Marijuana – and why it should be legal

Time to give marijuana a real trial

In the following article I am going make my argument for the following 12 points which all revolve around the issue of marijuana legalization. Originally when I wrote this article I had these 12 statements as my conclusion, but a friend suggested putting them on top to grab the attention of the reader, and I think this is a good idea, so here they are:

1. Marijuana is a non-addictive drug, while the level of “addiction” might be debated, it is easily proven the “addiction” of marijuana is nowhere near as damaging as other legal recreational drugs – alcohol and tobacco.

2. The War on Drugs has been a failure and we need to revise how we handle drug use in this country.

3. Some of this revision needs to be focused on the excess of pharmaceutical drugs with questionable side effects

4. Pharmaceutical drug abuse should be the concern of the 21st century as it is becoming an increasingly popular trend

5. The War on Drugs has ruined otherwise healthy and progressive lives.

6. Decriminalization of marijuana is not the solution as a user is still branded with the social stigma. I have had personal experience with this specific situation.

7. Marijuana should be legalized for both medicinal and recreational use.

8. Legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes only will cause more harm than good because it will corrupt the system and people who don’t really have problems will gain access to it and provide access to it for others.

9. There is such a thing as responsible marijuana use, I am a living example and it requires no serious effort, just as responsible alcohol or aspirin use requires no serious effort from most of the general population.

10. Marijuana shows signs of being a medically beneficial drug far beyond its current uses

11. Marijuana is not okay for anybody to use, always research carefully before taking any drug, but marijuana is okay for most people to use with no serious side effects

12. Legalizing marijuana and taxing it could solve our financial issues and help us with agricultural needs

So as I sit here typing this, allowing my vaporizer to slowly warm up to just the perfect temperature – where my marijuana won’t burn, but I can still inhale the THC – I ask myself the question that you yourself should be asking me right now. Who am I to dare even waste the time and effort to give an argument for marijuana? How am I different than the millions of high school persuasive English essays by stoner teens? How am I different from Cheech and Chong? How am I different from any dude in tye-die that listens to Pink Floyd while staring at the psychedelic poster on the wall?

The answer is short and simple. I am a responsible and contributing member to American society. In fact, I am a teacher who is only a pinch away from having his second degree in education. I pay my taxes and have never been late on a loan or credit card payment. Despite being a natural introvert I’ve adjusted well to our extraverted society and I am an incredibly empathetic person. I am receptive, open, and communicative. I am realistic and direct. I’ve held a job most people tell me they wouldn’t do in a minute for almost 5 years. I am professional at my job and I am proud of the work I do.

But I want to reiterate the point that I am a teacher. And in fact, pretty much the WHOLE REASON why I have to keep this site anonymous is for this entry. Truthfully – I’ve had to keep my marijuana use a secret for years – from my family, from acquaintances, from my peers while attending college, from my employers, coworkers, and students – for years. In fact, aside from the random occasion here or there I smoke virtually every day of my life since… well… it’s been gradual, but it has been years. So do I have a problem? Am I addicted? Am I a drug addict? Have I infiltrated your child’s school and am I promoting marijuana use to them right now? Well if you want these answers, you should read on.

I grew up in a family where drug use and abuse was non-existent. My parents had a beer with dinner, maybe two, but to this day I can say I’ve never seen them drunk though I’m sure it’s happened. They took great care in always modeling responsible drinking and at most I would say I’ve only seen my mother tipsy. I also grew up in a rural community where drug exposure was limited to a smaller group of kids, which I did not hang out with. I was an extra-curricular activities kid, specifically sports but I was in other things as well. We were drug tested for sports but I never tested positive because I had never even tried a cigarette, let alone marijuana. My first exposure to marijuana was my senior year in high school where a friend I had made on that sports team told me everything he knew about it. And he knew a lot for being a year my junior. And he convinced me to spend the night at his house one night and he’d let me try it. I trusted him and decided to give it a try. Late that night after his parents went to bed we snuck out into the yard of his house in the dark of night, hid behind a bush, and I smoked marijuana for the first time.

Kind of like this, only a little darker

And, as is so typical with many first time marijuana-users, I didn’t feel any different. It was an anti-climax. But I ended up trying it again and then you begin to feel the high, you begin to feel an intensity in your senses, particularly sight with things such as color or something that looks neat. You feel silly, you sometimes get stricken with hunger, especially when you first begin smoking. Things taste more intense, things feel more intense, things sound more intense. But this is only to the non-drug user. On the grand scheme of things marijuana is one of the weakest drugs and one of the easiest drugs to function normally on. But, I’ll get into that later, let me finish my story.

As a beginner in marijuana smoking I appreciated how I could get lost in good music, I appreciated the funny things that easily came to my head on it, I appreciated food as I never had before. Since I was going to graduate at the end of the year and didn’t need to get drug tested anymore a couple friends smoked me up on rare occasion. One day one of those friends told some other kids from our school and they were asking me about it, disbelieving that I did it. I didn’t acknowledge it or deny it, I just ignored it, because I didn’t want to be associated with the trouble involved with it.

And here is where my paradox with marijuana began. It was illegal, but I tried it personally and it wasn’t bad at all. Sure, occasionally you would forget what you were talking about in mid-sentence, there is temporary short term memory impairment. But it goes away completely. And oftentimes I thought of things with more complexity and with deeper interest and passion. Additionally, (at the time) I only used it very intermittently and there was no long-term impairment effect if the silly forgetful thinking could be considered an impairment in the first place. But yet – I could never publicly admit I smoked marijuana – it was illegal. But WHY was it illegal? I didn’t understand it. And I still don’t understand it. And I’m not the only one, if you search for “Why is marijuana illegal?” you’ll only come up with a bunch of sources attempting to prove it should be legal. And when marijuana was the highest voted solution to our current economic problems Barack Obama simply stonewalled the idea making a joke out of it rather than addressing the actual issue (And this man is a CIGARETTE smoker which is way more dangerous).  And you realize this happens all the time when someone attempts to make an argument against marijuana – jokes, straw-man arguments, anything but an actual addressing of the issue. It was like a giant secret that everybody is in on but me – so I had to hide it. I smoked marijuana and had to pretend like I didn’t to most people. If you even look like you support marijuana your whole credibility becomes scrutinized – as if liking marijuana was really code for something much worse. So why is marijuana illegal? Let’s start with the basics.

