’)A Pot Head Divided
By James BluntI’ve smoked one too many joints and ripped a few bongs in my time. I’m an adamant pothead that fits the mould like the last piece of a puzzle. Somewhere between my shaggy hair and goofy grin you’ll find a few rants about Global Warming and an unexplainable love for psychedelic rock. But this hippie isn’t like the rest. I’ll sample tofu, frolic in the mud and discuss the sound quality of vinyl all day but I’ll take my weed illegally thank you and you can shove all these legalization bills up your ass.
There are few topics in modern culture more discussed than the legalization of Marijuana, mainly because all potheads do is talk about things. For the most part every argument placed for the legalization of marijuana carries a fair amount of legitimacy. Marijuana is a non-addictive substance, that is less lethal than a pair of scissors and more fun then a barrel of monkeys. Last year nearly a million citizens flooded our jails for crimes related to this drug and young people are killed every year due to the violent nature of the underground drug trade. Potential tax revenue for a nationwide legalization is estimated to be in the billions and these days the federal government could use any revenue it can get its hands on. It seems like a pretty flawless argument
So why not just legalize the drug? Well what are the other options? One would be to continue with the current laws we have in place and it has already been noted that they are very costly due to the nature of The United States Legal System. Anther would be the option of decriminalization where the possession of the drug would no longer carry criminal consequences but would instead be treated much like an expensive parking ticket, which is the current system Canada runs under. This option of decriminalization makes much more sense for our current culture and society in The United States.
Now you may wonder why a user would push for decriminalization when the full legalization of a drug was an option. Well for one,although I am an avid user, I do believe that there are negative effects that come with the use of marijuana. The drug dumbs you down, blurs your memory, promotes laziness and quite frankly I don’t want to still be smoking joints when I’m forty. I’d prefer if the legal system helped me kick my habit.
I don’t believe it would be appropriate to fully embrace the drug as a nation and I am confident you would run into many of the problems currently seen in alcohol and tobacco. Contrary to popular belief marijuana is not good for you and in many cases has been shown to be worse for one's lungs than tobacco. Along with that comes the increased use of marijuana in public areas, which could only have a negativeimpact on society.
How many people do you know that have ever been arrested for smoking marijuana? Probably none. People are arrested for selling drugs and driving under the influence of drugs and crossing borders with drugs all the time but you’d have to be borderlineretarded to get busted for just smoking weed.
To me the current system works. I call a dealer, we meet up, I buy a sack and then I get high. I don’t want the government taking a cut, I don’t need a store that sells thirty different strands and I diffidently don’t need a card that says I’m fit to consume it. There are problems with current drug laws but a complete legalization is far from the answer. The risk of what the outcome would be to be to society is catastrophic. The murder rate in the city of Amsterdam, where Marijuana is legal, is three times higher than that of London and problems with drug abuse have increased dramatically in the wake of legalization.
Now I’m not claiming that the consumption of marijuana leads to violent killings and I don’t really buy all that gateway drug crap. I don’t necessarily think its legalization will lower the crime rate either, which is the only real legitimate argument advocates for the drug have produced. Beside that the estimated 11 billion dollars that would be collected in taxes would account for approximately 0.09% of current national debt and can pretty much be considered pocket change to the federal government. The only advantage to a complete legalization of the drug is that people could get high in public places like playgrounds, sidewalks and anywhere one can socially smoke a cigarette.
Hate it or love we live in a weed free society that loves to get high. We need changes to our government, changes to laws and morals but our society’s current stance on marijuana is cemented. It would be impossible to pull a u-turn and the act of legalization could lead to dangerous consequences. I love to smoke weed as much as anyone you’ll find, but I don’t believe our nation is ready for that big of a change.