Legalization of cannabis in us and other countries - The US war on drugs places awesome accentuation on capturing individuals for smoking marijuana. Since 1990, pretty nearly 17 million Americans have been captured on marijuana charges, a more noteworthy number than the whole populaces of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming joined. In 2010, state and neighborhood law authorization captured 746,000 individuals for marijuana infringement. This is an increment of 800 percent since 1980 and the most noteworthy every capita on the planet.
As has been the situation all through the 1990s, 2000's and proceeds with that the dominant part of those accused of marijuana infringement were for straightforward ownership, around 88%. The staying 12% were for "deal/fabricate", a FBI classification which incorporates marijuana developed for individual utilization or absolutely medicinal purposes. These new FBI insights demonstrate that one marijuana smoker is captured like clockwork in America. Taken together, the aggregate number of marijuana captures for 2010 far surpassed the consolidated number of captures for brutal criminal acts, including homicide, murder, persuasive assault, theft and irritated attack.
Legalization of Marijuana
US Policy on Drugs was driven by the Drug War, the U.S. prison population is six to ten times as high as most Western European nations. The United States is a close second only to Russia in its rate of incarceration per 100,000 people. In 2010, more than 746,000 people were arrested in the USA for marijuana-related offenses alone.
On the 6th of November 2012 marijuana was legalized for recreational use in Colorado and Washington state. People over the age of 21 can possess up to an ounce of marijuana for recreational use. At least these people can now carry weed without worrying about the police arresting them.
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31st of May 2013 former Mexican president Vincente Fox states that he wants marijuana to be legalized in Mexico and the USA.
10th December 2013 Uruguay becmes the first country to legalize growing, selling and smoking marijuana. However tourists will not be able to legally purchase cannabis.
1st January 2014 Colorado became the world’s first state licensed marijuana industry which started to sell weed to residents and non residents. In the Netherlands you have been allowed to purchase and smoke cannabis since 1976. Ironically the Dutch have never actually legalized marijuana.
19th January 2014 Another significant milestone for the legalization of marijuana. President Obama says that marijuana is less damaging than alcohol in terms of the impact on the indivudal consumer.
26th February 2014 A recent poll of residents in Texas show that 49% of Texans support legalization of marijuana and 77% support the legalization of medical marijuana. This is a great sign that the majority of people in the USA think marijuana should be legalized. Texas can be considered one of the most conservative states in the USA.
4th November 2014 Oregon becomes the 3rd state to legalize recreational marijuana. Washington, DC also legalizes marijuana.
4th November 2014 Alaska becomes the 4th state to legalize recreational marijuana. Alaskans voted 53-47% to end decades of harmful and ineffective marijuana prohibition, and replace it with a system in which marijuana is taxed and regulated like alcohol.
Like most Americans, people who smoke marijuana also pay taxes, love and support their families, and work hard to make a better life for their children. Suddenly they are arrested, jailed and treated like criminals solely because of their recreational drug of choice. State agencies frequently step in and declare children of marijuana smokers to be “in danger”, and many children are placed into foster homes as a result. This causes enormous pain, suffering and financial hardship for millions of American families. It also engenders distrust and disrespect for the law and for the criminal justice system overall.
Responsible marijuana smokers present no threat or danger to America or its children, and there is no reason to treat them as criminals, or to take their children away. As a society we need to find ways to discourage personal conduct of all kinds that is abusive or harmful to others. Responsible marijuana smokers are not the problem and it is time to stop arresting them.
Once all the facts are known, it becomes clear that America’s marijuana laws need reform. This issue must be openly debated using only the facts. Groundless claims, meaningless statistics, and exaggerated scare stories that have been peddled by politicians and prohibitionists for the last 60 years must be rejected.
ANNUAL AMERICAN DEATHS CAUSED BY DRUGS
- TOBACCO …………………….400,000
- ALCOHOL ……………………..100,000
- ALL LEGAL DRUGS ………….20,000
- ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS ……….15,000
- CAFFEINE ……………………..2,000
- ASPIRIN ………………………..500
- MARIJUANA …………………...0
Source: United States government, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bureau of Mortality Statistics
Like any substance, marijuana can be abused. The most common problem attributed to marijuana is frequent overuse, which can induce lethargic behavior, but does not cause serious health problems. Marijuana can cause short-term memory loss, but only while under the influence. Marijuana does not impair long-term memory. Marijuana does not lead to harder drugs.
