Time For Marijuana Legalization?

Andrew Cohen: Economic Crisis Spurring Politicians To Talk About Legalizing Pot

(CBS)  Attorney Andrew Cohen analyzes legal issues for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

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Apparently, it was nothing personal after all. Apparently, it was strictly business all along.

After generations of defending capital punishment and marijuana possession laws on moral, ethical and religious grounds, after years of declaring that the death penalty acted as a deterrent against violent crime and that pot smokers were more dangerous to society than, say, alcohol consumers, all of a sudden thanks to our economic crisis more and more mainstream powerbrokers are considering dramatic changes to our criminal justice system.

The New York Times today has a late-arriving piece by Ian Urbina which posits that lawmakers in several states are considering abandoning the death penalty because it’s just too expensive and cuts into other law enforcement priorities. State officials are beginning to acknowledge that they can more productively spend their budget funds on cracking unsolved cases or ensuring better police protection than on keeping pot smokers in prison or fighting for decades with capital defendants. This, Urbina writes, is forcing a sea-change around the nation:

“Last year, in an effort to cut costs, probation and parole agencies in Arizona, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey and Vermont reduced or dropped prison time for thousands of offenders who violated conditions of their release. In some states, probation and parole violators account for up to two-thirds of prison admissions each year; typical violations are failing drug tests or missing meetings with parole officers.

As prison crowding has become acute, lawsuits have followed in states like California, and politicians find themselves having to choose among politically unattractive options: spend scarce tax dollars on expanding prisons, loosen laws to stem the flow of incarcerations, or release some nonviolent offenders.”

This trend toward releasing non-violent offenders naturally begs the question: what about legalizing marijuana possession and lowering the drinking age? A California lawmaker Monday introduced legislation that would legalize (and tax) pot there. In Colorado, as seen this past Sunday on 60 Minutes, the police chief in Boulder (which houses a raucous University of Colorado) made a compelling case for saving money by reducing the drinking age from 21. Better to have police officers tracking violent crime, the argument goes, than writing tickets for college kids who are going to drink no matter what.

These declarations, from the political and legal arena, are not just isolated voices shouting into the wilderness. Consider the late, great Milton Friedman, the Nobel Laureate, former Reagan advisor, and esteemed scholar associated with the very conservative Hoover Institution. He was among hundreds of important economists who argue that pot should be legalized and taxed - and that the income from such taxation could generate billions in new revenues and billions more in enforcement savings. If you live in California, what would you rather have? Pot smokers whose cases are tying up the legal system? Or better health care and roads thanks to a marijuana tax. I’m just asking the question-and others are too.

Friedman and his colleagues first made these arguments years ago - before the economy tanked. Is it time to take his view more seriously with states facing huge budget shortfalls that threaten to curtail vital projects and policies? It is such a great leap from releasing prisoners from prison early to save money and not sending them there at all to save more? I would suspect a survey of police officials and prosecutors, and a survey of state budget officials, would indicate that the matter is being taken more seriously today than it ever has been.

It’s not my place to advocate anything - so please don’t write and accuse me of being Cheech or Chong. All I am saying is that the economic case for legalizing marijuana, and for lower the drinking rate, is as compelling as it has ever been and that, in a time of great changes in the interaction between government and the governed, it would not be the worst thing in the world to have a serious national debate on the topic. If we are going to lower state and federal budgets for criminal justice, if we are going to be emptying our prisons anyway to save costs, let’s make sure we do it in a way that maximizes the opportunities available to us.

[Tamater]

The reason why marijuana was made illegal in the first place was because of racist propaganda. The guy that turned this country against marijuana is the guy that told you ?There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.? If you don't find that to be a load of bull, then you just may need a slap in the face. The problem is that nobody wants to do their own research. They will believe anything the public tells them, and for that reason, marijuana prohibition continues to exist although any logical human would recognize that it's senseless. Marijuana helps cancer patients, AIDS patients, and glaucoma patients. It can be used to make paper, which is obviously a way better option than cutting down a forest full of trees. And whether it's illegal or not makes no difference on a pothead. It's still the largest cash crop in the U.S. How can anyone justify spending billions of dollars trying to get rid of something that shouldn't have even been illegal in the first place?

