I find it very ironic that marijuana itself has not caused one single death in its existence. From what I had learned through my education and thought to be the truth about the drug, I thought for sure there would have been numerous overdoses leading to death associated with it. But I was wrong; Young, as well as many others discovered that it is virtually impossible to cause mortality from marijuana ingestion.
A well adopted idea about marijuana is that it is a ‘gateway’ or ‘stepping stone’ to hard drugs. Well that is true, but according to Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington D.C. foundation, it is the criminalization of marijuana that is the gateway to hard drugs. “When adults enter a liquor store to buy alcohol, they don’t find cocaine sitting on the shelf next to bottles of vodka; similarly, if marijuana were regulated, adults who buy marijuana would not be exposed to hard drugs (as they currently are, via drug dealers)”, claims Washington D.C.’s Marijuana Policy Foundation. They also go on to advocate that driving under the influence of marijuana will still be illegal, it will save our taxpayers money, generate revenue, make our communities safer, reduce teen marijuana use, and protect our public lands from cultivation. I had always found it fascinating that this so called plant was a “gateway” to harder drugs. I was never told why and always assumed it made you want to do other drugs. According to M.P.P., that is false. If we could get the marijuana users to stop having to go to drug dealers, perhaps we could cut the other drug use way down.
Each year there is an estimated fifteen billion dollars spent in Cannabis transactions, and the state doesn’t collect on any of this (Evans). Statistics show that on a day to day basis, prohibition kills many innocent lives from the drug wars with the drug cartel. Just recently Evans documented Castaneda, a former Mexican official who just urged both Mexico and the U.S. to work towards legalizing marijuana and eliminating the drug cartel. Castaneda claimed just last month (January 2010) 900 lives were lost due to the ongoing war against the drug cartel. According to researcher Jon Gettman Ph.D. the majority of it gets smuggled across the Mexico/California border. During an interview ex official Castaneda told CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour that “It is ridiculous for Mexico to try to stop marijuana from entering the United States when it's legally sold for medical purposes in California.” Evans claims it is outsourcing our American money to other countries, and has handed a monopoly of wealth into the hands of criminals and gangs (Evans). The money not being put directly into the hands of criminals is important and shouldn’t be happening, but nothing is more important to me than the idea of saving lives from that are being lost to the drug wars. It is cruel these innocent people’s blood gets shed in hope that the drug cartel can get their marijuana into to the states to fulfill a need that our governments’ law prohibits.
“Regulation is the answer. It’s time for a new approach — strict regulation and control — to reduce the criminal market and lower teen use” (MPP). James Gray, a former federal prosecutor and county judge who sent people to prison for dealing pot gradually became convinced that the ban on marijuana was making it more accessible to young people, not less (Welch). Gray went on to say, "I ask kids all the time, and they'll tell you it is easier to get marijuana than a six-pack of beer because beer is controlled by the government." James Gray once saw himself as a drug warrior but through his experience and many years he has switched sides on his views. Gray explains, "Let's face reality. Taxing and regulating marijuana will make it less available to children than it is today” then goes on to say, "Unfortunately, every society in the history of mankind has had some form of mind-altering, sometimes addictive substances to use, to misuse, abuse or get addicted to. Get used to it. They're here to stay. So let's try to reduce those harms, and right now we couldn't do it worse if we tried” (Stateman). Gray is a realist, he sees things the way they are and appears to know of a possible solution to an ongoing problem which only continues to get worse.
James Gray’s views on legalizing marijuana are right on target from what I have witnessed. Throughout my high school years, the majority of my friends and peers started to abuse alcohol. They had a “hook up” who would purchase it for them. Once their supplier got caught and prosecuted, they were no longer able to obtain alcohol. They resorted to doing hey misters at gas stations and ultimately failed time after time for a few months which eventually led to them giving up. They gave up and switched from abusing alcohol to using marijuana. The reason behind is they found it was much easier to obtain marijuana than it was alcohol. Gray is onto something, if the United States regulates it in California, it could have a positive impact on getting it out of the hands of the youth as well as diminishing the drug cartel and criminal actions that take place because of prohibition. It isn’t something we should go blind into, but is definitely something that should be looked into.
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