My Life as a Marijuana Smoker

5:30AM....my alarm goes off. It's time to roll out of bed and head to the gym for an early morning workout. As the hour passes and my workout is over I head back home and get ready for school. At school I study hard in order to earn my above average grades. I look at the clock, 4:00PM.... time to get ready for work. I get dressed for work, where I waitress four times a week. After my shift, I head home dreaming of the comfort of my couch. As I step into the coziness of my own apartment, I feel exhausted, but I am proud of my productive day. 10:00PM.... I watch my favorite T.V. shows. 10:30PM.... I relieve the stress from my packed day with a smooth, calming bong hit of my medicinal marijuana and I call it a day.

It's not marijuana that keeps people from being productive, it's unproductive people who happen to smoke marijuana.

The War on Drugs

I'm sure I have mentioned before about how much I can not stand the war on drugs. It has failed. Karen Tandy, the administrator for the DEA, needs to wake up and realize the negative effects of the war on drugs. By making drugs illegal it is empowering and enriching criminals. Young teens, who want to buy drugs, go directly to dealers (who are not the most trustworthy people). If I was a parent I would not want my kids to be associated with drug dealers. I would rather the dealers not have the power of selling illegal substances but the government have the power, therefore it could be regulated.

This image is from the DEA's website. It is apart of a magazine they created that is targeted to teenagers in order to encourage them not to smoke marijuana. I don't think teenagers should smoke weed, I just think the way the government is going about informing teenagers is a joke and not believable.

First, they use images that are unrealistic and posed. For example, on the cover page of the magazine (which is called Stumble Weed) they show two teenage boys making a drug deal. These boys look sleazy and like your typical troublemaker. They are trying to show young teenagers that if you deal with marijuana you are sleazy and bad. I think it is bad for young teenagers to be dealing with marijuana, but I think it is around the "good" kids as well. If the creators of Stumble Weed made this more realistic they would get a better reaction from viewers.

I also think that showing kids the consequences of smoking weed as being unmotivated and lazy they are not convincing them not to smoke it. Marijuana is difficult to defend as being bad because it has little negative effects. Teenagers don't care about the effects it has on their bodies because they want to experiment. What they do care about is the different ways they can be punished by law enforcement if they do get caught. Because they are going to try things no matter what, teenagers are extremely curious.

My point here is to show what little deterant characteristics marijuana has. It has a little amount of negative effects and it isn't deadly. In high school, the drugs I was afraid of were the deadly ones like ecstasy and heroine, which kids also did anyway. I think the obvious characteristic of marijuana is that it is not that bad. The only negative aspect is the fact that it is illegal. Young teenagers are dealing with drug dealers when they want to smoke weed. It would be much safer if they had to deal with government controlled retailers if they wanted to smoke, which would make it more difficult to retrieve just like alcohol.

Marijuana Brain Scans

This video is about the effects that marijuana has on the brain (or at least that is what is says it is about). The only problem is that it only says a little bit about the effects of marijuana on the brain. It talks mostly about alcohol and methamphetamines and how these drugs have an extreme effect on the brain. The effects include the decrease in the amount of brain tissue which could result in mental and pyschiatric problems. The part that talks about marijuana's effect mentions that marijuana causes the brain tissue to decrease which leads to a decrease of memory and motivation.

Well, I want the right to lose my motivation and memory. How can it be the government's right to tell me that I shouldn't smoke marijuana because I can lose my motivation. That means they should just make fattening food illegal because it gives people diseases. They should make exercise illegal because one could get injured in action. They should make sex illegal because it spreads viruses and diseases. I think your probably getting my point that we should have the right to receive the consequences of our actions if we know the consequences. Everything can possibly harm individuals, but the government can't stop them from happening by making them illegal. I want the right to harm myself with marijuana, even though I feel it is pretty close to harmless.

California's Annual Marijuana Campaign

The following article is about the California's law enforcements effort to eradicate marijuana growth in the state. It was featured on the FresnoBee website.

California's annual campaign against marijuana growers destroyed nearly three million plants this year. That breaks the old record of about 1.7 million marijuana plants, which was set last year. California Attorney General Jerry Brown on Tuesday said state, federal and local law enforcement agents uncovered nearly 500 large pot farms on state and federal land this year. They also seized 41 guns and arrested 53 suspected growers as part of the annual Campaign Against Marijuana Planting. The top growing areas in California are Lake, Humboldt, Shasta, Mendocino and Tulare counties. Also on Tuesday, federal officials said they made 162 arrests and seized nearly one million plants in two recent marijuana crackdowns.

