oh the tangled effing webs we weave, eh?
so i finished my research paper
it's in the cut. i would recomment NOT reading it seeing as how it's a bajillion and a half pages long and whatnot. but i felt like i should post it since it took me forever and a third to finish it. i was quite excited.
uhm....5 things that made my day better since, like maggie said, positives are better than negatives:
1) i actually went to an NHS meeting today and i signed up to help with battle of the band which is gonna effing RAWK this year you should all come
2) i got a 98% on the written portion of my spanish oral exam (HOLLERLLERLLERLLER)
3) mark waz brought me coffee and a CHURO! WOOOOAH!
4) benj was my cheerleader
5) i got to drive home with fei who i'm pretty sure i haven't actually talked to in FOREVER and i heart her mucho.
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Hannah Zillmer
Mrs. Kossoris
Research and Composition
10 January 2006
Can Cannabis Compete?
Marijuana. Try and find a teen that does not know what cannabis is. I guarantee you’ll get no results. Popular culture sees the marijuana plant as a way to induce a euphoric high; it’s something to do on the weekends. Legal for many years, marijuana became popular with “hippies” during the early 70s. When the US government realized that marijuana impaired judgment and reaction times, it banned cannabis completely-no exceptions. However, times change. Today the debate is not whether or not marijuana should be legal for all people, but whether or not it can be used for medical purposes. Under current US law, medical marijuana is illegal.
Under Health Canada, medical marijuana is not only legal but also controlled locally. The national government authorizes marijuana growers and city bylaws regulate use of the plant medically. The majority of the problems with medical cannabis in Canada stem from the bloopers of law enforcement officials attempting to find a glitch in the marijuana system, not from growers selling the plant illegally or patients abusing the drug (Hansen). Liz Szabo of USA Today reports that out of 220 epilepsy patients surveyed in Canada, 36% use medical marijuana. Of that thirty-six percent, 68% say that cannabis made their seizures less severe and 54% say that cannabis made their seizures
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far less frequent (Szabo). Obviously Canada has found a way to make marijuana work in their favor.
If our northern neighbor can enjoy the medical properties of medical marijuana without defects, why can’t the United States? The Bush administration is biased against medical marijuana as is seen in its policies towards the drug and its attitude towards the change of those laws. The current US laws against medical marijuana are unconstitutional because of the value that they place on federal rather then local law. America should legalize medical marijuana based not only on the medicinal benefits but also because of the positive effect the authorized medication would have on the economy; however, I believe that the US should regulate medical use of cannabis and tax the product in much the same way that it taxes cigarettes and other tobacco products.
The current US laws concerning medical marijuana are very unclear and may be unconstitutional. Federally, marijuana used for any purpose is illegal. Ten states have legalized marijuana for medical use including California (the first to pass the law-Zwillich), Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington State (Szabo). According to Liz Szabo, the Supreme Court generally favors state’s rights over federal administration; however, Congress controls the legalization of medical marijuana under the commerce clause of 1942, which states that the US Congress has a right to preside over matter of national economics. The question we must
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ask is if inter-state marijuana sales qualify as national economic matters. Is the ruling of federal officers more important than that of state officials? Ashcroft V Raich, a case currently being presented before the Supreme Court, may finally give citizens the answer to that question. Angel Raich, a woman living in California, a state that has legalized medical marijuana, has been stripped of her cannabis reserve and is fighting the federal government for her rights to grow marijuana to alleviate pain from a brain tumor. She pleads with the court-“I’m in this battle literally for my life” (Biskupic).
Ashcroft V. Raich has the potential to change not only the status of medical marijuana but also the way in which our government works. According to Warren, If Raich triumphs on the cannabis issue, states will have more power over federal/local battles in the future. However, if Raich is denied medical marijuana, Congress will be able to control nearly all state decrees. There is a good chance that the Supreme Court, under current Chief Justice John Roberts, will rule in favor of Angel Raich because it began more liberal legislature in 1995 when it voted against the Gun-Free School Zones Act. No matter how the Supreme Court rules, only Congress can change the laws concerning medical marijuana and, if they do decide to legalize cannabis for medicinal use, the US Justice Department would control how aggressively they would enforce the laws set down (Warren). I believe that the US citizens should be in control of the laws
that govern their personal health and medical marijuana laws should be voted on by
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everybody rather than a handful of people in Congress.
Today’s national government is obviously biased against marijuana and targets the plant in the war on drugs. Karen Tandy suggests that perhaps legalizing medical marijuana is a gateway to legalizing cannabis altogether. However, Bob Kampia of the Marijuana Project Policy counters stating, “We know that prohibition hasn’t kept marijuana away from kids, since year after year 85% of high school seniors tell government survey-takers that marijuana is ‘easy to get’” (Budgetary Implications). The Bush administration insists that marijuana is currently the most dangerous drug in America. While cannabis is the most widely used drug in the US (Swanson), it is only the second most common drug for which people seek treatment (Tandy). Also, past-month use of marijuana has dropped by 50% among high school freshman since 1996. The Bush administration also maintains that legalizing medical marijuana would prompt children to be more likely to smoke cannabis illegally although Mitch Earleywine of the Marijuana Project Policy informs us that, “Use is clearly decreasing regardless of medical marijuana laws” (Zwillich). Yet the government uses data slicing in their public reports to display only the downside of medical marijuana in order to play up their campaign against it (Swanson). The US government is completely set against medical marijuana despite mounds of proof that legalization would have no effect on recreational use.