What is a Drug and How Marijuana Relates to the Drug “Community”:

** I am using the definition of a drug as a substance when absorbed into our bodies it alters normal functioning. It’s a broad, basic, and fair definition. So alcohol IS a drug, coffee IS a drug, cocaine is a drug, Ritalin is a drug.**

The biggest reason I hear on why marijuana is illegal is because it’s a drug and we have a War on Drugs. But there are tons of legal drugs flowing through the market today, especially in America, we must be the largest consumer of drugs on the planet – anti-anxiety drugs, focusing drugs, depression drugs, sleep-aid drugs… we even have drugs to make boners! I mean seriously – we need to refine what kind of drugs we are allowing and what kind of drugs we aren’t. I’m not saying there’s necessarily anything wrong with drugs like Viagara, but the fact remains is it’s a drug. In fact we tend to place drugs in different seemingly unrelated categories even though they are all classified as drugs.

Oh yes Uncle Sam, I definitely see your point of view on why marijuana should be illegal over cigarettes. Nothing wrong with this fine invention of mankind.

For example caffeine found in coffee is a drug that is proven to be addictive. Yet empires such as Starbucks reign across this planet without a word from drug regulators. An argument against marijuana is that it’s addictive and so it should be illegal. Yet, it’s been proven that a large majority of people who smoke marijuana do not become regular users. Erowid is a good source for drug information because they do not take a Draconian caveman point of view on drugs. Instead, they promote knowledge about the drugs, both good and bad, rather than ignorant stereotypes. But let’s return to this topic of addiction. Clearly, addiction is a factor to consider when determining a drug as illegal. Does addiction alone determine the danger of a drug? Absolutely not. I chose for marijuana to battle coffee first because coffee is, like marijuana, a relatively harmless drug to most everybody. In moderate doses and in good physical health there is no reason why you shouldn’t enjoy a cup of coffee… or a joint. We understand the Starbucks nut is not a threat to us.

But clearly addiction has its negative side.  Illegal drugs like crack and meth and heroin come to my head. Movies such as Requiem for a Dream and Trainspotting show the dangers of drugs that are the most physically addictive. We hear of the assault crimes that occur because someone needed their heroin, meth, or crack. Yet, there are no stories because somebody wanted to feed their marijuana addiction. Additionally, marijuana isn’t physically addictive like heroin or even cigarettes. You never hear of the marijuana user that sold his last piece of furniture for another hit of weed. You never hear in rehab the excruciating pain you have to go through from withdrawal. Yet, these stories are not all too uncommon with heroin and even alcohol. You never hear of the sheer unpleasant co-worker who decided to quit smoking weed last week and how he’s intolerably irritable because he can’t smoke. Yet, deal with anybody quitting smoking cigarettes cold turkey and they are commonly irritable. Cigarettes and alcohol are clearly more addictive than marijuana and there are hard statistics to prove that, yet they are legal drugs. Hell, monosodium glutamate is an addictive neurotoxin that has a degenerative effect on the brain found in tons of food. That is more addictive than marijuana and is proven to cause worse problems in large amounts than marijuana. And there are things that are addictive that you don’t even need to consume anything – such as gambling. And yet gambling which has made rich men poor and married men bachelors is more legal than marijuana. So the bottom line is that the argument that marijuana is an addictive drug is unfounded. Clearly there are things both illegal and legal that are more dangerous and more addictive than marijuana.

So what else deserves to make a drug illegal aside from addictive qualities? Of course, to determine if a drug should be illegal, we should understand the impact of a drug on the health of the user. By the way, I’m going to make this clear right here if you didn’t already figure it out – I am for the legalization of marijuana for both medicinal and recreational uses and I’m about to school you right now on why this should happen. But when I speak about marijuana in this entry, it’s not for “decriminalization” or “medicinal purposes only.” No. This is for the whole 9 yards. Marijuana should be legalized for both medicinal and recreational purposes. Marijuana is safer than alcohol and cigarettes. And those are our standardized legal recreational drugs. We know the damaging effect of alcohol on the liver. Time Magazine even has an article on the safety of marijuana over alcohol. But alcohol isn’t the problem, it’s beyond clear that marijuana is less damaging than alcohol. Marijuana is most often compared to cigarettes due to the commonality in smoking the drug. “The tar!” they scream, “there is so much more tar in a hit of unfiltered marijuana than a cigarette and cigarettes are terrible for you so marijuana must cause cancer!” That is a weighted argument on a lot of levels so let’s break it down into something more concrete.

Marijuana doesn't drive you to sleep in the streets, but alcohol does. Alcohol is pretty damaging too - we should be aware of this. But we should also realize marijuana is less dangerous.

First off – I don’t smoke cigarettes, I don’t like cigarettes, I don’t want my car smelling like cigarettes, I don’t like my house smelling like cigarettes, I don’t like my clothes smelling like cigarettes, I don’t like to blow gross, stale cigarette breath into peoples faces. My personal point of view on cigarettes is that you only start smoking them to impress someone else and then you become addicted like an idiot and then you’re going to tax our health care services that could be used for people who clearly know the relationship between cancer and cigarettes and respect it. By the way – this is why I don’t smoke cigarettes – it’s a pretty logical reason based solidly in fact. HOWEVER (and this is a big however, if you couldn’t tell) – I am not against people smoking in bars or smoking sides in restaurants or in smoking lounges. And I stand by that whether marijuana is legal or illegal, regardless if marijuana would be allowed in these places. Some people smoke, and we have to deal with this fact, and well ventilated indoor areas should be just fine. The “work hazard” of working in a place where cigarettes are smoked are no worse than most other professions. We can’t get that picky about things. Section it off, it’s fair, but don’t eliminate it. I am for advertisements or public service announcements that expose the factual dangers that are accompanied by cigarettes, even the tactless gruesome shock value ones. But I don’t think we should make smoking cigarettes illegal. They clearly have a culture and the dangers should be overt and obvious (which they clearly are by the way, my favorite way to tease my smoker friends is to say: “Hey, you hear those things cause cancer?” The look is priceless), but the right to smoke one shouldn’t be removed.

