A straightforward argument for the legalisation of marijuana
What follows is an article I was asked, as President of THC, to write for our student newspaper at the University of Canterbury. As it was for an issue based almost entirely around drugs, I left out all the information and provided an argument that I believe works whether or not you think pot is a deadly drug (if you do, please get a clue. There's plenty of places around this site to do so).
I know a few people who don't think we should legalise marijuana. I have friends who can look me in the eye and say that they think pot should be illegal. Yet at the same time they don't think that I should be penalised for my usage. "You're a responsible user" they'll say, "It's not a problem for you." What they seem to be saying is that it's not right to penalise people who don't have problems caused by their drug use. I agree, but I also have a question: if I were fucking my life up on drugs, would it then be right to send me to jail?
Our position at The Higher Cause is that it wouldn't be. It wouldn't be right to fine them either. If people have problems caused by their drug usage, you aren't going to help them by jailing them, fining them, giving them a record or whatever. You're just going to make things worse. And as for the responsible users like me (which, incidentally, includes about every user I know), obviously things are going to be made worse if you take someone who's more or less fine and prosecute them.
I'm not going to argue about what the real effects of cannabis are, the research is available to anyone who wants to take a look for themselves (for those who don't: it's nowhere near as bad as you've probably been led to believe), all I have to say is that it's not appropriate to use the threat of the law to try and stop people from using cannabis. Not only does it not help anyone who needs it, it also harms many who would be best left alone. A far saner strategy would be a regulated, unadvertised market for the drugs, to supply users (and tourists) who can't produce their own, with the proceeds put into education and rehabilitation, and permission for people to grow for their own usage in a manner similar to the restrictions on home-brewing alcohol.
We aren't necesarily in favour of more people using weed, we just can't see how taking money or liberty from those that do is helping.