Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
Another contrast between cigarettes and cannabis, is that cannabis has medicinal properties. The most common use for marijuana in medicine is to diminish the effects of chemotherapy on cancer patients. The two most familiar components of marijuana to the medical industry is tetrahydrocannabinol or THC and cannabidiol or CBD. Both THC and CBD are noted in the US Patent # 6630507 as having antioxidant properties and being useful in treatment of side effects “caused by oxidative stress” such as chemotherapy (Hampson). Chemotherapy is the method of treating cancer in which you kill or stunt the growth of cells, in order to eliminate the cancerous ones. The possible side effects include headaches, pain from nerve damage, nausea, and vomiting. THC
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helps chemo patients to feel less nauseous and to vomit less frequently. While it is still difficult to prescribe in most states due to laws, THC substitutes are used instead. CBD is used to decrease any pain, body aches, and anxiety a patient may have while undergoing treatment.
Some unlikely advocates for medicinal cannabis are those who do the most for our country: War veterans. Eleven to fifteen percent of soldiers come home from weeks of witnessing brutal combat and begin experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Vietnam war having a whopping thirty percent of soldiers experiencing PTSD. With “only about half of the veterans diagnosed with PTSD… [receiving] the recommended therapy” and the lack of proper planning, record keeping, and consistency involved with the Department of Defense’s technique, the brave souls who have fought for our country deserve an accessible alternative (Enwemeka). The amount of veterans turning to cannabis to ease the symptoms of their PTSD and anxiety is on the rise. Users like member of the Veterans For Medical Cannabis Access believe that since their use of marijuana to treat their conditions, they have felt significantly more calm. Despite claims that marijuana is addictive “with an established and clinically significant withdrawal syndrome” and reports from a poorly conducted, small study (The department themselves even made a point to say that the participants “may not be representative of veterans overall”), the DEA has recently approved a study to prove or disprove the benefits of cannabis on PTSD (DVA).
Though there are countless studies proving the benefits of medical marijuana, the drug remains illegal at the state level in twenty six states across the US. These unreasonable and obsolete laws have created a large amount of modern puritans, but rather than looking for freedom to practice religion, they are seeking freedom to practice medicine. They call themselves the Marijuana Refugees. The Marijuana Refugees are groups of families that have flocked to Colorado following its legalization of the plant. The families who picked up and left their entire lives wanted nothing more than treatment for their sick loved ones: something their hometowns were not willing to grant them. In 2015, Georgia attempted to correct that and passed a bill known as the Haleigh's Hope Act, named after 5-year-old, Haleigh Cox. Haleigh suffers from a rare form of epilepsy and would constantly burst into seizures. Her condition sometimes getting so severe, “ her breathing stopped several times a day”. Her mother, Janea Cox, packed up and traveled 1.5 thousand miles with Haleigh just to receive a pediatric THC strain that would ease her daughter’s constant suffering. After getting access to treatment she so desperately needed, after being told she would only make it two more months, Haleigh’s seizures had gone from “two hundred seizures a day” to “about ten” and were even able to experience “28 seizure-free days” (Ciaramella). No one should be forced to move halfway across the country to receive treatment for sometimes life threatening ailments. Children should not have to suffer due to the fear created by this constant war on drugs.
The war on drugs began in the 1870s with the first anti-drug law in America.
