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Legalization of medicinal marijuana is the first step

Published: Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Updated: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 23:04

Pot Quiz by Eric Strelow

Illustration by Eric Strelow

If the Wisconsin legislature passes the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act (Assembly bill 554, Senate bill 368), it will become legal for Wisconsinites to use the drug for medicinal purposes.

But does this go far enough?

Studies have shown that medicinal cannabis can help a number of illnesses: glaucoma, Tourette syndrome and Crohn's disease, just to name a few.

And this doesn't mean that there's a bunch of sick people walking around lighting up joints all the time. Cannabis can be made into other forms, as well.

It seems only natural that something that has proven to be helpful should be approved, but, as we all know, that's not where the problem lies.

Legalizing medicinal marijuana would open up a door that would perhaps lead to people trying to cheat the system so that they can get their hands on legal weed.

So why not avoid this problem and just legalize marijuana all together?

The government could tax it and use the revenue to support our economic crisis. The tax on cigarettes certainly seems to have paved the way for taking in some extra tax revenue.

There's also the argument that alcohol is legal, and carries far more health risks than marijuana. Some argue that marijuana is a gateway drug, that is, people who smoke weed are more likely to try or abuse harder drugs.

Studies have shown that smoking tobacco is more likely to lead to hard drug use than smoking cannabis.

Let's also not throw away the fact that keeping marijuana illegal has not stopped people from using it.

It seems that cannabis' pros are starting to outweigh its cons, and this only means one thing: it should be legal.

Sure, if smoked, cannabis greatly ups a person's chance of getting lung cancer. But so do cigarettes. And sure, marijuana may, in some cases, alter a person's brain, but no more than alcohol.

So side effects aside, I'll return to the fact that the government could throw a heavy tax on cannabis. The government makes money and pot smokers all over the state get to rejoice that they can use legally. Everybody wins right?

Well, of course not. Legalizing medical marijuana is most definitely a step in the right direction, but by weighing the pros and cons, legalizing it all together may start to not seem like such a bad idea.

 

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6 comments

Anonymous
Mon Jul 12 2010 14:47
Ok, some required reading for anyone who wants to offer an opinion.

First, the short history of the marijuana laws at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm This is funny and fascinating.

Licit and Illicit Drugs at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/cu/cumenu.htm The best overall review of the subject ever written. If you haven’t read this book, then you simply don’t know the subject.

The Drug Hang-Up at http://druglibrary.org/special/king/dhu/dhumenu.htm This is another excellent history of the subject.

Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer This is a collection of the full text of every major government commission report on the drug laws from around the world over the last 100 years. They all reached similar conclusions.

The drug laws were the product of ignorance and nonsense. In the US – which has driven worldwide drug prohibition for more than fifty years – the laws were the result of racism and lunacy so stupid that it just makes people laugh today.

Marijuana was originally outlawed for two major reasons. The first was because “All Mexicans are crazy and marijuana is what makes them crazy.” The second was the fear that heroin addiction would lead to the use of marijuana – exactly the opposite of the modern “gateway” idea.

Only two doctors testified before Congress for the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. The representative of the American Medical Association testified that marijuana was not a dangerous drug and there was no reason for the law. See the full transcripts of the hearings for the MTA at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/taxact.htm

The only other doctor was Dr. James Munch. His sole claim to fame was that he had injected marijuana directly into the brains of 300 dogs, and two of them died. When they asked him what he concluded from this, he said he didn’t know. He also testified in court, under oath, that marijuana could make your fangs grow six inches long and drip with blood, and that it could turn you into a bat.

Dr. Munch was the only doctor in the US who thought that marijuana should be illegal so he was appointed US Official Expert on marijuana, where he served for 25 years.

That is just one example of the lunacy. There is far more than that in the history of these laws. Anyone who currently supports these laws simply hasn’t read the most basic research on the subject.

Rhayader
Mon Apr 19 2010 10:50
I totally agree with the thrust of your argument, so thanks for writing about this.

Still though: cannabis is NOT carcinogenic, and there is no medical evidence suggesting that smoking cannabis increases one's risk for cancer. Dr. Tashkin's recently released study at UCLA puts this argument to rest: not only is cannabis non-carcinogenic, but there is strong evidence that certain cannabinoids actively inhibit tumorous growth.

Anonymous
Fri Apr 16 2010 17:15
marijuana not only doesnt cause cancer, it is scientifically proven-fact, marijuana treats and prevents cancer even smoking, studies show marijuana can cut tumor growth in half almost imediately, there are no recorded deaths due to marijuana use, its less addicting than caffiene, and virtually harmless to the body. this research conducted by havard university as well as many doctors and scientists. the american cancer society supports this research. wake up and give us our freedom or we'll take it
Andrew
Fri Apr 16 2010 09:27
"Sure, if smoked, cannabis greatly ups a person’s chance of getting lung cancer."

Seriously FALSE.
(It was a good article otherwise, it just would have been nice if you have done a bit more research.)

The largest study of it's kind done to date, to determine whether cannabis can lead to lung cancer concluded...
"We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use," he said. "What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect."

So, if anything, smoking cannabis reduces instances of lung cancer, it doesn't cause it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729.html

Anonymous
Fri Apr 16 2010 08:22
People say that the gateway theory holds water-- they don't realize it's keeping pot illegal that creates the gateway. Look: if you go in a liquor store to buy beer, they also have wine, whiskey and vodka. There's a chance you'll walk out with one or more. Drug dealers are much the same: you go looking for pot, they have mushrooms or cocaine (the two second most commonly used drugs after marijuana) so you try them.

People smoke pot, realize it's not that bad and then don't take other drugs seriously. This all ties into the fact that anti-pot people tie marijuana in with those other drugs in the first place. It's like saying that a bb gun is the same as a pistol-- if you tell a kid that, eventually they will see it is not true and you will lose credibility. That's what's happened with our drug laws-- all thanks to marijuana prohibition.

Someone Like You
Fri Apr 16 2010 00:28
Yes, This artical says it all and i agree that it is actually no worse than alchohal also, Its Better Than Being Drunk i mean Weed It Just Makes You Wanna Get Som Munchies Watch A Movie And Go To Sleep Then Theres Alchohal It Makes You Wanna Get In Fights And Drive Cars At High Speeds Imean Weed Just Makes You Relax When You've Had A Hard Day At Work So Really its Retarded Not To Leagalize It Because Even If You Dont Its Still out There Anyway, Anybody Can Get it So Why Not Slap A Tax On it And Make Some Tax Dollars For The Schools Because They,re The Ones That Need It






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