However, with marijuana there is no link between cancer and smoking it. I’m going to repeat this point for impact: There is no link between receiving cancer and smoking marijuana. As for the tar part – if marijuana were legalized it could be eaten or you could use an option like me – a vaporizer. Marijuana and cigarettes are not synonymous in their risks, which is an important fact to know. Also, Heavy marijuana use does not damage the brain. Some are concerned that marijuana has similar effects to alcohol in that it will disorient a person while they’re driving, their reactions are slow, or they cannot take the situation as seriously as they should be. To that argument I have this to say: Imagine a 130 lb girl going out for her 21st birthday but she has no friends (aww) so she drives herself to the bar. She has 3 drinks in just over an hour, gets back in her car, and drives home. This could be potentially dangerous despite having consumed roughly the legal limit. She might not be accustomed to the effects of alcohol and the danger of her getting in an accident is different than a woman who has been drinking for a while. So when the 130 lb girl gets in an accident and .08 is found in her blood – does that mean we lower the level of allowable alcohol in the system even MORE until absolutely nobody gets in accidents due to alcohol impairment? Or can we allow an adult to be responsible for the crimes they commit – rather than the amount of drugs they consume? So awareness of the effects of alcohol and one’s own reaction to them is a significant factor in driving under the influence. The point is that the only danger that comes from marijuana and vehicle driving impairment is inexperience of the drug. I can say this because I have driven countless times after smoking marijuana and I never got in an accident or felt that I was impaired. I also don’t smoke 6 bongs and get behind a wheel. It will be clearly visible that you can’t talk straight, let alone keep your eyes open. But a joint? A bowl? Sure – it’s the same thing as a beer or two. Physical awareness is oftentimes increased under the effects of marijuana and that is why there are no traffic reports to back the idea that marijuana intoxication is the source of accidents – which, again, is opposite of alcohol. When people are buzzed on alcohol speed is exhilarating, when people are high on marijuana too much speed is too intense. Alcohol tends to make people more restless while marijuana seems to make people focus. This fancy study here reports complex cognitive functioning is not affected by acute marijuana smoking. Again – opposite of alcohol – and yet that is what remains legal.

However, despite the clear harmlessness of marijuana to the common person, marijuana is not for everybody. Some people who are emotionally or mentally unstable should not use this drug.  Luckily MOST PEOPLE don’t fit into that category. Mentally unstable people already have a hard enough time deciphering reality that an increased sensitivity to the senses and euphoric feeling might alter brain activity unfavorably. This, of course, does not apply to all who are mentally unstable as some marijuana might be all they need to feel something different and enjoy things a little more. And Erowid, the site I mentioned earlier reporting on the non-addictiveness of marijuana, also has a page explaining the negative effects of marijuana. But I can tell you from years of experience – they are marginal compared to the gain it can potentially provide.

What is the Big Deal About Keeping Marijuana Illegal?

How many lives must be ruined for victimless crimes? How much money should be spent prosecuting victimless crimes?

“Legal.” It is a term that deliberately creates division. There are those that abide to legal things, and there are those that don’t. Those that don’t abide by things legally create a separate culture largely for reasons of protection against prosecution. As I graduated high school and moved on to college I gradually smoked more marijuana and I began to get a glimpse into this world of illegal functioning. I had more friends that smoked marijuana as is typical with any college-aged kid and eventually I even began to buy it. And when I began to buy it I knew it was time to buy myself a pipe because I was terrible at rolling joints or blunts. At the time marijuana was only a small-time thing in my life. I bought a cheap metal pipe with a big wooden bowl on top. The design on the top of the pipe had a little skull, but instead of the crossbones being below the chin(referencing the infamous Jolly Roger), they were in the skulls head. My friends and I found this very clever and I went up to the cashier who was characteristic of some Middle-Eastern culture. He looked at the bowl and said, “This will blow your brains out!” and laughed heartily. It was funny because the lack of danger in marijuana is obvious and so no real danger came from smoking too much – maybe couchlock and munchies. It was funny that he knew he was selling me marijuana paraphernalia under the pretense that it was seriously going to be used for tobacco – like I would dare put dangerous tobacco in a pipe of mine. It was funny because the cross-bones were in the skull’s head signifying blown brains – which is how my first pipe got its name: Roger Jolly.

But it’s the story of my next pipe that I got which I really want to tell you. A couple more years had passed and I was finally about to graduate with a BS in a certain field of education. I had found myself at the flea-market one day and stopped at one of the numerous “tobacco pipe” stands and took a look around. I was kind of tired of my cheap metal pipe even though I liked the wooden bowl. I came on this day for the next step up – a glass pipe. A glass pipe gives you the advantage of not having to change screens and it’s just a cleaner hit from glass than metal. Whereas when I bought Roger I was buying my first bag of marijuana, by the time I was looking for a glass pipe I was smoking on a fairly regular basis consisting of every weekend. I preferred it to alcohol which gave me hangovers and headaches and tasted awful. I’ve always said alcohol and I don’t like each other but we have an understanding -it’s the legal recreational option. And in fact, due to the cornered market on legal recreational drugs alcohol controls, I’ve learned to appreciate it a lot more since. But I preferred marijuana.

And then I saw it – the glass pipe that picked me. Instead of the car that picked me or the woman that picked me, this was the pipe that picked me. Instead of describing it to you, I’ll show it to you, but only if you’re taking the time to actually read this entry. I find people against marijuana simply lose credibility in something that is simply just showing a picture of marijuana or paraphernalia (hence the lack of any images portraying marijuana in any positive light – trying to appeal to reason here). But this pipe was amazing – it was solid with a thick ball of glass near the front with a wide mouth that was nothing less than a pleasure to smoke from. The design and color changing paint were bonuses – the design was simple – not crazy or sparkly or awkward – big smooth and glassy – I was in love. I ended up naming it Drippin’ Yellow Madness. The only downfall I later realized was that it was too big, it was bulky. And as anybody who smokes illegal drugs from a pipe should know that it should be as inconspicuous as possible. But I was still only a greenhorn by that point even though I had been smoking marijuana for years and I never got into any trouble.

Then one night I went over to a fire at a friends house – the very same friend who I first tried marijuana with. By this point he had quit smoking marijuana altogether, he didn’t find the pleasure in it anymore and was too wary of other drugs. He said he preferred alcohol more now. This cessation of marijuana usage is a phenomenon in which I’ve taken particular interest with those who had previously smoked marijuana regularly. This specific friend just simply stuck with alcohol, not as an addict, but as his preferred form of recreational drug. However, with other kids I grew up with and met only after I started smoking marijuana I noticed stopped smoking marijuana as well, but they ended up trying harder drugs such as cocaine and a myriad of pharmaceutical pills. And I’m going to come full circle on the “pillheads” later -  pharmaceutical drugs deserve a whole section to themselves. But these acquaintances claimed to stop smoking marijuana because it doesn’t do anything for them anymore. Marijuana became less effective to them and smoking it seems like a waste of time, almost childish to them. This was what I was talking about earlier in the entry when I said it was one of the “weakest drugs” and one of the “easiest to function normally on” – these people stopped smoking marijuana because it is ineffective once you become accustomed to harder and more dangerous drugs. The effect of marijuana is paltry in comparison.

