Editorial: Legalize It

Colorado, on Jan. 1, will become one of the first places in the world to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Oregon and Washington are also pioneers in this budding movement. With new research and growing reform movements for the drug, it’s only a matter of time before cannabis prohibition becomes a national issue. The Harbinger believes it is time for full legalization of marijuana recreational use for those 21 and above.

From the horror stories of “Reefer Madness” and D.A.R.E. programs, we were taught in elementary school that marijuana would destroy our bodies and our lives. We were taught it caused diseases like lung cancer, anxiety and schizophrenia. We were taught it would lead us to harder drugs like LSD and heroin.

But the truth, is most of that was simply fervor from President George W. Bush’s War on Drugs. Studies done by a UCLA research team showed no correlation between smoking marijuana and lung cancer. There was a study done linking marijuana use with testicular cancer, but this, even with marijuana use is a very rare cancer.

There’s little evidence showing marijuana as a cause for mental diseases like depression and anxiety. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, it’s more likely that people use marijuana to as a ‘self-medication’ to treat their depression or anxiety, not that the drug causes them.

The majority of marijuana users also never use other illicit drugs, according to multiple studies including “The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Main Findings” and “Reassessing the Marijuana Gateway Effect.” Marijuana use has no correlation with use of other hard drugs, such as cocaine and meth. The idea that marijuana is a gateway drug isn’t true.

And when comparing marijuana with legal drugs like alcohol, findings have actually shown it’s safer. Alcohol causes about four percent of all deaths across the world, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Studies done by the British Medical Journal have found no correlation between marijuana and higher death rates. It’s also almost impossible to overdose from marijuana like you can alcohol.

Marijuana is one of the biggest cash crops in the United States. In 2006, it beat out both corn and soybeans, making a total of $35.8 billion, according to ABC News. With marijuana as a legal, taxable market, the U.S. would be able to raise $6.2 billion a year in tax revenue, according to Harvard professor Jeffrey Miron. With a struggling economy, why is our country banning one of the largest cach crops?

Along with the added tax revenue, Miron showed that the U.S. would save $7.7 billion dollars a year in enforcement of laws. Prisons would be less crowded and there would be less spent on court and lawyer fees for those caught with marijuana.

With a recovering economy, adding another cash crop to our agricultural market would create new jobs and spur new companies. It would create more competition in our economy and would also make us the power house of the industry in the international market. The U.S. would be the largest economy in the world that produces marijuana, and with few other countries allowing it. U.S. companies would have a monopoly in the market.

It’s simply irresponsible and illogical for the prohibition of marijuana to continue. New research is showing that marijuana isn’t as dangerous as it was originally thought and with the amount of money we could make off of it, it just doesn’t make sense to keep it illegal. Keeping this safe plant illegal hurts not only our nation’s economy, but the people in it too. It is time to end the prohibition.