“Crush a bit, little bit roll it up, take a hit.” These suggestive lyrics as told by Kid Cudi represent a culture that has been in full swing for decades—recreational use of marijuana.
Participants have been smoking, eating, and vaporizing the forbidden fruit from the time of Cheech and Chong to now, when almost 40 percent of Americans have said that they have tried marijuana within their lifetime. However, within the last few years, a fundamental question has been posed to some voters: should marijuana be legalized? States have been answering this question rapidly, with now four states (Washington, Colorado, Alaska, and Oregon) having full legalization of cannabis. Those opposed are worried about the moral and health risks, but those who support legalization argue that their recreational uses are harmless and can be taxed and regulated just as alcohol is.
However, with a presidential election in our midst, candidates on both sides have raised awareness that our criminal justice system and judicial culture may be too harsh for users of marijuana. With evidence showing that Caucasian and African Americans use marijuana at the same rates, but African Americans are incarcerated for it at a much higher rate, a threat to equity has been recognized by many. Candidates from Rand Paul to Bernie Sanders have declared it unnecessary that non-violent marijuana offenders are sent to prison for years on end due to mandatory minimums. The Republican candidates as a whole have surprised many, suggesting that first-time nonviolent drug offenders should be treated in rehab facilities instead of incarcerated. Such a change in viewpoint could reveal that our societal views on marijuana use are evolving substantially.
Although users of marijuana have stressed that it is a harmless drug that one cannot get addicted to, the concerns of skeptics are not going away anytime soon. Even the liberal "New York Times" columnist Maureen Dowd detailed a “bad trip’ she had while indulging in legal edibles in Colorado, writing that after consuming a candy bar she laid in “...a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours," suggesting that there are some health risks associated with freely using marijuana. Since the 1960’s, opponents have argued that marijuana is a gateway drug, and its legalization will lead to consumption of other, more harmful drugs. More than just a gateway to usage, critics have worried that a gateway to legalization of all drugs may occur should more states or the country legalize marijuana. Moral arguments that one should not take drugs because it leads to unnatural effects that harm the cognitive abilities of its users and are counterproductive to healthy living remain robust as rebuttals. These arguments are countered with a growing libertarian sentiment that freedom to do what makes one happy should be the concern of no one else.
Despite our weed-suppressing history and the differing viewpoints on the usage of marijuana, if there was one thing we learned from prohibition 90 years ago, it was that it did not work. There is no universal answer to the concerns of marijuana usage, just as there is not one for alcohol usage, but we have found, in the case of alcohol, that forbidding it does not solve the problem of consumption, but only complicates it. Considering the almost one million arrests for marijuana possession a year, more than any other drug, and the growing racial injustices that drug enforcement brings, something needs to change. While there are legitimate concerns on how to regulate marijuana should it become legal in every state, those concerns are relatively minor and solvable compared to the massive amounts of money and effort that are spent reprimanding pot users.
With minimal serious health risks and a lack of substantial evidence that marijuana is addicting, a legitimate health concern does not accompany legalization. Although division on the issue will continue as more states grapple with legalization, rethinking the suppression of weed and the concept of prohibition as a whole is at high-time.
