2008 Woodie Awards
Obama must keep marijuana promise
Dana Johnson
Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: Opinions
There is one campaign promise that President-elect Barrack Obama made that will easily be overlooked if America does not hold him to his word.
Obama promised to cease the federal arrest and prosecution of law-abiding medical cannabis patients and dispensaries by appointing leaders at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney General's office who will respect the will of the voters in the thirteen states that have legalized the physician-supervised use of medicinal marijuana.
Doing this would not legalize marijuana but simply give our country a step in the right direction toward legalization.
Though the legalization of marijuana was not a popular subject debated during the election, it is a popular subject for those who need marijuana for their health and well-being, and hopefully future politicians will realize the benefits legalization could have on this country.
Though the "War on Drugs" was not widely discussed, the state of the economy was. Little do people realize how much money legalization could save our country.
The "War on Drugs" that the U.S. fights costs an estimated $35 billion a year, according to the Washington Post. Somehow during this "war" marijuana was lumped into the same category as hard drugs, such as cocaine and heroin.
They were all labeled as dangerous and addictive. Countless studies have refuted this and although chronically inhaling marijuana smoke is not unlike tobacco in potentially causing lung damage, marijuana has been linked to no deaths in the U.S.
The removal of marijuana from the "War on Drugs" could save the U.S. billions of dollars a year.
According to the Sentencing Project, drug arrests have more than tripled since 1980 to a record 1.8 million by 2005. Four of five (81.7 percent) drug arrests were for possession offenses and 42.6 percent were for marijuana charges.
Nearly six in ten persons in state prison for a drug offense have no history of violence or high-level drug selling. These levels of arrests are simply deteriorating our government's limited resources and our citizens' limited tax dollars.
Obama promised to cease the federal arrest and prosecution of law-abiding medical cannabis patients and dispensaries by appointing leaders at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney General's office who will respect the will of the voters in the thirteen states that have legalized the physician-supervised use of medicinal marijuana.
Doing this would not legalize marijuana but simply give our country a step in the right direction toward legalization.
Though the legalization of marijuana was not a popular subject debated during the election, it is a popular subject for those who need marijuana for their health and well-being, and hopefully future politicians will realize the benefits legalization could have on this country.
Though the "War on Drugs" was not widely discussed, the state of the economy was. Little do people realize how much money legalization could save our country.
The "War on Drugs" that the U.S. fights costs an estimated $35 billion a year, according to the Washington Post. Somehow during this "war" marijuana was lumped into the same category as hard drugs, such as cocaine and heroin.
They were all labeled as dangerous and addictive. Countless studies have refuted this and although chronically inhaling marijuana smoke is not unlike tobacco in potentially causing lung damage, marijuana has been linked to no deaths in the U.S.
The removal of marijuana from the "War on Drugs" could save the U.S. billions of dollars a year.
According to the Sentencing Project, drug arrests have more than tripled since 1980 to a record 1.8 million by 2005. Four of five (81.7 percent) drug arrests were for possession offenses and 42.6 percent were for marijuana charges.
Nearly six in ten persons in state prison for a drug offense have no history of violence or high-level drug selling. These levels of arrests are simply deteriorating our government's limited resources and our citizens' limited tax dollars.