MARIJUANA ADJUSTMENT

Bob Stutman, former head of the New York office of the Drug Enforcement Agency, and Steve Hager, editor in chief of High Times magazine, debated the merits of marijuana last Tuesday at the University.  While both sides presented well thought-out and articulated opinions, the information Hager used to base his arguments in favor of marijuana seemed more logical.  With billions of dollars spent on the war on drugs, the country still has an incredibly high amount of marijuana use.  The country is fighting a losing war that is not justified.

If marijuana is decriminalized, like it is in many other developed countries, the government would make marijuana usage less taboo, which would take away some the appeal of trying the drug.  While marijuana usage should not be encouraged, people of all ages are going to experiment and use it anyway.

Marijuana should be decriminalized so the government could maintain its responsible stance that marijuana usage should be discouraged but make it acceptable for people to partake in limited and regulated marijuana usage.

Incredible amounts of money are wasted every day fighting marijuana usage, but for what reasons? How is marijuana any different from tobacco or alcohol? In fact, there are certain studies that indicate marijuana might not cause as much damage as those other two legal drugs.

Over 70 million Americans have willingly admitted that they have smoked marijuana, obviously current policies are not working.  The government is spending tremendous amounts of resources to try to change the current public opinion of marijuana, but many Americans still do not seem to think that Marijuana belongs in the same category as heroin or cocaine, but yet, in many cases, the government handles all of these drugs in a similar fashion.  This does not make any sense.

Decriminalizing marijuana would allow the government to better allocate resources toward fighting other, more dangerous crime epidemics.