Use of Marijuana

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Use of Marijuana for Medical Use or Only with Heavy Taxes

The debates and disputes about the usage and the legalization of marijuana is long lasting and will last indefinitely for many years to come. The problem is getting the army of supporters and opponents, who are ready to state and prove their viewpoint.  Both sides of this problem are passionate and stable in supporting their positions and provide strong and quite clear arguments to support their viewpoints (Concar para 2). One of the most convincing and strong argument to discuss and maintain is the Rogerian one, debating the use of marijuana the middle ground being something to the effect of only for medical use or only with heavy taxes. In other words, it is claimed that the use of marijuana can be officially permitted only in two cases: either with the medical purposes or when being heavily taxed.

After reviewing all the information and thinking about the argument and its consequences, it is clear that each argument is strong, but it is clear that legislation of marijuana would do the country more good than harm.  Apart from what the government would like to make people think, there are really positive effects that come from the marijuana usage. Probably, the most popular existing disagreement dealing with the continuing war on drugs is decriminalizing marijuana and using it for medical purposes. In August 1999, five western states, that is Alaska, Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington, decided to pass the laws decriminalizing the medical use of marijuana (Jones para 4). During the past several decades, more than 20 states and the District of Colombia passed measures and laws, according to which marijuana’s therapeutic value is recognized, but these laws did not permit cultivation of marijuana, as new measures do. Medical properties of marijuana, after proper consideration, were recognized useful for health, so it was agreed to use marijuana as a medicine. Despite its valuable medical effects for painkilling and nausea, marijuana is still a psychedelic drug that is looked down upon because of the incorrect claims about it. As people tend to overlook and overestimate the positive facts, marijuana has become illicit for all the incorrect reasons.

As we can see the argument of Rogerian states that marijuana can be permitted, but either for medical purposes, or under conditions of the heavy taxes being imposed.

State and national organizations announced the creation of Coalition Strategy Marijuana Maryland, which will support the upcoming bill to establish a legal marijuana market for adults. The lawmakers began preparations for the adoption of the draft of the legislative session this year, which will regulate and impose tax on marijuana like on alcohol. During the press conference the senator Jamie Raskin, delegates Anderson and Sheila Hixson get the support of the leaders of several state and national organizations, which announced the formation of a broad coalition to support the upcoming law (Grinspoon 141).

Marijuana Control Act of 2014 makes personal use, possession and cultivation legal for persons over 21 years; establishes a system, according to which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol; allows the cultivation, processing and sale of industrial cannabis. New and growing coalition includes the ACLU Marijuana and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, League of Women Voters of Maryland, Marijuana Policy Project and Maryland State Conference of NAACP Branches (Grinspoon 142) According to a survey of Public Policy Polling, conducted in September 2013, a majority of voters of Maryland (53% ) supports the legitimizing and taxing of marijuana. Only 38 percent said they are against the idea (Grinspoon 142).

“Our experiment with marijuana prohibition has failed," said State Senator Jamie Raskin (Miron 12).Once we've done away with the ban on alcohol, and adjusting the taxed product and now we have to use the same strategy with marijuana. If we can handle alcohol, we can handle and marijuana. (Miron 12). It proves once again that the idea of taxation of marijuana use is rather successful and popular not only among people, but among the politicians as well. "We must understand that arrests for marijuana use can have devastating consequences for people - that is their ability to get jobs, housing and education," said Curt Anderson. Now these unnecessary and erroneous implications focus on race communities, even though the rate of marijuana use are the same among the whites, the black Maryland residents  are arrested more often (Miron 13).

"Regulation and taxation of marijuana have economic sense ," said Sheila Hixson (Lacayo 26). "The revenues from sales of marijuana to adults will be invested in our community, instead of disappearing into the depths of the shadow market. Why we should support the drug cartels and gangs instead of licensing companies that pay taxes and create jobs?"  (Lacayo 27). These words make sense, because the taxation of marijuana is very useful and can decrease the illegal usage of this drug and bring some money to the national and state budget.

“Maryland is spending too much time, energy and finances to arrest people for marijuana possession," said Sara Love, director of the ACLU of Maryland public policy. The status quo is unacceptable, and fortunately the majority of voters agreed with that.  (Rosenthal and Kuppy 22)  The right of trading of marijuana is interested for many people, because this drug received huge popularity not just because of its properties, but due to its medical effects. It has been proved that marijuana is widely used in medicine as a strong painkiller and anti-stress drug and now it is high time to think about the ways to make its usage legal, but limited, of course.

 “Every minute police arrest adult for marijuana use, this moment cannot be spent for the disclosure of other more serious crimes," said Major Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement against Prohibition (LEAP) (N/a para 4). This is one more point to support the idea for marijuana legalization and its taxation. Marijuana is less harmful to the consumer and society, compared with alcohol, and this should be reflected in the laws and the policy of marijuana prohibition has brought more harm than marijuana itself.

 In accordance with the laws of the State of Colorado, the sale of marijuana will be subject to the same rules that are applied to the sale of alcohol. Residents of the state will be able to buy almost an ounce (28 grams) of cannabis, while residents of other states will be able to purchase only 7 grams (Rosenthal and Kuppy 26). Smoking of marijuana can only be in private homes and upon the owner’s consent. Drug sales will be taxed as alcoholic beverages, and state officials have informed they expect to get multimillion tax revenues from the taxes, 40 million of which will be forwarded for school building.

 

Works cited

Concar, David. “Marijuana Special Report: High anxieties.” 1998. Web.15 Apr. 2014.

Grinspoon, Lester. Marijuana Should Be Legalized for Medical Purposes. Drug Legalization. Ed. Scott Barbour. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Print.

Jones, Nicola. “Marijuana Special Report: Doing drugs Dutch style.” 2001. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

Lacayo, Richard, "Marijuana: Where There's Smoke, There's Fire", Time, 28 Oct. 1996: 35-48.

Miron, Jeffrey. The Budgetary implications of Marijuana Prohibition. Boston: Wiley. 2005. Print

N/a. "The Uses of Medical Marijuana." Arkansas Alliance for Medical Marijuana. 1 May 2006. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

Rosenthal, Ed. and Steve Kuppy. Why Marijuana Should Be Legal. Boston: Wiley. 2003 Print.