Really? Would life be so much worse if he was smoking a joint instead? I think we have room for one more recreational drug.

The intensity of these other drugs I have not experienced personally because I have declined drugs such as pills and cocaine if they were ever offered, but I stayed away from that crew largely. I hung around with one of the largest groups in the world – the group that accepts social drinking and social smoking of both marijuana and cigarettes without thinking there is anything wrong with it. And within the group there were cigarette smokers who didn’t like how marijuana made them feel, and then there were people like me who didn’t like cigarettes but loved marijuana. Some would just drink and not smoke anything. Some would do all 3. Regardless, it’s clear in the drug choice community there are plenty of people who have the option of a drug but do not choose to take it. Legalizing marijuana will not make the country addicted (especially since it’s virtually non-addictive).

Back to the night of the fire with my friend and Drippin’ Yellow Madness. The night was largely unremarkable, sitting in a block of woods deepset in the back of a cornfield. I drank a single beer for feelings stated previously about alcohol. I smoked a couple of bowls from Drippin’ Yellow Madness but was wholly sober as the evening wore past midnight and I became tired for the evening. We decided to call it a night, I slipped DYM in my pocket and we commenced on our long journey back to his house. Then I got in my car and started driving along the small, sharp, rural backroads that ran along creeks and cornfields. I didn’t pass a car the entire way home because it was so late and I was only two miles away from my home when I saw a car come speeding up from behind me turning off a recently passed road. It rode the tail of my car within inches as we cornered a sharp turn on the backroad. Immediately after lights of a county sheriff’s car flashed brightly behind me and I pulled over.

I am still annoyed at how that happened. I mean clearly the only one doing something illegal was the car speeding and riding the tail of my car on a dark night where creatures can jump out in front of your car in an instant. Two officers came up to my car and the one told me I had crossed the yellow line around the sharp corner of a small country backroad and then he had me get out of the car and gave me a sobriety test. I passed easily because I had one beer. Then he looked down at my pockets and asked if I was carrying any illegal weapons or drugs that he should know about. In my pocket was a couple grams of marijuana and Drippin’ Yellow Madness. I told him I didn’t have anything like that and then he slapped my pocket and told me to take out what was in there – Drippin’ Yellow Madness’ size gave the officer enough suspicion to completely empty my pockets.

When I produced the pipe and the marijuana the cops were like kids in a candyshop. I was a real-live criminal for them to do real-live criminal work with since it was clearly the initial intention of their previous reckless driving. I understand cops have training to drive in ways that are outside of the law for protection of the law, but in this case I was unnecessarily endangered simply by the proximity of the cops, let alone the fast speed in which they came up from behind me. This must be awful for the lifespan of the vehicle, not to mention tax-draining. The one accused me of being a liar because I didn’t expose my illegal drugs and paraphernalia immediately when asked. I was put in the back of the vehicle for over an hour as they scoured my car for anything else illegal (there wasn’t) and I gave them all my information. I told them I was a student teacher at the time and the one officer asked me where, I told him, he looked at me with nothing less than pure repugnance in his face, “My old alma-mater!” he seethed and exclaimed how personal it was to him that a drug-user was teaching at his old high school (puh-lease) and he let me know that I disgusted him. Mind you – I had only a couple of grams of marijuana and a pipe and I was being treated like a criminal despite marijuana factually being less harmful than both alcohol and cigarettes which they would’ve gladly let me enjoy in any legal fashion I pleased. I was given a possession ticket for the amount of marijuana I was carrying and a ticket for crossing the center line around the corner, they threatened that the possession ticket might show up in the local paper if news is slow, and they told me I was lucky that was all I was getting considering I could also receive a ticket for paraphernalia. Their job complete, they let me return home (without Drippin’ Yellow Madness) dejected, defeated, and exhausted. I pulled out Roger and had a smoke in my room before going to sleep filled with nervous energy that my usage might become public and my thousands of dollars sunk into my educational career would be ruined.

Medicinal Marijuana – How Does it Relate to Recreational Purposes?

And this is what I mean by “legality” creating two worlds. There was the real world in which I found out even one of the local Sheriff’s deputies enjoys a joint from time to time. The real world that consisted of my large social network that had no issue with which harmless recreational drug that I used. The real world in which marijuana use is largely accepted beyond question. Then there is the legal world – where another Sheriff’s Deputy tells me he’s disgusted at my small harmless weekend usage so much to the point that he would’ve been glad to ruin my chance at becoming an educator for the rest of my life. Marked in big bright letters by the law as a drug user I would be the last choice for administrators allowing strangers near their children. This is what the outlawing of drugs does to America – and it’s more profound than you think.

Luckily in this state marijuana is decriminalized. When Monday came around I waited anxiously for the newspaper and finally when it came I grabbed it to find the police blotter empty of my incident. Although I was being charged publicly, this was going to be a largely private matter. I decided I would show up for court on the right date and plead guilty, pay the fine, and move on with my life. On the day of my charge I came up to the judge which was a father of an old school-mate. The judge asked me what I pleaded, and I asked him if I pleaded guilty if I just have to pay a fine and it would be over. He looked at me and told me it was in my best interest to plead not guilty. I told him that if it’s simply just a fine I’d rather pay it and get it out of the way because I hadn’t told my parents or friends or anybody. He told me that if I plead guilty it would follow me to any job I tried to get and that it was in my best interest to plead not guilty. I said “Even though it’s decriminalized, it still follows me around?” He told me it did and so I told him I would plead not guilty. He gave me the location I could go to for a public defender. I had to return to court again and got 6 months probation and good behavior would erase my record.

Dr. Eidelman, a supporter of natural solutions to illnesses if available, believes marijuana should be legalized for many for medicinal purposes - not just the terribly ill

So forgive me when I say decriminalization of marijuana is the same thing as addressing the issue of global warming only in partial. By that I mean decriminalization should not be the end result when discussing the uses of marijuana. Marijuana is not only a benign drug in the sense of not having any serious dangers, marijuana also shows a lot of signs of being a beneficial drug. Although marijuana critics want to claim it causes cancer the facts seem to be emerging that cannabis can be used to prevent cancer time after time again. Marijuana shows a potential ease for those who do become addicted to the truly damaging opiates. Marijuana has been tested to help issues regarding poison ivy. Antifungal and antibacterial agents have been found in marijuana. There even seems to be signs that marijuana points to reducing memory impairment.

