Medical Marijuana Must Be Legalized — Now!

THE FEDS REMAIN IN DENIAL ABOUT CANNABIS’S MEDICINAL VALUE, CHOOSING INSTEAD TO CLING TO MYTHS PERPETUATED OVER SEVEN DECADES AGO!

By Glenn S. Reiner

NEXT TO PROHIBITION — which the government obviously learned little from — perhaps the most bizarre law on the books in the U.S. deals with the criminalization of marijuana, which has been predicated on complete falsehoods for the past 72 years.

Just a little history: In 1936, the Treasury Department created the Federal Bureau of Narcotics under the leadership of Harry J. Anslinger. The new bureau chief initially had no problem with cannabis consumption, which had been going on for over five millenniums.

Then a group of religious fanatics,  similar to those who inspired Prohibition, ran a propaganda campaign about the herb which finally got to him.

Anslinger eventually convinced Congress to pass the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which required the purchase tax stamps in order to legally possess the herb.

But in order to get the stamp, a user had establish possession of it,  which led to their arrests for not having the stamp. It was one of the most imbecilic Catch 22s of all time.

In order to convince Congress and the public of  marijuana’s ‘horrors,’ the bureau launched a propaganda campaign with a few movies entirely underscored by hyperbole. The most ludicrous, yet effective, Reefer Madness (1936), depicted pot-smoking college students as a bunch of drunken speed freaks. If you never had the chance to see  it, it could be viewed for free at

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6696582420128930236.

After the liberal Earl Warren Supreme Court overturned the absurd law 40 years later, then President Richard Nixon enacted a new bill prohibiting possession of cannabis in any quantity within 36 months as a component of the more comprehensive Controlled Substance Act of 1970.

Generally speaking, it is extremely difficult to change the belief system of narrow-minded individuals, which the federal and state governments have historically had more of its fair share of.

A few states have decriminalized possession of small quantities of marijuana, while 12 have legalized it for medical use. But the rest refuse to even look at recent medical findings, and the federal government could still prosecute you if the states won’t.

This occurred earlier this year in Los Angeles where the DEA busted several medical marijuana stores , despite those outlets were completely legal and sanctioned by the State of California. The agency has even gone as far as to threaten doctors who prescribe it with prosecution and removal of their licenses.

“Marijuana has been a medicine for 5,000 years,” says Dr. Donald I. Abrams “That’s a lot longer than it hasn’t been a medicine.”

Abrams,  an oncologist and director of clinical research programs at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine in San Francisco, is one of a handful of top-flight doctors in the country researching medical marijuana.

“The war on drugs is really a war on patients,” he asserts.

What is truly bothersome is the federal government’s sanction of alcohol and tobacco consumption, and it has  made a mint on the these two deadly substances with exorbitant taxes. Yet, it refuses to even look at the data that establishes pot as far less toxic.

To paraphrase political comedian and satirist Bill Maher, ‘There are nearly a half-million tobacco-related deaths each year and approximately 100,000 fatalities caused by alcohol consumption. But we have yet to see one person smoke a joint and drop dead.’

If there’s one lesson we should have learned from Prohibition, it’s that morality cannot be legislated! When alcohol was banned, the result was devastating: organized crime took over the trade, the product had far more toxic components in the bootlegged version, and underground speakeasys spread like the flu.

The result of the cannabis laws has proven to be quite similar, as millions have been busted and imprisoned since 1970. Consequently, several more prisons have been built to handle the exponentially larger inmate population.

This has led the states and federal government to spend an exorbitant amount of money, which could have been used for legitimate necessities: our infrastructure, an increase in police, more comprehensive health care — not to mention improved education for our kids — which has absolutely gone down the toilet for the last few decades.

If legalized, marijuana — most notably for medical purposes — could be controlled by the government, who can regulate the product and price while increasing revenue through taxes. In any event, the consumer would be paying far less than he/she current does at black market prices for a safer product.

So its easy to see that the natural herb’s criminalization has proven to be a total failure. It’s high time (no pun intended) for the government to realize this.