The war on drugs did not officially take off until the 1980s with president Ronald Reagan. He coined the term “war on drugs”, created the Drug Enforcement Agency, and enacted a court procedure that the country is still feeling the effects of to this day: mandatory minimum sentencing. Mandatory minimum sentencing is a procedure in which a judge must sentence a citizen convicted to a minimum amount of years in prison for a crime regardless of circumstance. Because of this, the amount of prisoners in federal prison has skyrocketed from “only about 25,000” inmates in the 80s to “more than 215,000” as of 2014 (Miles). As a direct result of minimum sentencing, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, at least 50% of those incarcerated were convicted on non-violent drug charges. Of those 50%, 27% were convicted for possession of marijuana. This did not stop or discourage drug dealers. What this did was force prisons to begin placing “two or three bunks in a cell, and converting television rooms and open bays into sleeping quarters” (Miles). What this did was waste time and tax dollars to incarcerate non-violent marijuana dealers. What hat this did was send people like Weldon Angelos to jail on a 55 year sentence for just three marijuana sales. A twenty four year old Weldon was sentenced to jail in 2002 after being caught by an undercover cop. His three drug sales were tried as their own separate offences causing the 55 years in prison. Paul Cassell, the judge who made the decision admitted that “that wasn’t the right thing to do” (ABC). It costs roughly $31,000 to keep someone in jail for a year, so why are we spending so much of our money to keep those on marijuana charges locked up for a drug that’s only hard evidence against it is possible complications with short term memory? It is not worth the money to keep these people in prison. If legalization were to happen at the federal level we
could release half our prison population, save money, and use put that money toward something more productive than selling variations of a plant that we’re not even sure harms us.
Not only is there a chance to save money with legalization, there is a chance to make it. The United States is estimated to be 19.3 trillion dollars in debt by 2017. We could use all of the financial help we can get. The state of Colorado decriminalized recreational marijuana use January 1st of 2014. Since then, Colorado has experienced a lower crime rate, an increase in job opportunities, and, most importantly “an increase in tax revenue and economic output from retail marijuana sales” (DPA). According to a report released by the Department of Revenue, Colorado has earned an incredible $40.9 million in sales from marijuana dispensaries in the time frame of “January 2014 and October 2014” alone (DPA). $2.5 million of that revenue has been set aside to aide the public schools. If one state can make such a huge impact on it’s citizens and it’s economy with legalization, legalization at the federal level would be almost foolproof.
Marijuana has been prohibited under federal law for decades. Marijuana is a naturally grown plant. It has been around since the beginning of civilization for use to make clothing and serve as an early form of medicine for many tribes and leaders. It has little to no harmful side effects to show for itself, but has multiple proven benefits. There is data evidence that ending this can benefit us much more than it can hurt us. We have already legalized substances that seriously harm our bodies and sell them at every store you can manage to fine. We cannot be afraid to admit that we made a mistake or that our judgements of this substance were wrong. Even alcohol was prohibited and re-legalized when the United States government came to realized that prohibition was not resulting in the changes they wanted. It is time that we put behind us laws that were rooted in hatred and racism rather than evidence. It is time to end this war.
helps chemo patients to feel less nauseous and to vomit less frequently. While it is still difficult to prescribe in most states due to laws, THC substitutes are used instead. CBD is used to decrease any pain, body aches, and anxiety a patient may have while undergoing treatment.
Some unlikely advocates for medicinal cannabis are those who do the most for our country: War veterans. Eleven to fifteen percent of soldiers come home from weeks of witnessing brutal combat and begin experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Vietnam war having a whopping thirty percent of soldiers experiencing PTSD. With “only about half of the veterans diagnosed with PTSD… [receiving] the recommended therapy” and the lack of proper planning, record keeping, and consistency involved with the Department of Defense’s technique, the brave souls who have fought for our country deserve an accessible alternative (Enwemeka). The amount of veterans turning to cannabis to ease the symptoms of their PTSD and anxiety is on the rise. Users like member of the Veterans For Medical Cannabis Access believe that since their use of marijuana to treat their conditions, they have felt significantly more calm. Despite claims that marijuana is addictive “with an established and clinically significant withdrawal syndrome” and reports from a poorly conducted, small study (The department themselves even made a point to say that the participants “may not be representative of veterans overall”), the DEA has recently approved a study to prove or disprove the benefits of cannabis on PTSD (DVA).