In fact, in recent years, there has been an incredible push for the legalization of medical marijuana. If you smoke marijuana recreationally like I have this term is a joke. It’s like saying medical alcohol. The bottom line with marijuana is it makes boring stupid dull things fun. It relaxes pain, aches and the mind. It’s typically used for passive activities so a heavy user might be inclined to be less productive. But for many people, including myself, it’s quite the opposite. I have a healthy physical life – I work out every day, I bike ride, I do physical things. And I prefer to do them while I’m not high on marijuana because I’m too relaxed to work out when high. However, tedious and mundane activities that everyone has to do become fun and interesting high. The thing is I can do these things without being high but it is just more stimulating when I am. Of course I don’t go to work high, it’s unprofessional and the same reason why a recreational drinker does not go to work drunk.

So the idea of medical marijuana is funny because the effects of marijuana just simply enhances some basic senses and pleasures. Now there is actual use where it might be able to help with cancer as I linked above, and that would be TRUE medical marijuana. The unique quality about marijuana that does not seem to come with any other drug is that it seems to have healing properties in addition to a euphoric sensation. So it could be used for those beneficial healing properties – but it doesn’t hurt if you don’t need the healing properties and you just prefer the euphoric sensation. Making medical dispensaries is basically saying people who complain about their problems enough to doctors are allowed to smoke marijuana while people who just prefer it recreationally to relax are going to be looked upon as enemies of the state. Now, I’m not implying that there aren’t true medicinal uses for marijuana – I’ve read and saw plenty – and let me clarify, those who are terminally or seriously ill and need it to just stop vomiting and to have an appetite, that is a true medicinal purpose. Those people truly deserve the best treatment for them and if they are sure marijuana is crucial to that treatment, I support it unequivocally. But the thing is in allowing JUST people who have these unique problems to smoke marijuana is people will fake depression, pain, etc. just to be prescribed marijuana – when it can and should be legally dispensed in a way similar to alcohol and cigarettes. There is no reason why people can’t “prescribe” themselves marijuana any chance they want. It can’t kill you and if you show up high to a job then the punishments should be based off of what happens if you show up to work drunk. I don’t understand why marijuana can not be treated as a reputable legal recreational drug with some medicinal properties.

Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Rhode Island are just some of the states seriously attempting to follow California’s footprints in in legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. And those who desperately need it daily to not be forced to feel severe pain for the day – they absolutely deserve to have that marijuana. But so does everyone else. A big medical aspect of marijuana is that it induces appetite and reduces nausea – and for those who don’t want to eat because they’ll puke – this is a Godsend. The reason why AIDS patients and cancer patients argue that other drugs will not work is because they most of them do not have the qualities of both reducing nausea and stimulating appetite and there are no serious negative side effects from smoking weed. If some of the sickest in the world can smoke this drug and not only it doesn’t harm them, but conversely, makes them feel better, there is no reason why this shouldn’t be used more widely as a medical option. And additionally, there is no reason why it shouldn’t be used recreationally by responsible adults who are otherwise law-abiding citizens.

Because even the Attorney General is signaling that medical marijuana is going to be a state decision and not a federal decision, despite the “War on Drugs.” This means that marijuana is going to become much more accessible than it already is. It is already very easy to get marijuana in California regardless if you are terminally ill or not. This means that people are claiming illnesses that are not necessarily real or as severe as they say. And this is the problem – not the marijuana. There is nothing wrong with smoking marijuana for the health deficits and the addiction level are both extremely low. There is something wrong with people going to the doctors and faking or exaggerating illnesses they do not have. It skews health statistics and aside from the truly ill, it benefits only the loudest complainers. There is no reason why anybody who is an adult citizen in this country who is capable of taking care of him or herself cannot prescribe themselves marijuana if they’re feeling a little achy, nauseous, or sad – just like aspirin. We shouldn’t have to go to the doctor to take aspirin, we have the capabilities of understanding what is too much, and even though some people ignore that, it does not mean the rest of us should be denied access to such a drug if we have a headache. Additionally, we are having a rough day and we take to a few drinks we still know how to be responsible, we don’t need a doctor to prescribe to us how many specific drinks we want. While I am absolutely for the legalization of medical marijuana around the entire country, I think in a time of economic depression and with a lack of jobs it’s ridiculous to just not legalize it entirely and tax it.

Legal Medicine = Legal Drug but Legal Drug ≠ Safer Drug

Hmmm, marijuana doesn't make you look like this - but when you're withdrawing from easily obtainable opiates such as oxycontin you do - and they are legal pharmaceutical drugs

When a drug enters our society tagged with the label “medicine” and it filters through the proper pharmaceutical channels we often ignore the fast talking guy at the end of the commercial rattling off the drawbacks in a hurried “oh by the way, this isn’t really important anyway” tone of voice. And yet nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, depression, addiction, and internal bleeding are just some of these “side effects” of these drugs. This article is about Consumer Reports top 12 unsafe drugs currently already in use by millions of people with side effects such as increased likelihood of heart attack, cancer, stroke and suicidal tendencies. There is no connection between marijuana and these things and yet these drugs are allowed underneath the government to be given to millions of people. How does this make sense?

Can someone fairly answer me that question? Of all the positive aspects found in marijuana none of the extremely negative aspects of either current recreational or medicinal drugs exist. Yet, it’s still laughable to consider legalizing marijuana to many. Instead we just blindly acknowledge that the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA are just doing the finest jobs they can. Yet, I have a hard time trusting this when so much money flows through these powerful structures. I absolutely believe our companies that make us beneficial drugs should make a profit, but it seems less like they are the kind doctor producing medicine for the needy and more like the creepy guy in a trench coat hanging around kids at the playground trying to push drugs. Why do I say this? Something is fishy when our anti-depressants cause suicidal thoughts and they are still on the market. Something is fishy when big pharmaceutical companies spend more money on advertising than on researching their own products that cause suicidal tendencies, cancer, and heart attacks. Something is fishy when drug companies are making 9 billion dollars to 26 billion dollars in total revenue. And even fishier when some are making as high as 60 to 70 billion dollars in total revenues. It’s fishy when drug companies are found to pay ghost writers to promote their own greatness. And drug companies, they always have a solution to anything, right? Pain, depression, restlessness, can’t focus, sexual performance, sexual organ enhancement, whatever your problem is drug companies have a solution – even though some of them “might” have a few terrible side effects that haven’t been studied all the way through because in order to keep a business running that creates 70 billion dollars a year in revenues you have to put profit above customer service. And why instead of making quality products they decide to pump marketing down your throats too. All the while – marijuana is still illegal.

