based on the amount of a drug in a person’s possession upon arrest or based on if the person has been charged for the same drug before has been destroying lives. The Americans for Safe Access (ASA) discusses the current legal mandatory minimums:

There is a five-year mandatory minimum for cultivation of 100 plants or possession of 100kgs, and there is a 10-year mandatory minimum for these offenses if the defendant has a prior felony drug conviction. Cultivation or possession of 1000kg or 1000 plants triggers a 10 year mandatory minimum, with a 20-year mandatory sentence if the defendant has one prior felony drug conviction, and a life sentence with two prior felony drug convictions.

The fact that one can spend life in jail over marijuana charges is insane, a CEO of a business could become corrupt and ruin the lives of millions of people and spend a few years in jail while a young adult trying to scrape by will spend twenty years for marijuana possession with intent to sell. The system is broken, people who commit violent crimes such as rape can even spend less time in jail than people on marijuana charges. Even more, many people convicted with felony level drug charges can’t vote, which means they can’t even have a say in improving the conditions they personally live in. The war on drugs has been vicious, and the fact that the legalization of marijuana is still not a reality is insane to the minds of some of the brightest political figures of America.

            Even if a person doesn’t partake in marijuana, they still have a major reason to support the end of prohibition, and that’s just simple economics. So far only four states have legalized it recreationally and slightly under half have legalized it medically. Colorado was the first state to legalize it on a recreational level and after its first year saw a profit of fifty-three million dollars in tax revenue (Lobosco). This is just one state in its first year of a new economical venture. As time goes on, it can be expected that more and more people will buy marijuana sold legally and if every state legalizes the United States can expect billions in tax dollars from a marijuana tax per year. There will be thousands of new legal jobs for selling recreational marijuana and new areas of study and work in the medical and pharmaceutical field. Even better, we would stop spending as much money putting people behind bars for unnecessarily long times for charges as minute as marijuana. The overall savings the United States would achieve by legalizing marijuana, and the amount of money that would come in legally is a huge reason to legalize it.

            Medical marijuana has been a heated topic amongst doctors and politicians for quite some time now. Medical marijuana has been used to treat cancer patients and patients that tend to be in a lot of pain, and even though it is not FDA approved, two pills using a chemical extract found in cannabis has been approved by the FDA as stated by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH). The NIH even references research that has been shown potential to help fight cancer:

For instance, recent animal studies have shown that marijuana extracts may help kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others. Evidence from one cell culture study suggests that purified extracts from whole-plant marijuana can slow the growth of cancer cells from one of the most serious types of brain tumors.

Even though there hasn’t been enough research done for the FDA to announce that marijuana itself can be considered a drug, many signs are pointing to the idea that medical marijuana has many benefits. Drug War Facts (DWF) listed the total annual cause of deaths by drugs in 2013, and marijuana/cannabis had a total body count of zero. Prescription pain killers, or analgesics, had a total of 18,893 deaths in 2014 (DWF). Medical marijuana has been used as an alternative to these type of drugs, and from the looks of it, it is much safer than these drugs that are already being prescribed by doctors. Even though there is still much research left to be done on medical marijuana, all the signs are pointing that medical marijuana is a safe alternative to current pain medication and may have benefits that are still unbeknownst to us.

            The legalization of marijuana has been a long standing argument amongst politicians, but as they days go by, more and more big name politicians seem to understand the benefits of legalizing marijuana. One of the biggest names, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has openly announced his preposition for criminal justice reform as well as the legalization of marijuana. Bernie’s goal is to federally legalize and tax marijuana in order to end what he considers a racial injustice. There also seems to be overwhelming support from the people for the legalization of marijuana, Levine stated, “Nationally, legalization polls show a steady march towards favorability, with 58% saying they support the movement, according to a Gallup poll released last month” (Levine). With many people supporting the legalization of marijuana and a front running presidential candidate, it seems likely that marijuana may become a legal drug within the next few years. Even right now, our current President, Barack Obama, has admitted to smoking marijuana as a youth. Marijuana users and sellers are often normal people, many people in the upper and middle class partake in marijuana, and most of the people who are punished for it however, are people in the lower class who sell it for a living, or non-whites who get caught with it. With all the proven benefits of marijuana and the fact that it’s been proven safer than many things that are legal has garnered support from politicians, marijuana users, and people who see the clear benefit of legalizing marijuana.

            The legalization of marijuana has many proven benefits, and many benefits that will only be visible to us when it actually occurs. The pros far outweigh the cons and support to end the prohibition of marijuana is at an all-time high (no pun intended). The prohibition of legalization has proven to be harmful to the American people, and choosing to ignore that is nothing short of pathetic and ignorant. It is time the people sitting in Congress and the House realize that the people want to end prohibition, because it is the people who are being hurt by these unjust laws, not them. It is time for a new era, and as small it may seem, the legalization of marijuana will bring amazing change to the United States.

Works Cited

"Annual Causes of Death in the United States." Annual Causes of Death in the United States. Common Sense for Drug Policy, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. <http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Causes_of_Death>.

Brody, Jane E. "Addiction: A Brain Ailment, Not a Moral Lapse." The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Sept. 2003. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/30/health/personal-health-addiction-a-brain-ailment-not-a-moral-lapse.html>.

"Federal Marijuana Law." Americans for Safe Access. Americans for Safe Access, n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2016. <http://www.safeaccessnow.org/federal_marijuana_law>.

Guither, Pete. "Drug WarRant." Drug WarRant. Wordpress, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. <http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/>.

"Is Marijuana Medicine?" DrugFacts:. National Institute on Drug Abuse, n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2016. <http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana-medicine>.

Levine, Jon. "Bernie Sanders Is Already Making Good on His Promise to Get You Weed ASAP." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 15 Nov. 2015. Web. 09 Feb. 2016. <http://news.yahoo.com/bernie-sanders-already-making-good-142839292.html>.

Lobosco, Katie. "Recreational Pot Delivers $53 Million in Tax Revenue to Colorado." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 12 Feb. 2015. Web. 31 Jan. 2016. <http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/12/news/economy/colorado-marijuana-tax-revenue/>.