Stoners everywhere have been getting mixed signals lately thanks to the Obama administration's stance on legalizing marijuana. Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Mexico for her first diplomatic tour of the country that has been rocked by more than 7,300 deaths in the Mexican government's war on drugs. Clinton alluded to a change in U.S. drug policy after conceding that America's voracious appetite for drugs only fuels the problem.
Not so fast, said President Barack Obama when answering an online question during a town hall forum last week. Legalizing marijuana is off the table in his administration.
It really is silly, the pot question, to be brought up during this time of crisis. But if there's ever been a time to re-examine our war on drugs, Mexico's growing drug problem and our burgeoning prison bills couldn't be stronger signs that the time for some introspection is upon us.
The classical argument against legalizing marijuana doesn't focus on the drug itself but rather the supposed slippery slope the legalization would promote. How could the government legalize one drug but ignore the others?
For many, the answer is paradoxically clear. Alcohol, a drug that claims thousands, if not millions of addicts, and kills more than 70,000 people per year, according to the Center for Disease Control, is perfectly legal for adults 21 and up. There are currently more than 40 million Americans who smoke, all of whom will only burden our health care system years down the road.
Florida's Medical Examiners Commission released a report last year that found prescription drugs had claimed three times as many lives as all illegal drugs combined in 2007 - a statistic Rush Limbaugh and middle-aged conservative women with back problems aren't helping. The same report found that marijuana use had caused zero deaths in the state.
I cannot condone smoking pot. The recreational user is most likely to inhale some amount of smoke, which can't be beneficial to any person's lungs.
It is inconceivable, though, to condone the criminalization of marijuana when it has fostered the very drug culture where anti-marijuana activists derive their arguments. Want to talk about a gateway drug? Ask your friendly neighborhood drug dealer what he thinks about free samples of crack cocaine. Worried about increasing gun battles over drug deals gone wrong? No need for exceptional violence when you can simply pick up some weed from your local convenience store.
The total money saved and raked in through taxes could go toward education programs for students, as similar tobacco and alcohol programs have shown success in curbing use of these products in recent years among teenagers. The industry created by legalization could put thousands back to work and would take away much of the power enjoyed by cartels and other unsavory figures of our government-perpetuated drug culture.
Once marijuana is taken off the forbidden shelf, our inner Adam and Eve complex won't fall to temptation - creating an environment where marijuana use declines.
Matthew Christ is a political science freshman. His column appears on Mondays.