Then we consume all of these drugs, and there is a whole psychological dimension that isn’t considered either. Instead of just having a natural variation in personalities that produces everyone from our fishermen and oil drillers to our artists and scientists we decide to diagnose everyone with a problem if they are not falling within the statistical mean of personality traits. An active tactile child is ADHD, a thoughtful and moody child is clinically depressed. And we drug our children and they grow into drug using adults. The only issue is these people become dependent on these drugs. They truly believe they need these drugs to act appropriately and even feel they have the right to act incredibly inappropriate when not receiving their drugs. I work with many children that parents find easier to drug than to actually take the time to care for their child appropriately. Now tons of pharmaceutical drugs are found in our (and animals) drinking water. Now if you ask me THAT is a nation truly addicted to drugs – yet our war on drugs always focuses on the illegal ones, and yet still large amounts of resources are directed towards the prosecution of marijuana users and dealers despite the fact that it doesn’t taint US drinking water.

When these pharmaceutical drugs flood the market in such excess that almost any whim can conjure a drug to temporarily cure an ailment, so much that it’s showing up in our drinking water, people are going to decide that some of these drugs are fun to do recreationally. And for the same reason that only legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes is a stupid idea, it’s a stupid idea to flood the market with these extremely potent drugs. Oxycodones, opiates, Ritalin, Adderall, Ambien – these are all commonly used recreational drugs. I know many people  who use them and I am stunned at the effects it has on them. It’s clear the potency of these drugs are astoundingly stronger than marijuana. And I want to make it clear that this isn’t just me – I’m not some scumbag teacher who hangs around “the wrong crowd” – this is an epidemic sweeping the nation. New York Times ran an article on how casual and common buying and selling prescription-strength pharmaceutical drugs really is. And as the Partnership for a Drug-free America says prescription drug abuse is a serious problem. And it is – these people are not smoking a bong, getting high, watching TV, and eating a whole bag of Doritos while forgetting what they were saying in mid-sentence. These people are becoming physically addicted and their brain is becoming permanently altered by drugs that can be very dangerous. And yet it’s prolific and prescription drug abuse is not nearly cracked down on as much as marijuana. A relevant snippet from the New York Times Article:

Carol Boyd, the former head of the Addiction Research Center at the University of Michigan, said medical professionals needed to find ways to evaluate these risks.

“Kids get messages about street drugs,” Ms. Boyd said. “They know smoking crack is a bad deal. This country needs to have a serious conversation about both the marketing of prescription drugs and where we draw the boundaries between illegal use and misuse.”

The “War on Drugs”

Uncle Sam warring the Drug Monster, is that a jumper cable battery clip? I'm kinda glad I don't know what drug that goes with.

The War on Drugs purpose was to stop the flow of illegal drugs into and within the country. By all counts the fact remains there are now more illegal drugs in America than since the “War on Drugs” began. This means the War on Drugs has been taking the wrong approach in to doing its job. The War on Drugs is so archaic it doesn’t take into account the dubious pharmaceutical companies infiltrating their market. Our government has even been accused in aiding drug trafficking. So why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we insist on continuing on doing things in a familiar yet failing manner? It’s as if the country is addicted itself  – addicted to control by machismo force, hubris be damned! We’ve tried the War on Drugs, it doesn’t work and it even gets our own government involved in some dubious actions.  A lot of Americans believe the War on Drugs has failed.

And why shouldn’t we? It’s not like “the war on drugs” has kept us “safe” from the “horrors” of marijuana. Marijuana is the biggest cash-crop in the nation hands down. This is a fact. This means that more money is spent buying marijuana than corn – the largest legal cash-crop in the nation. In fact more money is spent on marijuana than vegetables, wheat, cotton, grapes, rice, and tobacco COMBINED. This means that people are smoking marijuana more than they are eating corn. This means that marijuana COULD pull us out of our depression if we legalize it for recreational use and tax it since it is CLEARLY being used above and beyond any other cash crop. But as we saw earlier the president thought it best just to joke it off, hardy har har.

This is even more astounding because the War on Drugs isn’t even historically significant to the prevalance of marijuana to our nations history. Aside from marijuana being used in many medicines throughout the history of America hemp was a commonly grown crop. In fact in the 1930s hemp was being called out as the new billion dollar crop – in the 1930s! And as the history points out it seems that there was a lot more harmless fright over marijuana than actual damage. Hemp and marijuana were part of a backbone that built America to become the most powerful nation on the planet. It is funny to note now as the United States begins to lose steam that marijuana and hemp are illegal to grow in the country. It’s also interesting to note that this is a federal policy despite it being unconstitutional.

What are the negative effects of the War on Drugs? Aside from forcing every innocent marijuana smoker out there who is caught to be buried when considered for any professional job there are even worse consequences. A marijuana activist growing marijuana for medical purposes loses 10 years of his life behind bars because we have to put up this facade that marijuana is bad for society and for individuals despite its medical purposes that his own state recognizes. A legal marijuana dispensary owner, Charlie Lynch, doing a good and helpful thing faces jailtime for doing what California recognizes as legal. A family is traumatized and dogs murdered due to a mistaken drug raid. This is a whole web page devoted to the victims of the Drug War. Government officials take kids away from parents because the parents smoked marijuana. We put legal, peaceful, and helpful humans in prison because we are too stubborn to realize how badly the War on Drugs has gone. Even Michael Phelps – one of the most famous Olympian athletes ever – has to feel shamed for doing something that obviously has no impairment on his health – and it certainly isn’t performance enhancing.

Norml.org - a great website on marijuana law reform

Despite all those examples you might be quick to categorize all those stories as sensationalized or unaffected to the average person’s life. So I want to relate, again, a bit more of my own personal experience and how keeping marijuana illegal is more harmful than good. I am a teacher and I work with quite a few students who don’t feel too many good things in their life and often many of them turn to drugs. Kids smoking marijuana is still a widely debated subject, specifically in regards to its effect on their development. Regardless, they smoke it because it’s so easily available thanks to the giant failing moneypit that is the War on Drugs. Very few of them do harder drugs, a lot of them are aware of the dangers and there is a lot of teasing that goes on against the bigger drug users usually because the drugs have permanently affected them in some way. Many of the kids tell me that they don’t know whats wrong with smoking marijuana and a lot of the trouble they stay in is because they keep coming up dirty on a piss test. They tell me they’re stupid because they smoke marijuana and they can’t remember anything because of marijuana and that’s why they’re bad at school. They tell me that what I teach doesn’t really matter because I am so removed from them and their knowledge of drugs.

