Alexis+St.+G’s+2016+OpEd+Article



This “issue” has a clear divide between two types of people, obviously Pro-Marijuana, and “Con” or ”Anti”-Marijuana. From people’s assumptions, there are generalizations that are the holding factor as to why recreational marijuana is not legal because: > > > > > > >
 * Cannabis, Marijuana, Weed, Pot, Marrrrrry Jaaaaane. **
 * It is dangerous
 * It kills
 * There has been no medical benefits
 * It only dumbs down its users
 * It deteriorates the brain
 * It negatively affects the lungs
 * It ruins lives

These may seem a bit radical with this specific wording but the hesitancy and illegalization of it is understandable, except the facts that disprove these skewed statements by a long shot with qualified experts giving their professional research out for the use of the public, abling them to better their knowledge of the “War on Weed”.

The exposed war on drugs has created a deep rift through the public when it comes this touchy topic. The first thing people focus on are the issues local to us Californians, the crisis of specifically the Mexican cartel, but also Colombian, and Cuban cartel’s overtaking cities and neighborhoods, and drug lords running the lives of American citizens. People seem to think that these problems are coming from the heart of the borderlands. But there is a huge disconnect between the reality of these drug lords power over authority and the effect, or lack of effect American officers really have on this “War on Drugs”. This war is a multi billion dollar industry and the money these lords have is the deciding factor for what goes. A border will not stop these men and women from making sure their workers are distributing their products and laws won’t either. In the state of Guerrero of Mexico alone, there has been over 200 counts of witnesses towards federal officers being bribed to transport product for these drug lords and this has only complicated the corrupt system that is trying to clean up its streets. With more laws being put in place only makes the cartels become more creative in how they move their drugs. This war is not something new, it is decades old and has not gotten better because the only thing these laws of making specific drugs more and more illegal have done is tighten the vice on a drug lord’s precedent to still make a certain amount of money on that specific drug, so in turn, they WILL find another way just like they always have.

Now that the most concerning but visibly helpless problem has been covered, let’s move on the stigmas connected to weed. According to the Scientific Committee on Drugs who collected data on the danger of drugs and alcohol, rated the harm from these substances with their reported statistics on a “1-100” point scale. The most dangerous substance was alcohol with a score of 72. But we as a society have no problem selling alcohol on literally every block! Next is heroin, scoring safer than alcohol with a 55, and finally six drugs later comes Cannabis, with a score of 22. Of course this doesn’t invalidate accidents that have happened with marijuana but how are we just going to accept that there a product that could be more than three times safer than alcohol? Ah, but oh wait, it’s killed too right? Yeah, no. Center of Disease recorded the number of fatalities by the most commonly used drugs and guess what came in first? Tobacco and alcohol combined with more than 480,000 deaths per year. Marijuana with zero.

// No medical benefit? // More than 7 serious illnesses and diseases including AIDS/HIV, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, cancer, and Alzheimer’s have reported from clinical studies to have a substantial decrease in pain caused by those diseases from the use of marijuana, decreased agitativiness, improved appetite and much more positive effects on its users. Not only this but time after time again see physicians, teachers, surgeons, and even our own members of the DEA in support of marijuana. And as seen by Lester Grinspoon MD, he says "[T]here is very little evidence that smoking marijuana as a means of taking it represents a significant health risk. Although cannabis has been smoked widely in Western countries for more than four decades, there have been no reported cases of lung cancer or emphysema attributed to marijuana. I suspect that a day's breathing in any city with poor air quality poses more of a threat than inhaling a day's dose -- which for many ailments is just a portion of a joint -- of marijuana”. If you think I’m even close to being done with my fight, you’re actually right because I could go on for days but all it takes is you finding reliable sources and seeing for yourself. If you think something is so bad for society, research a bit before misconstruing your beliefs about the subject of the matter.

People who smoke weed around you are not dumb, they are not ruining their lives, they are not killing themselves. If marijuana was legalized, it would not only benefit our communities by the imposed sales tax which is considerably high might I add (in Colorado, for one million dollars worth of weed sold per month- which is a very realistic income in one dispensary alone, 24% goes back to their city), pouring money into your city council, and building opportunities for your neighborhoods, but take the danger of small local drug dealers out of view as their gains would be deprived as dispensaries take hold of the wheel. This increases the safety of using marijuana because it would get rid of the dangers of minors illegally buying weed from a dealer on the streets since dispensaries are legally obligated to card for their state's “legal age” whether that would be 18 or 21. Everyone has their own personal bias against any type of drug but marijuana is not the one we need to be worrying about especially when there are pills out on the market that the DEA says still should have been researched for another ten years. Ask yourself why you should follow and mold your beliefs from the statements made by the leaders who are just trying to make a quick buck. It’s not Vicodin. It’s not Procrit. It’s not Zoloft. It’s not Oxycontin. It’s not Nexium. It’s locally grown, naturally with dirt and water just how you would grow any other plant.