The Risks in Legalizing Marijuana

Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug in the United States. It is a dry, shredded green/brown mix of flowers, stems, and leaves of the plant Cannabis sativa. A stronger form of marijuana called hashish (hash) looks like brown or black cakes or balls. The many street names for marijuana include pot, herb, weed, grass, Jane, reefer, dope, and ganja. Marijuana is typically smoked in cigarettes (joints or spliffs), hollowed-out cigars (blunts), pipes (bowls), or water pipes (bongs). Some people mix it into food or brew it as a tea. An initiative to legalize marijuana and allow it to be sold and taxed will appear on the November ballot, state election officials announced Wednesday, triggering what will probably be a much-watched campaign that once again puts California on the forefront of the nation's debate over whether to soften drug laws. The number of valid signatures reported by Los Angeles County, submitted minutes before Wednesday's 5 p.m. deadline, put the measure well beyond the 433,971 it needed to be certified. Supporters turned in 694,248 signatures, collecting them in every county except Alpine. One debate that keeps coming up time and again is the topic of the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug. Nearly one in three teenagers have at least tried marijuana by the time they graduate high school. It is also gets the most publicity for its legalization. Over thirty pro-legalization organizations have been displayed on the Internet alone. The legalization of marijuana , although popular by today's drug culture, would be a very dangerous and detrimental act for the United States to take part in. Not only would it destroy families, but would also lead to the fall of our economy.

Preliminary Thesis Statement

Legalizing marijuana does little in the way of providing substantial benefits for society as a whole.

Nation's War on Drugs

The drug war has failed to achieve conditions that reduce the influence of illicit drugs abroad or at home. The National Drug Control Strategy is the U.S. President?s policy document that outlines the administration?s plan to reduce the influence of illegal drugs. The monograph addresses trend analysis of drug control programs since 1993 and explores emerging indicators on drug war policy from the new Bush Administration. Domestically, rather than a significant reduction in the use of illegal drugs, the nation has experienced increases in both purity and availability. Internationally, the net result of the strategy has been an ever-increasing fiscal outlay for supply reduction programs as the illegal drug industry moved from one source country to another. Exploring the cognitive tension between the continued execution of a failing drug control strategy and the continued political success gained from the electorate is of value in understanding the role of national will. The monograph concludes that electoral politics was the reason why the preponderance of federal fiscal dollars went to supply programs rather than demand reduction programs. The United States drug policy has been driven by the need to appear tough on ...