Pubdate: Tue, 07 Apr 2009
Source: Northern Light (U of AK, Anchorage, Edu)
Copyright: 2009 The Northern Light
Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: http://www.thenorthernlight.org
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4128
Author: Teresa Combs

GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO RECONSIDER FAILED DRUG WAR

While wasting some time on Facebook when I really should have been
studying (a famous excuse most of us live by), I noticed an
interesting advertisement that caught my eye and set my heart
aflutter: Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP).

With all the hubbub bustling down in California as
marijuana-advocates are vying to get the herb legalized, which may
greatly aide the state's suffering budget, and thousands of citizens
flooding President Obama's Internet portal with requests for him to
consider legalization, pot is something that is on a lot of peoples' minds.

It's still astounding that so many people are ignorant over such a
harmless drug. Alcohol, something that plagues society with DUIs,
liver diseases, violence and abuse is widely accepted, legal and
enjoyed at nearly every restaurant and bar.

I don't know about you, but I've never heard a case of someone
smoking way too much pot and going out on a marijuana-induced rampage
and beating their significant other in a high-stupor. The guy who
lived across from me at my old apartment certainly wasn't hopped up
on pot when he punched his wife in the face.

Honestly, what's the worst damage that could burden a comfortable,
too-lazy-to-get-up-and-drive-because-he's-listening-to-Sublime pot
smoker? A merciless attack on a bag of family-sized Doritos?

SSDP reports that tax payers are losing $50 billion a year on the
"war on drugs," which has been readily panned and generally touted as
being ineffective and a waste of money. In 2001, three out of four
Americans who responded to a Pew Research poll feel that this war is
an utter failure, and it will never be "won."

Pot is nothing to fear. People are going to smoke it either way, so
we might as well make it easier on them, while making a tidy sum for
the government in a time of desperate economic crises.

The statistics of minor drug incarcerations are ridiculous.
DrugWarFacts.org reports that in 2007, over 770,000 people were
arrested for marijuana possession. That's hundreds of thousands of
people that tax dollars were wasted on, because they had a joint or a
bag of pot. Billions of dollars are spent on the waning war on drugs,
as well as money to maintain overcrowded prisons that are overflowing
with people who have relatively minor drug convictions. Who would you
rather have securely locked behind bars: Your neighbor with a couple
glass bongs and an affinity for consuming an alarming amount of
brownies or a rapist?

How does this affect students? Hundreds of thousands are denied
financial aid because of drug convictions. That's a potentially great
loss of students who could be gaining higher educations, all because
they indulged in a smoke break instead of a Coors Light beer pong tournament.

Targeting marijuana as a primary directive in this war is a losing
battle. Money is lost that could be better put into education, and
any other services that can aide society. Instead, we are blinded by
purposely misleading information about marijuana, stealing our focus
on the reality - abandoning this fruitless war, and embracing
legalization that can likely drag us out of these financial hardships.
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