The reason why I wanted to show this article, which is opposing my stance, is to better understand why the amount eradicated by the government has increased and why I think it will keep increasing. I do not think that the government's efforts have become stronger in order for them to destroy three million plants this year. I believe the demand has grown stronger in the state of California. Therefore, supply is growing. Grower's are realizing the amount of demand that is available and are taking advantage of it. The government keeps thinking that they are slowly beating the war on marijuana because the numbers are rising, but because they are so ignorant they don't realize that there is more marijuana growth because there are more people wanting it. The war on marijuana will never prevail because it is a lost cause. If people want marijuana, they will get it. The only thing the government could do positively is to take advantage of the demand and make marijuana legal and tax it. They could be decreasing our debt, but they don't because they have a misconception about what marijuana is and how it effects the lives of people.

Putting it into Perspective

On the DEA's website there is an increased eradication section which shows the amount of marijuana they have eradicated from around the United States. The amount eradicated totaled to 5 million plants in 2005. I was thinking about this amount and noticing how much money the government could have made if they had taxed this amount of marijuana growth.

The average marijuana plant produces three pounds of marijuana which can be sold for $4,000 a pound. If the government used the tax they put on cigarettes, which is 39 cents per pack, on marijuana sales they would make at least $2,800 per pound. In relation to the 5 million plants the government eradicated, they could have made $42 billion. This is an insane amount of money that the government is passing on because of the politics of marijuana. There is such a stigma on marijuana smoking given by society that limits our government from profiting and decreasing our national debt.

Giuliani's View on Medical Marijuana

After I watched this video I felt like I could just scream at my computer. I am so disappointed with the answer Giuliani gave to the lady's question. She asked him why he believes that marijuana should not be legal for medical purposes (she didn't have her facts correct, but his answer is the problem). He responded with the fact that the FDA has not approved marijuana as a medicine and there are alternatives to marijuana. The fact that he acknowledged alternatives to marijuana is what bothers me the most. People (especially the FDA) are so convinced that prescription drugs are the right direction for our country. How could somebody say that a chemically made alternative is better than a natural plant that grows from the earth. If we went back 200 years ago and told people that one day certain plants will be illegal, they would look at us like we are out of our minds. It is so ridiculous to see how blatantly our government is pushing prescription drugs down our throats. Can't we just open our eyes to reality and notice that chemically altered pills should not be an alternative to marijuana.

Mendicino County

When I think about how I want our country to be in terms of marijuana legislation, I think about Mendocino County as an example. I have a friend who visits Mendocino County a couple times a year to go hunting and he is always telling me about the lenient marijuana laws he hears about when he goes there. This encouraged me to find out more about their marijuana laws. I was extremely happy to see their regulations in relation to marijuana. On the Mendocino County Sheriff's website they explain their rules and regulations for marijuana. In 1996 they passed the Compassionate Use act or Proposition 215 which allows patients and caregivers to possess and grow marijuana. They have a zip tie program which allow growers to cultivate up to 25 cannabis plants. They encourage their residents, in need of medical marijuana, to get a medical card to legalize their possession and cultivation of the plant.

Mendocino County represents the next step our country should take in the fight to legalize marijuana. Our country should not neglect people in need of marijuana but rather regulate their use of the plant as a medicine. Mendocino County shows how it can be done and how it can be regulated. I wish this was the way the whole state of California acted because we could represent the future of marijuana in our every day lives.

P.S. Check out the Mendocino County link to see Proposition 215 and how Mendocino County manages it.

The Lowest Priority Movement

I am so happy to hear that another city has joined the lowest priority movement on November 9,2007. The lowest priority movement is to make adult marijuana possession offenses the lowest law enforcement priority. In some cases the city allows up to an ounce of marijuana possession to be legal. Denver has just joined the movement. Other cities include Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood, California; Missoula, Montana; Eureka Springs, Arkansas; and Hailey, Idaho.

I feel like this action is bringing our nation closer and closer to complete legalization of marijuana, just like alcohol. To know that cities are fighting to decriminalize marijuana users lets me know that there is a fight to be won. The fight to legalize marijuana is not a lost cause because more and more people are realizing the sensibility of it.

