Why Marijuana Should Be Decriminalized
James Morton
Why Marijuana Should Be Decriminalized Marijuana has been used recreationally as well as medicinally for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of inhalation of marijuana, a small pile of charred cannabis/seeds, was found in Romania and believed to be dated prior to the 3rd millennia BCE. Marijuana use is considered to be beneficial to some, however has been controversially classified as a schedule 1 controlled substance, making it as illegal as heroin, politicians claim it to be more dangerous than cocaine, with little to no factual basis. Based upon my personal use of medical marijuana, I have seen more positive than negative effects, and believe it should be decriminalized so as to ease the pain, suffering, anxiety, …show more content…
All the while I ignored doctors orders and kept playing sports with only 75% use of my right arm, and did so quite well competitively. At age 17, I was injured during a baseball game and never played again, underwent surgery to remove bone fragments in my elbow and my world of pain began. I was introduced to marijuana as an alternative for pain pills shortly thereafter, and thank god for it as I do not want to be an doped up zombie for the rest of my life just to cope with the pain. Opiate based pain killers are the most commonly abused drugs in the US, and I found them to be extremely addictive, to have far more negative side effects than postitive, after a month of taking them I would wake in the middle of the night with flu like symptoms as the pain killers make you so dependant upon them you cannot go a period of more than 8 hours without taking them. Marijuana has enabled me to live a more active life, has eased the pain in my arm and back considerably, and also helped me to get past my anxiety and stress disorders. It has eased my arthritis pain, helped me regain a healthy appetite, and most importantly enabled me to live an opioid free life. The campaign to make marijuana illegal began in 1906 with the District of Columbia restricting the sale of cannabis, and soon thereafter in 1937 the Marihuana Tax Act was imposed, albeit some say with ulterior motives. Many scholars claim that the act was passed to destroy the hemp industry, largely due to the efforts of wealthy businessmen such as Randolph Hearst, Andrew Mellon, and the DuPont family. The invention of the decorticator made hemp a very cheap subsitute for paper pulp to the newspaper industry, and the DuPont family did not like this as they had relied on the downfall of hemp to help the rise of their newly developed synthetic fabric, nylon. Mellon had invested
Why Marijuana Should Be Decriminalized Marijuana has been used recreationally as well as medicinally for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of inhalation of marijuana, a small pile of charred cannabis/seeds, was found in Romania and believed to be dated prior to the 3rd millennia BCE. Marijuana use is considered to be beneficial to some, however has been controversially classified as a schedule 1 controlled substance, making it as illegal as heroin, politicians claim it to be more dangerous than cocaine, with little to no factual basis. Based upon my personal use of medical marijuana, I have seen more positive than negative effects, and believe it should be decriminalized so as to ease the pain, suffering, anxiety, …show more content…
All the while I ignored doctors orders and kept playing sports with only 75% use of my right arm, and did so quite well competitively. At age 17, I was injured during a baseball game and never played again, underwent surgery to remove bone fragments in my elbow and my world of pain began. I was introduced to marijuana as an alternative for pain pills shortly thereafter, and thank god for it as I do not want to be an doped up zombie for the rest of my life just to cope with the pain. Opiate based pain killers are the most commonly abused drugs in the US, and I found them to be extremely addictive, to have far more negative side effects than postitive, after a month of taking them I would wake in the middle of the night with flu like symptoms as the pain killers make you so dependant upon them you cannot go a period of more than 8 hours without taking them. Marijuana has enabled me to live a more active life, has eased the pain in my arm and back considerably, and also helped me to get past my anxiety and stress disorders. It has eased my arthritis pain, helped me regain a healthy appetite, and most importantly enabled me to live an opioid free life. The campaign to make marijuana illegal began in 1906 with the District of Columbia restricting the sale of cannabis, and soon thereafter in 1937 the Marihuana Tax Act was imposed, albeit some say with ulterior motives. Many scholars claim that the act was passed to destroy the hemp industry, largely due to the efforts of wealthy businessmen such as Randolph Hearst, Andrew Mellon, and the DuPont family. The invention of the decorticator made hemp a very cheap subsitute for paper pulp to the newspaper industry, and the DuPont family did not like this as they had relied on the downfall of hemp to help the rise of their newly developed synthetic fabric, nylon. Mellon had invested