[wiener187]

To the person that said cigarettes are better cause they do not impair your judgement. Are you retarded? Cigarettes kill millions of people a year how many people a year die from marijuana? If anything should be banned it should me cigarettes. Or how many people die a year from drinking and driving? Now how many people die from driving under the influence of marijuana? We spend billions a year to keep marijuana illegal billions that could be spent on other more important things.If marijuana was taxed and sold like alcohol we would only be helping our echonimy not only from that tax dollars but the billions we save from task forces and destroying the drug. Think about it. Those billions could build new schools or jails or other things more important to our crisis that we are creating. For what? Why is it against the law but alcohol and cigarettes are legal and cause more deaths than any other cause. Come on people need to think about what is best for our future. And they way we are going its not looking good. Look at the places that marijuana is legal they have way less problems then we do here. And way more money to focus on more important crime's.

[wiener187]

To the person that said cigarettes are better cause they do not impair your judgement. Are you retarded? Cigarettes kill millions of people a year how many people a year die from marijuana? If anything should be banned it should me cigarettes. Or how many people die a year from drinking and driving? Now how many people die from driving under the influence of marijuana? We spend billions a year to keep marijuana illegal billions that could be spent on other more important things.If marijuana was taxed and sold like alcohol we would only be helping our echonimy not only from that tax dollars but the billions we save from task forces and destroying the drug. Think about it. Those billions could build new schools or jails or other things more important to our crisis that we are creating. For what? Why is it against the law but alcohol and cigarettes are legal and cause more deaths than any other cause. Come on people need to think about what is best for our future. And they way we are going its not looking good. Look at the places that marijuana is legal they have way less problems then we do here. And way more money to focus on more important crime's.

[S-R-Erickson]

Legalizing marijuana would for sure have its benefits. But seriously, we've spent over 100 years trying to keep the drug out of peoples hands. It's not the same thing as cigarettes, because cigarettes don't impair you like marijuana does. I don't think it's right to legalize marijuana. If our country has to legalize marijuana to get out of debt, then I don't think there is much our country can do at all. What will stop us from legalizing other, more dangerous drugs ?

[la_wedaa361]

i Personally Thinkk That Marijuana Is NOTT A Drug. It Grows From Thee Ground! No Chemicals Having Too Do With It. It's A PLANTTT! God Put It Here For Us To Smokee. It Didn't Just Show Up One Day Outta The Groundd! HELLLOOOO Think About It. Its The Earths Nature

[soinlove1]

if they do legalize it they should do it on christmas and make it into a cig box and sell 20 joints in a box lol crime would be so low and the u.s. would make so ******* money from tax's from it we the PEOPLE will all be rich

[ol_tex]

Synthetic Marijuana is called Marinol or Dronabinol and is legal, although very expensive, about 800 times the cost of the natural herb. Your doctor can prescribe it.

Marijuana takes on colon cancer:

The chemicals in marijuana could put the brakes on colon cancer, according to new research. That doesn?t mean smoking a joint will help, though, as the chemicals only form part of the process.

Raymond DuBois and colleagues at the University of Texas in Houston discovered that a key receptor for cannabinoids, which are found in marijuana, is turned off in most types of human colon cancer.

Without this receptor, a protein called survivin, which stops cells from dying, increases unchecked and causes tumor growth.

To better understand the role that the receptor, called CB1, plays in cancer progression, the researchers manipulated its expression in mice that had been genetically engineered to spontaneously develop colon tumors.

?When we knocked out the receptor, the number of tumors went up dramatically,? says DuBois. Alternatively, when mice with normal CB1 receptors were treated with a cannabinoid compound, their tumors shrank.
End Article:

Explanation:
Every second of your life 50,000 cells in your body die and are replaced by new ones. There are approximately 50-100 trillion cells in your body. Occasionally, one of these cells does not die, but instead mutates. This mutation seems to be caused by the CB1 receptor being "switched off".The survivin protein is produced as part of the process which is what infects healthy cells and spreads cancer by instructing cells to "switch off" CB1.

What this means is, when the CB1 receptor is off and the mutated cell is in close proximity to healthy cells, the healthy cells in turn switch off their own CB1 receptors.
Over time, a lump of these cells form. This is the cancerous tumor(s) your doctor informs you about. Cancer is the presence of mutated cells. Cancer screenings look for the presence of survivin, a protein. Malignancy means the cancer is spreading. If the cancerous tumor(s) can be killed (chemo-radiation) or surgically removed, you get rid of the cancer.

