Legalizing Marijuana in the U.S.
Marijuana is the most popula
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Marijuana is the most popular illicit drug in the United States. More than 25 percent of Americans admit to having tried it. Leading up to 1980, marijuana was at its most popular. Thereafter, its use in the United States decreased steadily until the early 1990s, when its use again began to increase (Nadelmann, 111). Notably, this decline in use has been accompanied by an increasingly tolerant view of the recreational or medicinal use of marijuana. Currently, several states û including Maine, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Nevada, Hawaii and Alaska û allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes (Paul, 18). This paper explores legal and public attitudes toward marijuana use in the United States. The paper advocates that the United States should adopt a legal approach to recreational use of marijuana similar to that of Western European countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands and concludes that marijuana use for medical purposes should be decriminalized.Many legal experts have advocated for the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana possession. As early as 1972, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, which was created by then-President Nixon and chaired by former Republican governor Raymond Shafer, recommended that possession of up to one ounce of marijuana be decriminalized (Nadelmann, 111). Nixon, however, rejected the recommendation. But again in 1982, another panel appointed by the Nation
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ribution of marijuana. In the opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas reasoned that because Congress had clearly designated marijuana as a Schedule I substance under the CSA, Congress had determined that there was no current ôaccepted medical useö or medical benefit that would allow for an exception granted to other drugs under the Act (Herman, 121). The Justice Department has relied on the ruling in Oakland to arrest doctors and individuals who use marijuana for medical purposes even when such use and prescription is permitted by state law.
The federal governmentÆs actions are rooted in the foundations of the American justice systemÆs penal model. In particular, AmericaÆs drug policy is based on an ôenforcementö model, which emphasizes punitive action beginning with the arrest and then prosecution and imprisonment of users and distributors of controlled substances. The New York Task Force, for example, maintained that such punitive treatment is considered one of the primary ôweaponsö in the U.S. war on drugs. However, as did the Time/CNN poll, the Task ForceÆs investigation ended with the conclusion that contemporary drug policy has failed in a number of respects. In particular, the Task Force concluded that AmericaÆs drug policy
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Approximate Word count = 1634
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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