None of them know that I know more about marijuana than all their silly little heads combined. I can’t let them know that saying marijuana makes them not be able to function in school is unacceptable because it’s the only thing that got me THROUGH school. I can’t tell them that I smoke every night before I go to bed for a nice easy drift-off to sleep after I relax a while and I still can retain 10 times the information they can. I can’t tell them that I understand all the great things about marijuana but still understand the definition of responsibilities. I can’t tell them simply “I know how it is exactly, but you can still do good things!” I can’t say this to them because if I openly admit I smoke marijuana I’m certain I’ll lose my job and I’m certain I’ll have a terrible time finding another one. Instead of relating to my students and helping them through their issues I have to stand behind a cool barrier that ignores mocking saying “Mister, you dont even know what a dutch is, do you?” I have to play ignorant, I have to coolly avoid the questions of if I smoke. If my students knew I smoked they would respect me more because they could relate with me. I don’t blame a lot of these kids for smoking. A lot of them live dangerous and scary lives where a simple silly drug like marijuana can really relax you in a truly frightening world. Again, I’m not saying they should even be doing it in the first place, I didn’t start until I was almost 18. But I can tell them despite marijuana they can set standards and goals for themselves and achieve them and succeed with them. There is such a thing as responsible marijuana use. But in our increasingly medicated world where uncontrollable behavior is acceptable without medication many of our young adults are not ready to take on responsiblity for themselves.

Additionally, it still affects me personally. The fact that I’m writing this entry is enough evidence to ensure that I never teach again in reputable places despite my skills that I’m certain are good. I make sure I deliver what I’m hired for and I’ve never been accused of being too lazy or irresponsible. If the Drug War caught everyone that ever tried marijuana we’d be down at least two recent presidents. As previously shown even Michael Phelps has done marijuana and he’s like the best athlete in the world. There is even a website that shows all the people who smoke or support the legalization of marijuana called Friends of Cannabis. We are punishing victimless crimes.

The Legalization Tide

Congressman Barney Frank wants to legalize marijuana

Luckily legalization of marijuana through any one of its myriad of uses is seeing progress. We already talked about just some states that are attempting to (or already has) legalize weed for medicinal purposes. However, I have explained why that is a silly idea if the real intent of legalizing it only for medicinal purposes is to block recreational use. I’ve shown statistics that proves marijuana is all pervasive in this country in the first place but because desire a legal outlet to smoke it medical records will be skewed and diagnoses might be inaccurate. The fact that the War on Drugs has been a failure and a money pit also proves that we must deal with illegal drugs differently.

This article is not about legalizing other more addictive illegal drugs. I know my leg is way weaker to stand on for that argument – but as I just said – the War on Drugs is a failure and we do need to consider other options. One option is the decriminalization of all drugs. Now I told you why I don’t believe decriminalization of marijuana is a good thing and that we need to move straight to full-scale legalization and taxing of the biggest cash crop in the nation. But decriminalization is a big movement within this country as well as abroad. And it is a good first step, despite my state already having decriminalized marijuana most states have not decriminalized marijuana. This means the same 2 grams I was caught with could have given me a misdemeanor (despite the fact I was a responsible, sober, harmless person).

It seems the most rational people in the Western World are found in the Iberian Peninsula in the country of Portugal. Portugal has decriminalized drugs and the results were not increased drug use and violence. Instead, illegal drug use has declined, AIDS has declined as the result of not sharing dirty needles, and more people are seeking drug addiction treatment in a decriminalized country. This makes sense because drug users don’t have to fear being locked up for their addiction, when they’re ready to clean up Portugal is ready to rehabilitate them. And really if the desire is coming from the user to quit then 1/2 the battle is already won. You can’t force anyone who doesn’t want to to stop taking drugs.  In America, former Seattle Police Chief , Norm Stamper, is a strong advocate for ending the War on Drugs citing all the ways it has failed and the successes that can come from ending it. Educated and thoughtful Stamper is poignant in his train of thought.

We could do it thoughtfully as Stamper, an officer for 34 years, proposes. Or we can do it like former presidential candidate Mitt Romney did when confronted with a muscular distrophy patient that gets sick off of all other medication. We can stare into the eyes of a true sufferer of pain and say “I am not in favor of medical marijuana being legal in this country” and briskly move on with our self-serving lives. Again, notice the lack of citation to the reasons why – remember – it’s a big secret that everybody is in on but the marijuana users.

Or in the face of a depressed economy we could reach to our patriotic roots and remember that marijuana and hemp were part of the backbone that created this country. A man named Jack Herer wants to offer 100,000 to anybody who could prove him wrong that cannabis hemp couldn’t end hunger, reverse the Greenhouse Effect, and even cure cancer. While I think that’s stretching it to expect it to accomplish so much single-handedly – the point is there are clear benefits there.

Already since Obama took office the new “Drug Czar” (whatever that means) has called for ending raids and supporting treatment options calling raiding legal medical dispensaries counter-productive. Even Oregon just recently passed a hemp bill recognizing the benefit of the plant specifically because you can’t even get high off it anyway.

If we legalized marijuana we could tax it and make a LOT of money! I mean for computer parts and diamonds we’re willing to allow people to drug children and brainwash them into being cold soulless assassins. Why the fuck would we not allow people to get high? Like I said earlier – EVEN if it’s just in the privacy of our own home – just legalize it, tax it, and make money. It doesn’t ruin lives. Alcohol ruins lives, tobacco ruins lives, computer parts and diamonds ruin lives, heroin ruins lives, and pharmaceutical drugs ruin lives – marijuana – does not ruin lives.

Slowly some Americans are coming to their senses – and of course it’d start in the state that is most financially burdened. An Oakland city council decided to back a tax on marijuana. Once Oakland is making a boon from marijuana tax, how quick do you think it is until it becomes a common practice for other increasingly financially burdened areas? New Hampshire has recently jumped on the decriminalization train. Slowly the laws against marijuana and the enforcement used on marijuana are dissolving away specifically for the facts that at worst it is a largely harmless drug and at best a medical and agricultural miracle.

Eddy Lepp is in jail for growing medical marijuana - are we incarcerating the wrong people? I say yes.