Cannabinoids bind reversibly and stereo-selectively to the cannabinoid receptors. Tetrahydrocannabinol or THC "switches on" CB1 again.
The THC method of "switching on" the CB1 receptor causes apoptosis and cancerous tumors burn themselves out through a process called autophagy in which they literally eat their own cell walls. The healthy cells are not affected. No more tumors or "CB1 off" cells means no more cancer. The Cannabinoid receptors in the human body are like light bulb sockets. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) plugs in like a missing component.

You can't cure cancer by smoking a joint as burning the compounds make them ineffective. It has to be ingested in a high enough quantity to permeate the body, hence the THC oil. One pound of marijuana will produce 2 ounces of oil, enough for 2 months use. There is very little "high" with this type of use and it can be used for other types of disease caused by mutating cells. 13 states have legalized medical marijuana.

[tala1128]

There isn't even room here to state the benefits of legalizing marijuana; even if there was, it's been pretty much covered already. No one has OD'd from pot, it's not physically addictive like alcohol and so many hard drugs. Seriously, it's a plant and is no more harmful than, say, the Valerian root that Arizona Tea puts in their Rx Stress.

To those who have the ability to vote this into law--go for it, and godspeed.

[Sober_or_Free]

This website along with the US government receives $$$$ from alcohol companies. Even though marijuana legalization is the #1 issue sent to the Obama website Whitehouse.org formerly change.org ; The reason we remain in the dark is because the idiots in charge like getting drunk around children. Yes it is legal to buy and consume alcohol around children. And the people against marijuana legalization won`t give up their "drug" . So I`ll make it simple for everyone. " If you can prove a lifetime of sobriety, then you should have a say in lawmaking. If you have ever done any alcohol or other drugs that make you brain dead then shut your drunk hypocritical mouth." We can be sober and kill each other, or we can be free and work together. The baby-raping drunks reign of terror is soon to be dust.

[evilsteve69]

just let the stoners get stoned i say

[thesmoker420]

i would love for it to be legalized, there is nothing wrong with it would help the us get out of debit. hay 420 hell yea

[heita4631]

can i just say that one of the validictorians of my class was also one of the biggest smokers in our high school? enough said..?

[jlibbons]

I think that the legalization of pot might actually lead to the decline of its use. The thrill of the illegality of it will be gone and so many might not want to do it anymore. https://www.mindreign.com/en/mindshare/Health-and-Science/Mom-2c-Let-s-Try-Some-Pot/sl36962307bp407cpp10pn1.html has some interesting ideas about it...

[hempster4twenty]

Just one look at the prohibition of alcohol. Look a little familiar? Crime and death in the streets. Not to mention the "easier" creation of organized crime. Unfortunately, legalization will probably never happen because of many reasons. Beginning with all the money to be had with this so called, "War on Drugs". What a joke. Another legal way to imprison, MANY people in the guise of "protecting" the people. The only person this protects is the bad guys by giving them an outlet for making extreme amounts of money. Let's not forget the SUPER wealthy pharmaceutical companies, prison unions, and powerful police who, (think their above the law. i.e. Cookeville police incident) by the way, receives massive amounts of money from the gov. to "house" these "hardcore criminals" that just smoke pot. Ha Ha. How laughable. What is really sad is the majority of the public believes ALL of this "spoon fed" garbage the Gov. Wants you to believe. In short I personally know many people with problems created by the use of alcohol and tobacco. Are these "Illegal"? Of course not. Why you might ask? Ask your local representative. They are more then happy to line there "pockets", oops, I mean war-chests with the money they receive from the respective lobbyists. Is anyone giving them money to end violence and pain caused by this so called "Drug War"? I would have to say "NO". Until we can pay our way out of all this hardship created by the same people who say, "We are doing this to help", we are all just going to have to hunker down and continue to fight this war ourselves the best we can.
The only way to end this war is to "Legalize".
Just a side note: I know some Growers for Dispensaries, and (by association) Dispensary owners here in California. Who really DON'T want legalization because it will hurt their "BOTTOM LINE". Now how can we expect TV to allow HONEST debate when we can't even trust the one's who wanted "legalization" of medical marijuana just so they can line there pockets with "over priced" product? We have GREED on the "inside" who would like nothing else but to continue selling a $1.60per .05g unit for over $6.00+ a .05g unit. Do we "honestly" think we have a shot with a new (growing more powerful daily) roadblock?

