In November
the citizens of Washington DC are voting to decriminalize the smoking of
marijuana. If passed, it is a step short of legalizing the retail sale of
marijuana. While I don’t know which
jurisdictions would be doing so, other jurisdictions may be doing the same this
November or in the coming years. A handful of jurisdictions in the United
States already permit the sale of marijuana.
The
arguments for and against abound, some of which are fallacious while others are
much stronger. One prime argument against legalization of marijuana is that it
is a gateway drug, a mild drug that leads to the taking of harder drugs. The
reasoning is that if smoking of marijuana is legalized that the consumption of
harder drugs will increase. The anti-legalization advocates note the number of
people who are taking hard drugs who had smoked marijuana first. I’ve not been
impressed with such an argument. While those using this argument are trying to
make a direct cause and effect argument the argument is built upon a
correlation of two behaviors that may or may not be linked.
It is true a
high number of hard drug users first smoked marijuana, but does that mean that
behavior drove or caused them to take harder drugs? The anti-legalization
advocates claim that the high correlation argues that it does. I see some
problems with argument. One is that the correlation between consuming of alcohol
and the consumption of hard drugs is much stronger. There is a strong correlation
between those who smoke marijuana and those who smoke cigarettes. Are we then to argue that drinking alcohol or
smoke cigarettes leads to the consumption of hard drugs?
The reason
no one is making such arguments about alcohol or cigarettes being gateway drugs
is that there is a high number of people who drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes
who never take hard drugs. And that is my issue with linking marijuana with
hard drugs, for there are millions of people who have smoked marijuana and have
never then consumed hard drugs. Add to the mix is that when the Netherlands
legalized marijuana, there was no increase in hard drug consumption.
Does
marijuana lead those who smoke it into the taking of other drugs? Indicators suggest that other causes and
issues are likely at play, not the smoking of marijuana.
Likewise,
I’ve not been overly impressed with the argument that marijuana is a harmless
drug. It is a drug which is much like alcohol, that when consumed affects the
body. It is not harmless just as alcohol is not harmless. The degree of
intoxication as well as detoxification is directly related to the amount consumed. The more consumed in a short period of time
the more marijuana impacts the body, judgment and conduct. Just as people get addicted
to alcohol, people can become addicted too to marijuana.
The United
States effort to expunge alcohol from society was a dismal failure. People
consumed alcohol underground and increased black market related crime. America
realized that its citizens were going to drink alcohol whether it was legal or
not, and that it there are fewer social consequences in permitting and regulating
it manufacturing, sale and consumption in the open than to have it unregulated
and driven undergrounds. Are we as a society at the same point with marijuana? Should we legalize and regulate marijuana just
like we do alcohol? Should we be more
pragmatic about as do the Dutch?
At one time
in my life, I would have been firmly in the anti-legalization. While I’m open
to the idea, I’m not an advocate for legalizing of marijuana. If legalizing of marijuana
was on Virginia’s ballet this year I’m uncertain how I would vote. Fortunately,
due to the nature of downstate politics in Virginia, I have several years to become
more settled on the matter.
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