One day while daydreaming during a meeting, a question crossed my mind. Why is marijuana illegal? Especially considering that smoking and alcohol are illegal and produce many of the same and worse adverse effects of marijuana.
We have to break down the different reasons why marijuana could possibly be considered illegal. The first reason is for health concerns. But this reason doesn’t hold up. Since when has this country cared whether or not a person took care of their own health? We don’t try to control everyone’s diet. We let people smoke cigarettes despite the large amount of data out there that proves it’s unhealthy and can be deadly. This couldn’t possibly be a basis for making marijuana illegal unless a whole lot of other this suddenly become illegal as well.
Secondly, lets consider that smokers of marijuana pose a safety concern for others. This argument doesn’t hold either. The effect marijuana has on a person’s judgment is minor in comparison to alcohol. You hardly ever hear of people dying because of smoking weed while people are always dying because of alcohol which manages to stay legal. Alcohol was never illegal. The prohibition only stopped the trade, production, transportation and sale of alcohol, not the use or possession. There are literally millions of people in America who can testify to how alcohol has torn apart their families and lives. Whether it’s through a drunk driving accident, alcoholic family member or a person experience of their own, alcohol abuse has had a devastating effect on this nation. Marijuana has not had nearly this type of effect.
A third reason for making marijuana illegal is that marijuana leads to other crimes and drug abuses. This argument, once again, is not strong enough. The same claims can be said of different prescription medications, alcohol, tobacco, and even some over-the-counter medication. There’s a large portion of people who use marijuana that never try any other illegal drugs. There is no cause and effect relationship here. Just because a person who has used crack has probably also used marijuana doesn’t mean that a person who uses marijuana will use crack. Nor does it mean that a marijuana user will suddenly get the desire to do other crimes.
The last reason for abolishing marijuana is because of its addictive qualities. But this argument fails for the obvious contradictions of more addictive legal drugs previously mentioned.
So this left me wondering, what is this meeting I’m sitting in all about? Who cares. This drug topic is surely more interesting. So, I get back to wondering what is the real reason why marijuana is illegal? The only other argument that has even a tad bit of viability is targeting a community. The black community makes up half the prison population and most of them for petty marijuana possession. This makes the blacks, who are already conspiracy theorists (for good reasons due to history), to believe that the government is out to devastate their communities and families. A third of the black males will spend time in prison before they’re thirty. This has a harsh effect on the already suffering black family.
This conspiracy would have little merit to it if it were not for the fact that virtually all of the marijuana enters this country through the southern border and this country refuses to guard the border but is very willing to declare war on drugs inside the black communities. Some blacks believe that politicians make marijuana illegal and declare war on drugs so they can get blacks off the street and make their white constituents feel “safer.” Although we may want to get any possibility of this idea out of the minds of the black community, it will remain as long as the laws are the way they are. The war on drugs will never be moved from the black community to the border. So the only way to help rectify this issue is to legalize marijuana because the case for prohibiting it just doesn’t hold up.