"Experts"

Since there are two sides to every story i have included statements from both opposition to and supporters of medical marijuana.

"The American Public Health Association:

1. Encourages research of the therapeutic properties of various cannabinoids and combinations of cannabinoids
2. Encourages research on alternative methods of administration to decrease the harmful effects related to smoking; and
3. Urges the Administration and Congress to move expeditiously to make cannabis available as a legal medicine where shown to be safe and effective and to immediately allow access to therapeutic cannabis through the Investigational New Drug Program."

-- American Public Health Association
Medical Marijuana Policy Statement
Jan. 1995

"The American Medical Association (AMA) calls for further adequate and well-controlled studies of marijuana and related cannabinoids in patients who have serious conditions for which preclinical, anecdotal, or controlled evidence suggests possible efficacy and the application of such results to the understanding and treatment of disease.

The AMA recommends that marijuana be retained in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act pending the outcome of such studies."

-- American Medical Association
Official Policy Statement
June 2001

Both of these policies are from expert organizations in the field of medicine. Notice how both call for further study of marijuana for medical use. The APHA also calls for legalized use and further study the AMA contradicts itself in its last sentence of the statement. If marijuana were to remain a Schedule I drug it by definition is not open for study under any circumstances.

"The evidence in this record [9-6-88 ruling] clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record."

-- Judge Francis L. Young
DEA Administrative Law Judge
Administrative ruling on Petition to Reschedule Marijuana
Sep. 1988

"Smoked marijuana damages the brain, heart, lungs, and immune system. It impairs learning and interferes with memory, perception, and judgment. Smoked marijuana contains cancer-causing compounds and has been implicated in a high percentage of automobile crashes and workplace accidents."

-- John Walters
Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy
Syndicated editorial
Mar. 2002

It is hard to dispute the similarities between the statement above and any statement related to alcohol and cigarettes. Yet one is under prohibition and the others remain legal and convenient. Also think how often have you heard anyone talk about cigarettes having health benefits.

"While it is not possible with existing data to determine conclusively that state medical marijuana laws caused the documented declines in adolescent marijuana use, the overwhelming downward trend strongly suggests that the effect of state medical marijuana laws on teen marijuana use has been either neutral or positive, discouraging youthful experimentation with the drug."

-- Mitch Earleywine, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology, State University of New York at Albany
Karen O’Keefe, Esq.
Attorney & Legislative Analyst, Marijuana Policy Project
Report, "Marijuana Use by Young People:
The Impact of State Medical Marijuana Laws"
Sep. 2005

"By characterizing the use of illegal drugs as quasi-legal, state-sanctioned, Saturday afternoon fun, legalizers destabilize the societal norm that drug use is dangerous. They undercut the goals of stopping the initiation of drug use to prevent addiction.... Children entering drug abuse treatment routinely report that they heard that 'pot is medicine' and, therefore, believed it to be good for them."

-- Andrea Barthwell, MD
Former Deputy Director, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
Chicago Tribune editorial
Feb. 17, 2004

These last two statements are straight forward but it should be observed who made each.

From The Drug Project.

Deaths in the United States in a typical year are as follows:

• Tobacco kills about 400,000
• Alcohol kills about 80,000
• Workplace accidents kill 60,000
• Automobiles kill 40,000
• Cocaine kills about 2,500
• Heroin kills about 2,000
• Aspirin kills about 2,000
• Marijuana kills 0

From The National Center On Addiction And Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

The Califano Report

Drug Prisoners

• 1,360,000 Drug Prisoners in America
• 1.7 million Americans are incarcerated in prisons or jails, more per capita than any other nation.
• Nearly 80% of all prisoners in America are for drug related offenses.
• Ten million people have been arrested for marijuana since 1965.

The Media and Pop Culture

The war on drugs has been at the forefront of the media and entertainment since its conception in 1970. Many songs and movies have touched on the subject.
Here are a few of the millions of pop culture and media examples.
Rolling Stone Article
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17438347/how_america_lost_the_war_on_drugs
Wikipedia has a list of movies with drug use that is quite daunting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_movies
http://hightimes.com/ Is probably the most wide known magazine about marijuana and has many articles about its benefits as well as expert interviews.
http://www.mediacampaign.org/ the main anti-drug campaign ever attempted

Activists

Here are some activists groups for the studies of drugs and the effects of prohibition.
http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/
http://www.mandatorymadness.org/
http://norml.org/
http://www.harmreduction.org/
http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php (law enforcement against prohibition)
http://www.mpp.org/
http://ssdp.org/index.php

Claims: The War Of Attrition

The main claim that I am presenting is that the war on drugs is not only unneeded but harmful to our society. The mainstay of this idea is that since the war on drugs started in 1970 no conclusive evidence that this supposed war is actually beneficial. It has also turned into something to use billions of tax dollars to combat an enemy that is both, mostly excepted, and consists of millions, if not billions, of unaffiliated people in this underground economy.
For the purposes of condensation I will mainly focus on marijuana as it is the drug most debated and has a hold on both the legal and medical side of the debate.



However, Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). AKA the Drug Czar gave some numbers at a conference in 2007.

"There are some 25 million problem drug users. But let's keep this in perspective - that's less than 0.6% of the world's population. Even if you take into account the number of people who take drugs at least once a year (approximately 200 million people), this is still below 5% of everyone on the planet.

By comparison, 50% of the world's population uses alcohol, and 30% smoke. Alcohol, we know, kills 2.5 million people a year. More than half of all homicides and road-accidents, and most domestic violence, is alcohol-related. Tobacco kills 5 million people a year, because of cardio-vascular diseases and cancer -- two of the greatest killers of our time."

http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm

With spending like this it appears this will go on until someone runs out of money, and as of right now i would say the government can never match a global economy.

The basis of the war

First and foremost I am obviously opposed to the "war on drugs" and all that it has stolen from this country and her people. The first thing everyone should notice in regards to this "war" is the classification system the government uses to determine which drugs should be illegal. The classification system used is called scheduling. These are the requirements for a drug to be placed under each schedule.

(1) Schedule I. -

(A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.

(B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

(C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

(2) Schedule II. -

(A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.

(B) The drug or other substance has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States or a currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions.

(C) Abuse of the drug or other substances may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.

(3) Schedule III. -

(A) The drug or other substance has a potential for abuse less than the drugs or other substances in schedules I and II.

(B) The drug or other substance has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

(C) Abuse of the drug or other substance may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence.

(4) Schedule IV. -

(A) The drug or other substance has a low potential for abuse relative to the drugs or other substances in schedule III.

(B) The drug or other substance has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

(C) Abuse of the drug or other substance may lead to limited physical dependence or psychological dependence relative to the drugs or other substances in schedule III.

(5) Schedule V. -

(A) The drug or other substance has a low potential for abuse relative to the drugs or other substances in schedule IV.

(B) The drug or other substance has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

(C) Abuse of the drug or other substance may lead to limited physical dependence or psychological dependence relative to the drugs or other substances in schedule IV.

(DEA, Title 21, Section 812)

Now this scheduling could be a useful tool if used properly. However due to the fact that there are schedule 1 drugs that have an extremely large variance within the scientific and medical community for both constructive use and medical benefits, it can be reasonably concluded that the government decides which drug should be in which schedule and then makes that drug fit the requirements. This is also shown in the hypocrisy with the scheduling. Marijuana is schedule 1 even though 13 states have authorized its use medically, also that both alcohol and tobacco have been linked directly to cancer and other illnesses resulting in death, yet they remain unscheduled and on the open market.