Just last week, Gallup released a poll showing that 58 percent of Americans think that marijuana usage should be made legal, which is the first time in U.S. history that more than half of Americans have expressed support for legalization.
(Huffington Post, October 29, 2013)
Of course, far more compelling are data repeatedly showing that drinking alcohol, which is legal, is not only more hazardous to your health, but also more likely to cause you to kill other people than smoking marijuana.
A direct comparison of alcohol and cannabis [aka marijuana] showed that alcohol was considered to be more than twice as harmful as cannabis to [individual] users, and five times more harmful as cannabis to others (society).
(‘Journal of Psychopharmacology,’ January 27, 2012)
Apropos of harmful to society, I’ve been advocating decriminalizing the use of marijuana for as long as I can remember for the simple reason that, like prostitution, doing it is a (relatively) victimless crime.
According to an October 19, 2010 report in Business & Law, legalizing drugs would save the U.S. government approximately $41.3 billion annually on expenditures related to the enforcement of prohibition and yield tax revenues of $46.7 billion based on tax rates comparable to those currently levied on tobacco and alcohol.
Not to mention that it would release hundreds of thousands [mostly Blacks and Latinos] from prison who are now serving time not for drug violence, but merely for drug possession and use.
(“Legalize Drugs!” The iPINIONS Journal, October 20, 2011)
And, by the way, just as there was no direct correlation between ending Prohibition and binge drinking, there won’t be any between decriminalizing marijuana and bong chiefing….
In the meantime, I repeat my lament that, ever since Prohibition (1919-1933), all reasonable people should have developed an instructive appreciation of this variation on George Santayana’s famous quote: those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
In this respect, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that North Korea is the only country where not just marijuana use, but its cultivation and sale are all legalized.
Conspicuously, despite Jamaica’s vaunted reputation as a ganja paradise, use, cultivation, and sale are all illegal there. It is noteworthy, though, that its parliament began redressing this cultural anomaly just weeks ago by passing a motion to decriminalize marijuana.
I should also note that medicinal use of marijuana is legal (or decriminalized) in many countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and some states in the United States, where recreational use is illegal.
Related commentaries:
Legalize marijuana