Living in one of the biggest drug capitals in California, the bay area is surrounded by illegal narcotics but the one that roams our streets most freely is marijuana. I watch people get arrested for something as innocent as having a ten sack when cocaine dealers across the street are getting away with pounds of a lethal drug and pocketing thousands of dollars. During most of our history marijuana was considered to be totally legal. It goes back further than 7,000 B.C and has been legal since President Ronald Reagan was a boy. Public awareness that marijuana could be used as a recreational drug did not reach America until the early 1900s. Marijuana became much more popular during Harlem Renaissance time when incorporated it into their music scene.
Charges on the drug were brought up because of race and newspapers wrote, “Marijuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice”. In 1930 director of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger began the all-out war against marijuana. He was able to manipulate what people knew about marijuana and used race and violence as his weapon to make it illegal. Because of the amount of power the federal government had, they were able to make marijuana illegal. However, government has developed overtime and is starting to reach a generation whose power will push for marijuana legalization again.
Marijuana should be legalized for reasons such as: prohibition does not control domestic production of it, arrests for possession are mostly for blacks and Hispanics which is biased and prejudice, with a legal market like cigarettes it can bring down the use of it among minors, reduce money going to gangs, it’s not lethal and nearly impossible to overdose on. Marijuana use has positive ways of working, such as its medical value and use as a recreational drug with relatively mild side effects. Its users are determined to stand up to the injustice of marijuana probation and accomplish legalization, no matter how long or what it takes to succeed.
Charges on the drug were brought up because of race and newspapers wrote, “Marijuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice”. In 1930 director of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger began the all-out war against marijuana. He was able to manipulate what people knew about marijuana and used race and violence as his weapon to make it illegal. Because of the amount of power the federal government had, they were able to make marijuana illegal. However, government has developed overtime and is starting to reach a generation whose power will push for marijuana legalization again.
Marijuana should be legalized for reasons such as: prohibition does not control domestic production of it, arrests for possession are mostly for blacks and Hispanics which is biased and prejudice, with a legal market like cigarettes it can bring down the use of it among minors, reduce money going to gangs, it’s not lethal and nearly impossible to overdose on. Marijuana use has positive ways of working, such as its medical value and use as a recreational drug with relatively mild side effects. Its users are determined to stand up to the injustice of marijuana probation and accomplish legalization, no matter how long or what it takes to succeed.