Marijuana does not cause brain damage, genetic damage, or damage the immune system. Unlike alcohol, marijuana does not kill brain cells or induce violent behavior Continuous long-term smoking of marijuana can cause bronchitis, but the chance of contracting bronchitis from casual marijuana smoking is minuscule. Respiratory health hazards can be totally eliminated by consuming marijuana via non-smoking methods, i.e., ingesting marijuana via baked foods, tincture, or vaporizer.
A 1997 UCLA School of Medicine study (Volume 155 of the American Journal of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine) conducted on 243 marijuana smokers over an 8-year period reported the following: “Findings from the long-term study of heavy, habitual marijuana smokers argue against the concept that continuing heavy use of marijuana is a significant risk factor for the development of chronic lung disease.”
Neither the continuing nor the intermittent marijuana smokers exhibited any significantly different rates of decline in lung function as compared with those individuals who never smoked marijuana.” The study concluded: “No differences were noted between even quite heavy marijuana smoking and non-smoking of marijuana.”
Marijuana does not cause serious health problems like those caused by tobacco or alcohol (e.g., strong addiction, cancer, heart problems, birth defects, emphysema, liver damage, etc.). Death from a marijuana overdose is impossible. In all of world history, there has never been a single human death attributed to a health problem caused by marijuana. Legalize marijuana and life would be better for most people.
Has the legalization of marijuana in America become inevitable?
It’s not just at the ballot box where the pro-pot crowd is putting points on the board. Lawmakers in at least 40 states have eased at least some drug laws since 2009, according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis.According to the Marijuana Policy Project, proposals to treat pot like alcohol have been introduced in 18 states and the District of Columbia this year alone. Meanwhile,16 states have already decriminalized marijuana, according to the pro-pot group NORML Maryland will become the 17th in October.
In large swaths of the country getting caught with a small amount of weed at a concert is now roughly the same as getting a speeding ticket on the way to the show. While not leading the charge, the Obama administration is allowing states the chance to experiment. The feds have given a qualified greenlight to Colorado and Washington to dabble in recreational weed, and have even taken small steps to encourage banks to do business with those companies involved in the quasi-legal pot trade.
Given this momentum, it’s not difficult to see why 75 percent of Americans—including a majority of both those who support and those who oppose legalization told Pew pollsters in February that they now believe it’s a matter of when, not if, the nation’s eight-decade-long prohibition of pot ends. The question is: Are they right?
The pro-pot crowd isn’t ready to declare victory either. Ethan Nadelmann, who heads the Drug Policy Alliance and has spent decades in the reform trenches, says he’s of two minds when he thinks about the future. “On the one hand we have this extraordinary momentum,” he says. “On the other, public opinion can be fickle and marijuana is not going to legalize itself.”
While such caution is reasonable, it’s obvious that things are different now than they were 40 years ago, when then-record levels of support for legalization were good for little more than a vocal minority. It wasn’t until 2013 that a majority of Americans said for the first time that they supported making it legal to use weed.
Support now stands at 54 percent in the most recent Pew poll, 23 points above where the legalization effort stood as recently as 2000 and 13 points higher than in 2010. Even those fickle Baby Boomers are back on board, with 52 percent now in favor—5 points more than that generation’s 1970s-era high. Meanwhile, each passing year brings us an electorate more familiar and less fearful of marijuana.
It’s not just a matter of shifting demographics. There’s also the fact that voters have increasingly gotten an up-close look at state-legal weed in the form of medical marijuana. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have legalized pot for medicinal purposes to varying degrees since California became the first to do so almost two decades ago.
Voters in Florida are set to decide later this year whether they want to join that group, something that would give advocates their first voter-referendum victory in the South. (Florida law requires at least 60 percent support, however, making it a heavier lift than it has been in other states.).
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