[jdlsurfer]

There are plenty of hardheaded people in this country that have been conditioned by our government to consider pot as a hardcore drug. They have said its a gateway drug, its not a gateway drug in the since they seem to think, smoking pot doesn't make a person want to do harder drugs, its a gateway drug, because its the first "drug" a person is usually introduced to on the black market, where the REAL drugs are readily available. Hemp has been used for thousands of years with many different uses. As for the bible thumpers pot is an herb, and you want scripture, "And the earth brought forth grass,and herb yielding seed after his kind,and the tree yielding fruit,whose seed was in itself,after his kind:and God saw that it was good." GENESIS 1:12, hurts to get hit with your own sword, doesn't it. You can't overdose on weed, and studies have shown that it has very little affect on a person's physical health.

As for the drinking age, i think it should be lowered. College kids are going to drink no matter what, so making it legal for them, as well as making marijuana legal, would free up the authorities to deal with more violent crimes. As for them drinking more, your an idiot. They have all the alcohol they need, so legalizing it isn't for letting them buy it, its mainly being legalized to save money and free the authorities attention, in reality a lot of these college students might even drink less, being that it wouldn't be rebellious if it were legalized, and them being able to drink more often would lesson them drinking at one time.

But to leave you with one last note..."Man Made Beer, God Made Pot...Who Do You Trust?"...

[mago24]

The long term abuse of marijuana has devastatingly horrible effects, like paranoia, increased aggressiveness and social disruption, just to name a few. As a gay man, I had to file a restraining order against my (ex) boyfriend of 12 years who has been exclusively adicted to a mix of pot and tabaco - a habit he brought from Europe when we moved to the US. He became increasingly paranoid and so angry and out of control that he had to be taken to psychiatric care when by the police. Legalizing the drug will definetly increase the number of abusers, and it can be very adictive to some people. Why nobody in the media has been talking about these risks when considering the legalization of the drug? The effects and risks of pot are not as mild as the media is presenting. Our younger generation might be getting the wrong message as a result of this debate.

[heita4631]

you sound like someone who made Reefer Madness a reality. i've smoked for over six years, and believe me, i've smoked a LOT. and this doesn't happen. maybe he was mixing more than mj in his tobacco.

[ol_tex]

"devastatingly horrible effects" ??? wow, I've known a few stoners and none fit this description. About the worst thing I have seen is the little light above their heads has a dimmer switch attached if they are stoned. Otherwise, no different from anybody else. Certainly not true if you're a drunk though.

"As a gay man, I had to file a restraining order against my (ex) boyfriend of 12 years who has been exclusively adicted to a mix of pot and tabaco"

It's spelled tobacco. Geez...

[vermonter802]

You all need to check out this book:
http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/marijuana_is_safer:paperback

Not gonna lie - I work for the company, but given the heated debate on the topic, it's worth the read.

[jkfroelich]

Obama asked his cabinet to come up with more cuts for 100 million dollars? Legalize It. Realize the potentials for canabis and what it can do for America.

[AshleyRceno]

Lower the drinking age!!! ya'll are kidding right? I don't do either drug and I'm 21 years old. I have tryed both and from my experience alcohol definetly impairs my abilities far more worse. Watching other people with my common sense also tells me its not just me that gets far more out of control with the consumption of alcohol. Lowering the age will only find us more driving accidents, more fighting and more anger problems to deal with and more medical issues. I do know that marijuana does effect people in some cases, for instance; slower thinking capabilties, and for some it causes a lack of confidence. But in all reality everything we do has consequences, and marijuana definetly is less harmful then alcohol. I dont mean to put religion in this but marijuana which is a type of weed is natural, put here by the almighty. And alcohol is NOT! Maybe if marijuana is legalized it will lower the rates of other drugs that are used which i find to be the worse of all; Loratabs, Oxycottons, Roxys things of this sort is what the society needs to worry about.

[ksurf_k]

LEGALIZE MARIJUANA