One of the many things that have been politicized for awhile is the legalization of marijuana coupled with the current drug war issue. Actually, there does not seem to be much issue here... we have been TOLD it (marijuana) is bad and that it (marijuana) will continue to be illegal. Yet more and more states find the question on the ballot and more often than not medical marijuana is finding favor with the voters.
The big scary that has been put out there, over and over, is that M leads to other harsher drugs. While that was debunked long ago it remains one of the large bugaboos perpetually paraded out to warn us of M's legalization in any way.
ANNUAL AMERICAN DEATHS CAUSED BY DRUGS
TOBACCO - 400,000
ALCOHOL - 100,000
ALL LEGAL DRUGS - 20,000
ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS - 15,000
CAFFEINE - 2,000
ASPIRIN - 500
MARIJUANA - 0
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Source: United States government...
National Institute on Drug Abuse,
Bureau of Mortality Statistics
The more we study (to death) M's action and potential the clearer it is that there must have been some other motivation to the banning of M. I don't now recall exactly where I saw a presentation on the political history of M in America but I recall the essence of the presentation. It was that the ban was instituted to control "certain" people in the population and to arrest with impunity those the authorities "needed" a reason to arrest where no other reason existed. Think racial over & under tones.
For another take on all this:
Legalizing Marijuana
