Legal marijuana: less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes

Although I’m sure that I am quickly racking up the reputation for the most liberal writer at The Eagle, besides maybe Kevin Oleksy, I suppose that is something I can live with as long as my opinions are getting out.

Last week, when I read an opinion column in The Eagle by Aaron Gonzalez that was thoroughly against the legalization of marijuana, I figured it would be best if everyone heard the opposite side of the spectrum. And I’m taking the complete opposite side.

It is no shock to my friends and family that I am all for the legalization of marijuana, and not just medical marijuana.
If you’re thinking, “Wow, this chick is crazy,” I have some statistics to share with you.

Every year, about 435,000 people die from tobacco use. Every year, about 85,000 people die from alcohol use. The number of people who die from the use of marijuana? Zero.

Alcohol and tobacco are both legal, and both cause more damage than marijuana could. It is impossible to overdose on marijuana because a person would have to consume 40,000 times the amount of marijuana it takes to get intoxicated (high, stoned, whatever term you want to use.)

On the other hand, for a person to overdose on alcohol, they only need to consume four to 10 times what they would need to get intoxicated. This is much more plausible and shows just how much more dangerous alcohol is.

For those of you who look at this from a more political stand point, let’s see what the government can gain from legalizing marijuana.

California had the right idea with Proposition 19. Legalize marijuana for absolutely anyone’s use, then tax it. The idea behind this was that by taxing marijuana, California would get more money to help solve its budget crisis. Although it didn’t pass, Proposition 19 was a good idea.

In my opinion, all states should look at such a proposition. Then, the government would be making money off marijuana taxes, taxes that could help us get out of the rut we seem to be stuck in.

I’m not saying that taxes from marijuana are going to get us out of the financial crisis, but it would certainly be a good thing to look at.

I’d like to jump from the subject of making all marijuana legal, and look at just medical marijuana. I recently had a heated discussion with my father who said, “Medical marijuana is horse—!” I won’t finish that statement.

On the contrary, medical marijuana is actually a successful form of treatment.

People going through cancer treatment are sometimes administered marijuana either by being smoked, or through pills.
This eases nausea caused by chemotherapy.

Another example of success with medical marijuana is when it is used to treat muscular plasticity disorders. As marijuana has a calming effect, it will calm the muscles of patients with disorders such as cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis.

Other medications used for these diseases are Phenobarbital and Valium.

However, with these drugs, patients can build up a tolerance, not to mention, they are highly addictive.

Gonzalez said in his column last week, “Pot does not treat the problem; it only temporarily masks the pain.”

I believe that we can expect that from any medication. The only difference is that marijuana is grown from the earth, not made out of a bunch of chemicals in a lab.

What I’m getting at here is that maybe we shouldn’t jump so fast to saying that marijuana is the bad guy.
People say it’s a drug. So is aspirin.

People say it’s dangerous. As I’ve pointed out, it’s much less dangerous than other things people nonchalantly put in their systems.

Marijuana is not actually the bad guy, and we need to stop viewing it that way.