"Abuse" is in the eyes of the beholder. To most adults, especially conservatives (whether parents or not) the idea that people, especially young people inhale marijuana proves how rotten the current generation is, and how depraved they are. It seems that "Fifty-six percent of California voters approved Proposition 215 (the 1996 referendum that approved the possession of marijuana for gravely ill patients" (Grinspoon 48). What has happened is that the battleground for the use of marijuana has progressed from the playroom and the back porch and teen parties to the need for AIDS and other patients who have undergone chemotherapy and for whom marijuana has proven a relief of nausea, vomiting, and other severe pain and side effects. We are told there is an epidemic, but "even though the rise in teenage marijuana use has sparked a great deal of publicity, the level of marijuana use among the general population has remained stable for years" (Schlosser 47). So, what are the views on "legalizing" marijuana?
Arguing against legalization: If there is marijuana abuse it may be caused by farmers who see major profits in growing and cultivating hemp. "Last summer, (David) Monson grimly tended his wheat, barley and canola fieldsaand watched neighboring farms go bust. In the fall his profit was a paltry $25 an acre. Meanwhile, 20 miles away, across the border in Canada, Brian McElroy had cut back on wheat and planted his first crop of industrial hemp. He earned $225 an acre" (Ackerman 50). Worldwide sales of hemp are booming to more than $75 million in 1997
The point is that illegal use of marijuana is not going to disappear. It is still "cool" to roll and smoke a joint. And, despite all the dire warnings, marijuana is not a narcotic, and no one has died from smoking it. So, if there is any abuse it lies not in the smoking as much as the illegal farming and importation by crime families and drug lords from Latin America.
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