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Why is Alcohol Legal and Marijuana Illegal? by David Cable

 

 

 

 

In life, we are continuously surrounded by objects that can be harmful to our health. We are also simultaneously around substances that can be beneficial to our health. The question is—how do we know the difference? Is it through media, the government, or our peers? There is always so much hype about new foods and medicine that is supposedly healthy. Then some new evidence arises and…oops we were wrong. The only way to really know is through experience. People are so quick to make assumptions and believe almost anything they hear. For

this reason, I will try to answer my own question—Why is alcohol legal and marijuana not?

 

 

The first area to be addressed is the drawbacks that alcohol carries. If I were a man of assumptions I would assume that since alcohol is legal and marijuana is not, then marijuana must be pretty dangerous. Only I don’t like to assume anything. I spent most of my life in the presence of both of these drugs (and more recently I have done quite a bit of research) and I have yet to hear of a single overdose incident from marijuana. As for alcohol…well, people get their stomach pumped everyday. In fact, about 50,000 reported cases of alcohol poisoning

occur each year. It is estimated that one person dies every week from alcohol poisoning. Alcohol is a central nervous system (CNS) depressant. When alcohol is ingested, the first part of the brain that it affects is the frontal lobe—which controls our motor functions, planning, and reasoning. This is why people’s speech gets slurred, coordination is impaired, and bad decisions are made. About 10% of people who use alcohol have problems in their lives related to alcohol use. Around 90% of all assaults, 50% to 60% of all murders, and over 50% of the rapes and sexual assaults on children are alcohol-related. Alcoholics’ life

expectancy is cut by an average of 10-12 years. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2002, an estimated 120 million Americans (12 or older) reported being current drinkers. That is just over half of the population. Also about 54 million Americans participated in binge drinking at least once in the 30 days prior to the survey. That comes out to 1 in 5 Americans over the age of 12. Over 33 million people (1 in 7) drove under the influence at least once in the 12 months prior to the survey. In 2001 more than 6 million children lived in a household where at least one of their parents abused or was dependent on alcohol. In 2002, an estimated 18.6 million

people needed treatment for alcohol problems—2.2 million actually received treatment (13, 14).

 

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Looking at all of these numbers, I can not help but to think of a lifetime of memories where alcohol was the source of infinite problems. Is alcohol the real gateway drug? Has America made the assumption that—it’s legal, so it can’t be that bad, or is it the classic-he did so I figured it would be ok? At the same time, alcohol does have some positive aspects, doesn’t it? It provides temporary relief of insomnia—even though there are over the counter and prescription drugs for that. It helps people with high blood pressure by thinning the blood. Wait a second; doesn’t aspirin do the same thing? There are also prescription drugs for high blood pressure. When you have a rough day it can help you forget your problems. Although, the next day you will remember your problems and maybe even have a few new ones accompanied with a headache from dehydration. Alcohol can help shy people be more sociable, but they might do something a little too sociable and be filled with regret the next day.

 

If all of this is true then why is alcohol still legal? The fact is—it is part of our culture, a way of celebration. America would still continue to drink if it was outlawed. It was made against the law and look what happened—it went underground. This is exactly where marijuana is today. In 2002, about 54% of young adults (18-25) and 21% of youths (12-17) had tried marijuana. In the month prior to the survey in 2002, about 14.6 million people smoked marijuana. Of that 14.6 million, 12.2% smoked on 300+ days out of the year. That is close to 3.1 million daily pot smokers. In 2001, there were an estimated 2.6 million new users. That number has nearly doubled in the last decade. So if this many people use it, why are we wasting our time trying to catch all of these “criminals”? Why not turn it into the capitalist-American way of life and legalize to make money and quit trying to stop the inevitable? “Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and grow it everywhere.”—George Washington. “The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.”—Thomas Jefferson. This makes me wonder even more: why is it illegal? Only history can answer this question (6, 13).

