Assignment 16 Daniel Zhu

The War on Drugs

         I want u to imagine your life as a poor uneducated high school student. You aren’t good at school and your dad is in jail. Your mother works her tail off and doesn’t have time to pay much attention to you. Because you’re uneducated, you rely on drug dealing as your main source of income. This is the lifestyle of many people around us. Teens just like the ones in this room are getting stuck with the drug life and there isn’t anything they can do about it. The greatest nightmare of all to them, is getting in trouble with the law. Without even hurting anyone, you could get jailed for life. We are at current war and not many people are even aware of it. This is the War on Drugs.

It all started in the 1960s where the use of drugs became symbols of youthful rebellion, social upheaval, and political dissent. According to drugpolicy.org, President Richard Nixon officially declared the “War on Drugs” in 1971 by increasing the presence of federal drug control agencies. He even temporarily put marijuana in Schedule One, which was the most restrictive category of drugs. Then in 1997 400,000 people were put behind bars for nonviolent drug offenses. 400,000! Nonviolent offenses! No they aren’t robbing people for drugs, no they aren’t killing people for not paying them back. These people are getting sentenced to unreasonable times in jail for just possessing drugs. As a country, we must put a stop to the war on drugs. The first step is to legalize marijuana.

Many states across the U.S. have already decriminalized marijuana but it’s time for a cross-country legalization. According to collective-evolution, in the first 8 months that Colorado legalized marijuana, there has been over a 10% decrease in overall crime and over a 5% drop in violent crimes. If it’s legalized across the nation, who knows what kind of crime decreases we’ll face. The state has also garnered over 10 million dollars from retail sales in the first 4 months. But it gets better, the first 40 million dollars of this revenue is aimed towards public schools and infrastructure. So clearly, marijuana is benefiting the state economically and putting the money to good use.

One of the greatest problems right now with the War on Drugs are the unemployed citizens that are getting jailed for drug dealing. Shown in the documentary, The House I Live In, many families are split up due to long unreasonable sentences for just possession of marijuana. Well as you probably have guessed, the legalization has a solution for this. For those unemployed, the Colorado marijuana industry has generated 10,000 people directly involved with the industry and 1-2,000 people gaining employment just in the past few months alone (Collective Evolution). Also with those getting convicted for marijuana, by removing related criminal penalties, thousands will avoid the collateral consequences. The state is also saving an estimated 12-40 million dollars just over the span of a year, simply by ending arrests for marijuana possession.

         So why hasn’t it been legalized already? Who knows? Seriously though it’s way less dangerous than tobacco and alcohol. What most people don’t know is that marijuana actually does have some health benefits. Marijuana can be used to treat glaucoma, decrease anxiety, control epileptic seizures, help veterans suffering PTSD, and many others. The one thing people have against marijuana is that it’s considered a gateway drug. For those who don’t already know what that is, it basically means that if you smoke weed then it’ll lead you to do other drugs. The reasoning for this is smokers get “too used to the high” and want something stronger. So they move onto stronger drugs such as crack, cocaine, heroin, etc. With the legalization of marijuana, users can go to local dispensaries and purchase products with higher concentrations of THC to get a stronger high. These products include cannabis oil that can be easily consumed, or concentrates that resemble wax often referred to as “dabs”. With the variety of higher concentrated products being more available to users, the need for stronger drugs will lessen dramatically. This proves that the issue of marijuana being a gateway drug, can be solved.

         We are still at current war today. The fight to legalize marijuana is just one of the battles for us to win the war. By legalizing it, it’ll prove to financially benefit our nation and help those who are in need. So I challenge you, to join the revolution and the pro-marijuana force to make this country a better place. For those whose families are being torn apart, those that are just in need of a job and for those that need the stronger high. We together can lend a hand and make this country a better place. Thank you.

Works Cited

The House I Live In Documentary

The War On Drugs – Novel by Ron Chepesiuk

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/09/13/7-ways-marijuana-legalization-has-already-benefited-colorado-in-only-8-months/

http://www.businessinsider.com/health-benefits-of-medical-marijuana-2014-4/#rijuana-helps-veterans-suffering-from-ptsd-18