High Times

As I was researching information about marijuana and the current events about the plant, I stumbled across the High Times Magazine website. I enjoy what High Times has to say and their contribution to the world of marijuana smokers. But I have mixed thoughts about the way they portray the plant and the people who smoke marijuana.

They have many advertisements that give marijuana a bad image. Certain ads include "how to pass any drug test" and "Find your Pot Partner". The reason why I think these ads give marijuana a bad name is the fact that they link marijuana smokers to being criminals and losers. It reminds me of the stereotype given to marijuana smokers as lazy, rebellious, and stupid.

As an advocate to legalize marijuana, I don't think this imagery and information that High Times provides helps the fight to legalize the plant. It probably reinforces the stereotype to people who aren't familiar with the people who smoke marijuana. This stereotype doesn't allow marijuana smokers to be taken seriously in the fight to legalize the plant.

pills vs. pot

According to the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an estimated 4.7 million Americans used prescription drugs nonmedically for the first time in 2002 -

2.5 million used pain relievers
1.2 million used tranquilizers
761,000 used stimulants
225,000 used sedatives

There are 3.1 million Americans who smoke marijuana. So compared to prescription drugs, there are 1.6 million more Americans who use prescription drugs recreationally than people who smoke marijuana. The question I want answered after discovering this information, is how something that is in some cases more dangerous than marijuana (prescription drugs) is available and legal for everybody? There are so many Americans who rely on prescription drugs to wake up in the morning, stay happy in the afternoon, and go to bed at night. There is an addiction to these pills that people aren't taking as seriously as they are the use of marijuana. This upsets me because marijuana is not nearly as dangerous as prescription drugs.
The funny thing about this argument is the fact that the people who are fighting against the use of marijuana are probably popping pills to escape the unhappiness of their own lives. It is so hypocritical and ridiculous.

The Stereotypes of Smoking Weed

Ever since I was young there has always been this stigma around marijuana smokers that label them as lazy and stupid. In movies they are depicted has dimwitted, silly people who can't really be taken seriously. But I have grown to find out that the people around me such as business owners, lawyers, and even teachers smoke weed or have smoked weed in their lives.
The point I am trying to make is that weed does not prevent people from doing what they set out to do. It might make people who smoke lazy when they are actually high, but it doesn't keep people lazy all their life. In anti-marijuana advertisements they depict smokers as never doing anything productive in their lives. I just recently saw one where the dog is talking to his owner telling her that she needs to stop smoking weed in order for their relationship to be strong. I think this is a complete over exaggeration because smoking weed doesn't keep you from doing your everyday activities, such as walking your dog. If you are a smart and together type of person smoking weed won't change that. Maybe if you are prone to being lazy and not finishing things you start, smoking weed might enhance those qualities. But all in all it is our choice whether or not we want to be lazy or productive, smoking weed is not going to effect that choice.

Ms. Tandy

I was just glancing through the DEA's website when I came across Karen P. Tandy's description and I started thinking about her involvement in the drug war. Ms. Tandy is the DEA Administrator who was appointed the position by President George W. Bush in 2003. In the first paragraph of her biography it shows the percentage of change that she has made in the fight against drugs. It states, "Under Ms. Tandy’s leadership, DEA investigations resulted in criminal charges against 87 percent of the most wanted drug trafficking leaders, an 82 percent increase in the number of dismantled priority drug trafficking organizations, and a 400 percent increase in the seizure of drug proceeds and related assets, with a record breaking $3.75 billion in seized drug assets and revenue denied to traffickers in a two year period from 2004-2006."
This tidbit of information made me think about why this number has increased so much. It is hard for me to believe that Ms. Tandy has made these percentages increase just by her inspirations. I don't think her involvement has helped the DEA seize $3.75 billion in drug assets and revenue denied. In my opinion, I think this number is so high because drug use itself has increased. The more people use drugs, the more the DEA has the ability and chance to catch them.
This is leads me to why I can't stand the drug war and the people behind the drug war, especially the woman leading it, Ms. Tandy. She is taking this number increase as a victory towards eliminating drug use. But in actuality this number increase is evidence of increased drug use. The drug war is a lost cause because people will always do drugs just like they will always drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes. The only thing the drug war does is make people do illegal things to get what they want. Marijuana smokers are not bad people, but with the help of the DEA they are considered criminals. There are so many people surrounding us in our every day lives who smoke marijuana and they are definitely not criminals, they are good people.