 

 

It all started in 1914 when a drunken white man was killed in El Paso, Texas by a drunk and stoned Mexican. So they put the blame on the marijuana—instead of the booze. Possession became illegal in El Paso because of this incident. Then came the real problem—prohibitionist-Harry J. Anslinger, the Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He believed that if the laws were tough enough, then America could do away with alcohol. If enough people went to jail, eventually the public would learn to behave. He then turned and applied this philosophy to begin America’s famous “war on drugs”. He quickly realized that it would be impossible to police 48 states with a “depression strapped budget”, so he lobbied for the states to pass the Uniform Narcotics Law. Here comes the propaganda. During the 20’s, marijuana caused “physical and mental ruin”. In the 30’s it was “if you smoke it you will kill people”. When they all finally signed, Anslinger was able to get Roosevelt to pass the Marijuana Tax Act

of 1937—without public debate, scientific inquiry, or political objection. This prohibited the possession of marijuana in the United States without a special tax stamp from the treasury department. Only the treasury department never issued any stamps—oh and did I forget to mention that Anslinger’s position was in the treasury department. Then to make sure the public supported the law and to induce fear, the propaganda continued to pour. In the 40’s, the public service announcement was “marijuana: assassin of youth; causing violence, insanity, and murder” (6).

 

 

 

There were still hopes though. The mayor of New York, Fiorello La Guardia commissioned a six year, medical and sociological, study by 31 scientists which finished in 1944. They found that “marijuana did not lead to violent, antisocial behavior, or uncontrollable sexual urges. Smoking marijuana did not alter a person’s basic personality structure.” This commission “fully disproved every single negative effect ever claimed by Harry J. Anslinger”. He was furious. So he used his influence with the press to have the report discredited. He then destroyed every copy of the report that he could get a hold of. As if this wasn’t enough, he put a stop to any further research by restricting the supply of marijuana. Next, he ordered his men to dig up dirt on anyone who opposed him. His next target was the entertainment industry. In fear of trouble with the government, Hollywood studios agreed to give Anslinger personal control over all movie scripts that mention drugs. If he felt it was the wrong message, he just banned the movie (6).

 

 

 

During the late 40’s and 50’s the new scare was heroin. This opened the door for more propaganda—“if you smoke it you will become a heroin addict”. This enabled Anslinger to assist Senator Boggs in getting the Boggs Act of 1951 passed. This gave possession convictions mandatory sentences. Their slogan—“behind every narcotics peddler there was a communist preparing to over through our government.” How could they actually believe this? Well, because drugs are “primarily” coming from “red”

China. If this wasn’t enough, Anslinger then persuaded Eisenhower to push the Narcotics Control Act through congress in 1956. This put marijuana in the same category as heroin. The sentence for a first conviction was a mandatory 2 to 10 years. With these stiff penalties, America needed more propaganda for justification. During the 60’s, it was—if you smoke it, you will not only “withdraw from reality, lose all motivation, and undermine national security,” but you will become a “dysfunctional loser” (6).

 

 

Of course, those penalties couldn’t hold for too long. During the 60’s, many people started thinking that the problem was not so much the marijuana but the marijuana laws. “The use of the criminal law causes more harm than the drug itself.”—Keith Stroup (founder of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). The cover of a 60’s Newsweek magazine read “Marijuana: Time to Change the Law?” This spawned the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which eliminated mandatory minimum sentencing and effectively reduced penalties for possession of marijuana.

Then the Ann Arbor (Michigan) City Ordinance of 1972 was passed making possession a minor offence equal to a parking ticket. A year later, Oregon became the first state to pass a decriminalization law. Four years after, a study was done that showed no increase in marijuana use and a substantial savings in tax dollars normally spent on law enforcement. By this time nine other states had decriminalized marijuana, but the war still had a long way to go (6).

 

 

The next tough soldier in the “war on drugs” was President Nixon. First, he launched “operation intercept”. Since it was off-time from war, he used the military to do what was officially called the largest search and seizure operation. He put people all along the Mexican border to stop the marijuana. After about three weeks of wasted time and money, the operation was abandoned. So Nixon poured the money into police drug training. At this time the propaganda was—if you smoke it “bad things will happen” (but we don’t know what they are). Nixon wanted to find out what these bad things were so he used millions of dollars to set up the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. After strenuous testing the commission put out their first report. It concluded that “marijuana did not cause crime. Current laws against marijuana led to selective prosecution. The police were suspected of using these laws to arrest people with objectionable hairstyles, skin color, or politics. The enormous costs of trying to enforce laws against marijuana overwhelmingly outweighed any deterrent value of these laws. In conclusion, private use and possession should not be a criminal act.”

Just to give you an idea of the “enormous costs” of the “war on drugs” mentioned above—

 

1937-1947=$220 million

1948-1963=$1.5 billion

1964-1969=$9 billion

1970-1977=$76 billion

1980-1998=$214.7 billion

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