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One of the largest complaints against the Bush administration is the huge budget deficit that they are slowly accumulating. Legalizing medical marijuana would alleviate much of this debt. According to Joan Biskupic of USA Today, one hundred and twenty million dollars are spent on advertising against marijuana each year. The Bush administration funds a heavy campaign against cannabis. This crusade includes attempting to persuade people against medical marijuana (Biskupic). The US spends nearly $7.7 billion in medical marijuana prohibition every year. 2.5 billion dollars is spent on the federal level while 5.3 billion dollars is spent on the state/local level (Budgetary Implications). Jeffrey Miron, an economist from Harvard University (qtd. Swanson), asserts that much of this money is spent on law enforcement and court proceedings. Some of the remainder is used to advertise against medical marijuana; the massive government campaign against medical marijuana often pays lobbyists to attempt to alter the public opinion of cannabis. When a person is given a ticket for possessing marijuana illegally (whether for medical reasons or not), they are usually set a court date, required to appear before a judge, given a certain amount of community service and a fine, and then later forced to return for a follow-up trial (Swanson). Because the average fine is $500 at the first court date and nearly half of all cases repeal the fine completely upon the follow-up trial, these charges do not nearly cover the cost of the law and judiciary forces needed to prosecute offenders. The number of offenders has ballooned
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tenfold since 1980 yet there has been no visible effect on marijuana use in the general population (Swanson). American tax money is being put to work on an obsolete system.
Many of the ideas against medicinal cannabis stem from old and outdated opinions. Medical marijuana, despite being proven to be less harmful than the government insinuates, also has many health benefits. According to Todd Zwillich of the United Press, marijuana can help ease pain from eye pressure in glaucoma in addition to lessening nausea and weight loss from chemotherapy and the wasting stage of AIDs. Cannabis can also help relieve symptoms of multiple sclerosis and epilepsy (Szabo). The Multiple Sclerosis Society does not endorse smoking marijuana as a medical practice: “Long term use of marijuana may be associated with significant […] side effects” (Tandy). However, marijuana is proven to ease symptoms of degenerative diseases and has fewer side effects than nearly all of the alternatives available.
While scientists have been attempting to isolate THC, the active chemical in marijuana, so far nobody has succeeded. However, a few alternatives exist for those patients that do not live in states with legal medical marijuana. According to an article in USA Today, Cisplatin treats harmful symptoms of chemotherapy such as wasting disease and nausea. The medicine can lower nauseous feelings by up to 10% while medical marijuana lowers vomiting by up to 25% (Szabo). A drug called Marinol and otherwise known as Dronabinol is an early capsule form of THC. This treatment also remedies
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nausea and wasting syndrome felt by chemotherapy patients. Marinol is advertised to have the same effects as marijuana without the high. However, the level of THC in Dronabinol is considerably lower than in an equal dose of marijuana and the THC that is found in the drug is an isolated chemical compound and is therefore much weaker (Tandy). These alternatives are not as popular as medical marijuana for a variety of reasons. In some patients, the drugs produce a hangover feeling, which does not allow the user to complete his daily tasks efficiently (Szabo). The drugs are also very expensive and often not available to poorer or more restricted patients. In addition, the medicines are highly addictive and, if not supervised by a doctor, often abused and used incorrectly. They produce numerous side effects that could, in some cases, outweigh the good done by taking the medicines (Tonoff).
Popular American opinion leans towards the legalization of medical marijuana. A study taken by AARP of one thousand seven hundred and six US residents 45 years of age or older reveals that 72% support legalizing medicinal cannabis by prescription only. 59% of those surveyed agreed that marijuana has health benefits that could be utilized to ease suffering in patients with certain diseases. An additional 55% mentioned that they would buy medical marijuana for a loved one under the current laws prohibiting cannabis (Kalata). As that group of people makes up the majority of citizens voting on important issues in the US, it comes as no surprise that medical marijuana ballots have passed in
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every state that has introduced them (Tonoff). Nationally, there are such organizations as the Drug Policy Alliance that are lobbying to have the prohibition laws revoked (Swanson). Obviously, much of the US population does not agree with the opinions of the Washington lawmakers on the issue of medicinal cannabis.
If medicinal marijuana were to be legalized, it would have to be regulated and taxed. The Drug Policy Alliance favors a system of taxation similar to that which is imposed on alcohol and tobacco products (Swanson). Jeffrey Miron of Harvard University estimates that the US would receive nearly 6.2 billion dollars in taxes from the product each year if it were taxed like alcohol and 2.4 billion dollars if marijuana were taxed like regular goods (Swanson). The savings and gains from legalizing medicinal cannabis could cover the cost of port security recommended under the Maritime Transportation Act of 2002. The US Coast Guard estimated the security would cost nearly 7.3 billion dollars. The savings alone could be used to secure “loose nukes” in the former Soviet Union, as recommended by the United Nations and Marijuana Policy Project (Budgetary Implications). Legalizing marijuana would be a logical way to lessen the government’s budget deficit.
“Ultimately the decision of what medicine is best for an illness should be left up to the patient and the doctor, not the government” (Tonoff). The US allows cocaine and morphine, two extremely dangerous and addictive drugs, to be purchased with a
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prescription (Tonoff). So why is marijuana, a considerably less hazardous and more useful medicine being completely prohibited? And why should the government have the right to regulate a patients’ medicine in the first place? Individual liberty is a fundamental value upon which the United States is built (Why Should) and the government has no right to take that from the citizens. When a resident turns 18 he is legally and adult, able to vote for everything from school board executives to the president. By the laws of common sense, that same US resident should then be able to make his own decisions regarding which medicine he ingests during illness. If there is a problem with medical marijuana at all, it is that the general population in not sufficiently educated on the drug, not that they would abuse it profusely. I wholeheartedly agree that “Education and regulation are better options than prohibition” (Why Should).