By James W. Harris
The
recent arrest of Al Gore's son in Laguna Niguel for the possession of
marijuana and various prescription pills provides the opportunity to
ask an important question: Why the heck is marijuana illegal?
I
can drive to dozens of nearby stores and buy enough booze to drink
myself to death in one night. Or I can buy enough cigarettes to wreck
my health and cut decades off my life.
These deadly substances, which by some estimates kill hundreds of thousands of people annually, are perfectly legal.
However,
get caught with even a small amount of marijuana, and your life could
be turned upside down. You could lose your property, your job, and end
up behind bars.
This is nuts. By all medical evidence,
marijuana is far safer than alcohol and tobacco. No one ever died from
a marijuana overdose. It's physically impossible. Booze and tobacco are
far more likely to cause dependency. And cancer risks from smoking
marijuana are virtually nil.
As the prestigious Institute of
Medicine, which advises the federal government, said in a 1999 report
commissioned by the federal drug czar's office: "Epidemiological data
indicate that in the general population marijuana use is not associated
with increased mortality."
Still, every year, around 700,000
people are arrested for marijuana offenses – almost all for simple
possession. Local, state and federal governments spend over $7 billion
annually fighting marijuana, according to Dr. Jeffrey Miron, visiting
professor of economics at Harvard.
All that suffering, all that
use of precious law enforcement resources, just to keep people from
smoking a plant less harmful than alcohol or cigarettes? Wouldn't we be
a lot better off using those resources to fight real crime: violence
against people and their property? By the way, forget the old canard
that marijuana leads users to commit crimes. There's no scientific
backing for it.
And forget, too, the "gateway drug" theory –
the notion that marijuana use leads to harder drugs. That's just bunk,
according to the IOM and other researchers.
Would legalizing
pot increase use? Again, the IOM: "There is little evidence that
decriminalization of marijuana use necessarily leads to a substantial
increase in marijuana use." Even if it did, it might actually be better
if heavy smokers or boozers switched to less-harmful pot.
All
these arguments are important, but they're not the core issue. Bottom
line, it's all about freedom. In a free society, adults should be free
to do as they choose with their own lives, as long as they don't harm
others. Hang-gliding, motorcycle riding, bungee jumping, eating fast
food, neglecting exercise … adults engage in lots of risky behavior. I
may not approve, but it's your life, and your sacred right to choose.
By the same logic, a free person should certainly be able to grow and ingest a common plant.
Please
note I'm not talking about driving under the influence of marijuana.
That should be a crime, as it is now with alcohol. Ditto committing
other crimes while under the influence. Ditto sale to minors. But these
acts are illegal for alcohol, too. Still, we don't outlaw alcohol
because some misuse it.
Marijuana was legal in America right up
to the mid-1930s, when a lurid, racist propaganda campaign of claptrap
and lies conned Congress into outlawing it. The ban didn't make sense
then, and it makes even less sense today.