Though there are countless studies proving the benefits of medical marijuana, the drug remains illegal at the state level in twenty six states across the US. These unreasonable and obsolete laws have created a large amount of modern puritans, but rather than looking for freedom to practice religion, they are seeking freedom to practice medicine. They call themselves the Marijuana Refugees. The Marijuana Refugees are groups of families that have flocked to Colorado following its legalization of the plant. The families who picked up and left their entire lives wanted nothing more than treatment for their sick loved ones: something their hometowns were not willing to grant them. In 2015, Georgia attempted to correct that and passed a bill known as the Haleigh's Hope Act, named after 5-year-old, Haleigh Cox. Haleigh suffers from a rare form of epilepsy and would constantly burst into seizures. Her condition sometimes getting so severe, “ her breathing stopped several times a day”. Her mother, Janea Cox, packed up and traveled 1.5 thousand miles with Haleigh just to receive a pediatric THC strain that would ease her daughter’s constant suffering. After getting access to treatment she so desperately needed, after being told she would only make it two more months, Haleigh’s seizures had gone from “two hundred seizures a day” to “about ten” and were even able to experience “28 seizure-free days” (Ciaramella). No one should be forced to move halfway across the country to receive treatment for sometimes life threatening ailments. Children should not have to suffer due to the fear created by this constant war on drugs.
The war on drugs began in the 1870s with the first anti-drug law in America.
The war on drugs did not officially take off until the 1980s with president Ronald Reagan. He coined the term “war on drugs”, created the Drug Enforcement Agency, and enacted a court procedure that the country is still feeling the effects of to this day: mandatory minimum sentencing. Mandatory minimum sentencing is a procedure in which a judge must sentence a citizen convicted to a minimum amount of years in prison for a crime regardless of circumstance. Because of this, the amount of prisoners in federal prison has skyrocketed from “only about 25,000” inmates in the 80s to “more than 215,000” as of 2014 (Miles). As a direct result of minimum sentencing, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, at least 50% of those incarcerated were convicted on non-violent drug charges. Of those 50%, 27% were convicted for possession of marijuana. This did not stop or discourage drug dealers. What this did was force prisons to begin placing “two or three bunks in a cell, and converting television rooms and open bays into sleeping quarters” (Miles). What this did was waste time and tax dollars to incarcerate non-violent marijuana dealers. What hat this did was send people like Weldon Angelos to jail on a 55 year sentence for just three marijuana sales. A twenty four year old Weldon was sentenced to jail in 2002 after being caught by an undercover cop. His three drug sales were tried as their own separate offences causing the 55 years in prison. Paul Cassell, the judge who made the decision admitted that “that wasn’t the right thing to do” (ABC). It costs roughly $31,000 to keep someone in jail for a year, so why are we spending so much of our money to keep those on marijuana charges locked up for a drug that’s only hard evidence against it is possible complications with short term memory? It is not worth the money to keep these people in prison. If legalization were to happen at the federal level we
could release half our prison population, save money, and use put that money toward something more productive than selling variations of a plant that we’re not even sure harms us.
Not only is there a chance to save money with legalization, there is a chance to make it. The United States is estimated to be 19.3 trillion dollars in debt by 2017. We could use all of the financial help we can get. The state of Colorado decriminalized recreational marijuana use January 1st of 2014. Since then, Colorado has experienced a lower crime rate, an increase in job opportunities, and, most importantly “an increase in tax revenue and economic output from retail marijuana sales” (DPA). According to a report released by the Department of Revenue, Colorado has earned an incredible $40.9 million in sales from marijuana dispensaries in the time frame of “January 2014 and October 2014” alone (DPA). $2.5 million of that revenue has been set aside to aide the public schools. If one state can make such a huge impact on it’s citizens and it’s economy with legalization, legalization at the federal level would be almost foolproof.
Marijuana has been prohibited under federal law for decades. Marijuana is a naturally grown plant. It has been around since the beginning of civilization for use to make clothing and serve as an early form of medicine for many tribes and leaders. It has little to no harmful side effects to show for itself, but has multiple proven benefits. There is data evidence that ending this can benefit us much more than it can hurt us. We have already legalized substances that seriously harm our bodies and sell them at every store you can manage to fine. We cannot be afraid to admit that we made a mistake or that our judgements of this substance were wrong. Even alcohol was prohibited and re-legalized when the United States government came to realized that prohibition was not resulting in the changes they wanted. It is time that we put behind us laws that were rooted in hatred and racism rather than evidence. It is time to end this war.