Marijuana legalization proponents claim that marijuana is not dangerous like
alcohol.
The facts reveal otherwise.
15
percent of shock-trauma patients who were injured in car accidents had
marijuana in their blood, and another 17 percent had both marijuana and alcohol
in their blood.
33% of fatally injured
drivers who were tested for drug use
had drugs
in their system; 3,952 drivers total in 2009.
Marijuana is the second most commonly found psychoactive substance among
drivers after alcohol.
In 2009, 376,000
emergency room visits nationwide
involved
marijuana.
There is a strong correlation between marijuana use and crime.
60% of those arrested across the U.S.
test
positive for marijuana.
This isn't
just crime related to drug use, there is a positive correlation between chronic
marijuana use and increased risk of violent behavior.
In fact, there is a stronger correlation
between property crimes and frequent marijuana use than there is with alcohol
use or other illegal drug use, particularly among teenagers.
A study of postal workers found that
employees who tested positive for marijuana had 55% more accidents, 85% more
injuries and a 75% increase in being absent from work.
Alcohol contains one substance only, ethanol, whereas marijuana contains
more than 400 known chemicals.
It has
50% to 70% more cancer-causing substances than tobacco. THC,
the main chemical in marijuana, damages the immune system.
What should
frighten even proponents is that marijuana use diminishes
mental function.
THC
disrupts nerve cells in the brain affecting memory.
Any marijuana user can tell you it causes
paranoia.
Exacerbating this is that
marijuana is much stronger now than it was in the hippie era.
It used to be grown with THC
levels of less than 1%.
Now those levels
are at 9.6% and increasing.
Another myth put out by marijuana proponents is that it is not
addictive.
One in
six teenagers who tries it will become addicted.
Even worse, marijuana is a gateway drug;
99.9% of cocaine users began by first using a substance like marijuana.
When the high fades, drug users must increase
their dosage or switch to something stronger in order to maintain the
euphoria.
Marijuana is frequently dipped
in PHP, a powerful hallucinogen, which can cause severe physical reactions like
seizures, coma and death.
Even if the government legalizes marijuana, there are consequences in the
private sector for those who use it.
Many employers prohibit the use of marijuana, and since traces of the
drug stay in the body for quite awhile after usage, many marijuana users in the
states that have legalized it may lose their jobs.
Marijuana remains in urine for up to 30 days
and in hair for up to 90 days.
Legalization proponents point to the enormous amount of money the government
has spent on the “War on Drugs,” which has done little to decrease illegal drug
use.
However, if society is no longer
deterred from using drugs, the numbers of drug users will increase, and we will
see those costs reflected elsewhere: increased drugged driving crashes,
treatment costs and lower productivity.
Robert DuPont, president of the Institute for Behavior and Health and
former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
characterizes it this way, “Legalization of marijuana would
solve the marijuana problem the way legalizing speeding would solve the
speeding problem: it would remove the legal inhibition of a dangerous behavior,
and thereby encourage the behavior.”
Another myth is that the government is wasting money locking up marijuana
users.
No one in jail for marijuana is
actually serving time for using the drug; they were arrested for a more serious
offense and were permitted to plead guilty to the lesser charge in order to
reduce their sentence.
Who does not have compassion for the terminally ill elderly person slowly
dying a painful death, whose pain could be greatly eased by marijuana?
The problem is medical legalization is not
only benefiting those in medical need of it; in states where marijuana has been
legalized for medicinal use, 94% of those using it do not suffer from a
debilitating illness, but are simply regular users.
This is a result of more dishonesty by
legalization proponents.
A free society does not mean that every action must be legal.
Free society is governed by the harm
principle; the actions of individuals should only be limited to prevent harm to
others.
Yet why do we accept that
certain things cause harm to others, but not other things?
For example, society – through a handful of
judges in black robes - has arbitrarily decided that killing a baby in the womb
by abortion is not a crime that must be prohibited.
Whereas the situation of someone defending
themselves with a gun in many cases is considered to be a crime.
A persuasive argument can be made that
marijuana use causes harm to others.
While it may not be as strong or as black and white of an argument as
others, the thousands of lives that are saved as a result may be enough to
persuade some free thinkers.
If marijuana is legalized everywhere, there will be an escalation of the
types of problems currently associated with alcohol abuse.
“Freedom” for some will come at a cost of
freedom to others, who may lose their lives in car accidents or their wallets
as their insurance goes up to pay for the treatment costs and insurance of
addicts.
While it is true there is some
hypocrisy when it comes to legalizing alcohol but not marijuana, it is
irresponsible to hide the truth about the dangers of marijuana and the
consequences of legalizing it.
Even if
one comes down on the side of legalizing marijuana for philosophical reasons,
the costs it will bring to society cannot be ignored.