Legalize Marijuana to Save Taxpayer Green & Provide Medical Alleviation for Chronic Pain-


According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual Uniform Crime Report, law enforcement officers apprehended a staggering 847,864 persons for marijuana violations within the year 2008. The figure denotes a 3 percent decline of cannabis-related arrests in 2007; yet as it stands now, marijuana arrests comprise one-half (49.8 percent) of all drug arrests reported in the United States. Of the folks detained with pot violations, approximately 89 percent – or 754,224 Americans – were solely charged with possession of marijuana; however, the remaining 93,640 persons were charged with “sale/manufacture”, a class that involves all cultivation offenses, including the circumstances in which marijuana was being grown for medical use. To add, the arrest total in 2008 is the second highest annual total ever to be recorded. Principal concerns behind the astounding quantity of U.S. marijuana arrests are that, in reality, the brunt of the costs are placed upon the taxpayers of this country. According to Project Censored, the FBI figures add up to one marijuana arrest every thirty-eight seconds, with more arrests for sole possession than for all violent crimes combined. The activist group went on to report that the total costs rested on taxpayers are an estimated $14-$42 billion annually, tax dollars that could have gone to support the country in numerous constructive ways throughout its lingering recession.

Allen St. Pierre, Director of NORML – a non-profit organization dedicated to ending arrests of marijuana users – lends his comments on the 2008 figures, stating, “Federal statistics released just last week indicate that larger percentages of Americans are using cannabis at the same time that police are arresting a near-record number of Americans for pot-related offenses. Present enforcement policies are costing American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, ruining the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and having no impact on marijuana availability or marijuana use in this country. It is time to end this failed policy and replace prohibition with a policy of marijuana regulation, taxation, and education.” Another key point relates to certain state and local governments, which have chosen to legalize the otherwise controlled substance for medical purposes – even while its cultivation and use is still banned under federal regulations. Current state requirements to obtain a medical marijuana license specify that the patient must be afflicted with chronic pain – whether the pain be mental or physical – such as: cancers, AIDS, arthritis, depression, mental illness, eating disorders/anorexia, seizures/epilepsy, degenerative neural diseases, glaucoma, migraine, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, obstetric problems (dysmenorrheal, morning sickness, uterine bleeding, and antimiscarriage), withdrawal symptoms of alcohol, cocaine addiction, morphine addiction, chloral hydrate addiction, etc. All of the above mentioned diseases and disorders can be and are assisted exceedingly well with marijuana use, and offers patients a natural substitute for experimental pharmaceutical drugs. The 2008 crime report release has been disheartening to say the least, as the progressive tide of America has lead our people to explore new, unconventional methods to sustain and resolve – we just have to know when to say “enough is enough” to oppressive federal policy.