But we need to continue to speak out. And that’s why I’ve told you my story. I am a teacher and it is a voice that might be professional enough to encourage others. I want to reiterate the fact that I am a fully functioning citizen that is intelligent enough to get his Masters and live a fully functioning life without a single late debt payment as well as being a responsible citizen in all other regards. I am not physically impaired and I’m not depressed. I’m happy when I wake up every morning and I appreciate everything I got. I solve problems instead of have problems. I make other peoples lives easier, not harder. I feel happiness and joy far more often than I feel any negative emotions. I feel no hollowness, no addiction, no emptiness, no depression, nothing negative due to my marijuana usage. I put on a good enough facade for I have had quite a few people tell me their certainty in the fact that I wouldn’t smoke marijuana – or do anything illegal for that matter. I just let them believe what they want and continue to keep it a secret from all but my acquaintences who are no way involved with my school. And thus I live my two separate lives longing for the day my government will allow me the pleasure of saying “I am a responsible law-abiding American citizen and I smoke marijuana.” Until then I apparently have to be an enemy to the state – a bug that needs to be crushed – a filth that needs to be stopped from infiltrating. I have to lie about what I consume, as if drinking 2% milk could make you ineligible for a job as it negatively effects the same amount of people.  But this is my drop in the bucket.

What’ll be yours? You don’t even have to smoke marijuana to be a supporter of legalizing it. I hate cigarettes and I’m all for their legality and right to smoke indoors. Sometimes we have to stand for the fact that full grown adults who have relatively good cognitive functioning are allowed to make decisions on what a person is going to ingest into his or her body. There is no reason why we should have a government tell us that we aren’t responsible enough to take care of ourselves.  Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Congressman, made his drop in the bucket when he shot down Robert Mueller’s reference to marijuana as a gateway drug by saying milk makes kids drink beer. Cohen asked Mueller when finances, time, and energy will be focused on truly dangerous drugs instead of marijuana. The idea that marijuana leads people to harder drugs is ridiculous – as I’ve shown statistically marijuana is just all pervasive – it’s the easiest drug to find and it’s the drug that weighs least on your conscious when taking. This is why many might’ve started with marijuana – but marijuana creates no drive to try harder drugs. How do I know? Because I smoke marijuana and I do not do nor have the desire to do harder drugs.

Jeffrey Miron put his drop in the bucket with this article on CNN Politics. Miron is a Harvard professor and calls for legalizing drugs to stop violence. It sounds pretty reasonable to me considering the lack of increased violence in Portugal and California. Carol Ruth resigns from the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department because she wants to legalize all drugs. Cliff Mason, an economist only in his 20s, but is the Senior writer for Jim Cramer’s Mad Money and works for CNBC giving financial advice. He put his drop in the bucket by writing an article on CNBC about legalizing drugs. Ethan Nadelmann is one of the world’s most respected and high profile critics and commentators on U.S. and international drug control policies and he calls for ending drug prohibition in the Wall Street Journal. Even the well-known Congressman Barney Frank recently made a plan to legalize marijuana. And the bucket is filling up fast. But it won’t fill up without our help – let’s legalize marijuana sooner rather than later. Innocent people are being punished for victimless crimes.

Conclusion

So if marijuana is so non-addictive then how come through time I’ve increased my personal use rather than decreased? If it’s so non-addictive, why don’t I smoke only occasionally rather than every day? By the progression of my personal story, I could understand how one would interpret my increase of use as a testament to the addictiveness of marijuana. One time I took a trip to Boston with my family and I didn’t smoke for a few days straight. I noticed falling asleep wasn’t as easy (duh) and I caught myself a couple of times thinking “This would be more fun if I was high” but I felt fine. Of course I’m not the only one I know who smokes marijuana, and my increased usage is opposite of the trend of most people who smoke marijuana. I told you my original friend who was extremely into it when we were younger stopped doing marijuana altogether and stuck only with legal substances. I have another friend who used to smoke every day who smokes only a few times a month now and is happy with it. I have a handful of friends who have quit marijuana never to return – yet nothing due to the drug itself, mostly just from getting bored with it.

So what do I think motivates me to smoke every day and not get bored with it? Before I smoked marijuana I believe I had an ego to protect and I would get legitimately upset over small things. Granted, I was also a teenager. But as I grew into my 20’s I noticed that most adults still had this problem. In fact in one of my classes I was taught that our schools are now dealing with kids who have a lower level of behavioral development than what should’ve occurred by that age. So many kids who should be discovering how to play a role within a group are still focused on attention-seeking behaviors and other symptoms of poorly developed behavior. I began to reflect who I really wanted to be before I smoked marijuana. I wanted to explore what things lay outside of the small social group we are so much a part of in high school. And smoking marijuana was one step I took to see another side of things. I wanted to know for myself. And smoking marijuana encouraged that behavior rather than ignored that behavior (like alcohol). Marijuana made me more receptive, thoughtful, and relaxed.

I work at a school and I still am a student at a school, I have a social life and I have hobbies, I have family and I have duties. I am also a citizen of the 21st century which is more stressful, complex, intense, and confusing than any generations previously. If you are not careful you will slip because more people seem to gain satisfaction from pulling people down rather than helping them up. If I didn’t smoke I wouldn’t be able to decompress from all the things I needed to think about in a day. When I smoke it reminds me to just slow down and enjoy each step, even if they seem like they never end sometimes.

So President Obama – the man who said “I inhaled frequenty” about marijuana and “that was the point” to smoking it – how would you have liked to have an officer of the law questionably search you despite your sobriety and found your weed? What if something else similar or even worse occurred? Would you be President? Do you think you could’ve even made it to Senator? What State were you smoking in? Do you know you could’ve gotten charged with a misdemeanor simply for posessing the very substance you smoked “frequently” in some states? What about Senator Edwards or Kerry in that same video? They could’ve easily had what happened to me happen to them and they would’ve never been able to take on their public careers DESPITE having smoked marijuana! They would’ve been cursed – branded as stoner outlaws – clearly not responsible, clearly needing to be punished “by the people” for such a victimless crime.

So how about since you’re a man who has smoked marijuana – President Obama – next time someone asks you to legalize marijuana for the sake of saving the economy – instead of making another fucking ridiculous joke – you tell us why you’re allowing the prosecution of millions of victimless crimes – something the Constitution was should be preventing – remember – we aren’t going to agree on 1 way for everyone to live – but if you respect others, then you should be allowed to do what you want. And you’re a Constitutional Lawyer! Legalize it and regulate it before illegal crime mafias who have no respect for liberty or the environment control this country.