Last year there were more than 695,201 marijuana arrests in the United States. Of thosearrests 87.2% were for possession - not for sale or manufacture of marijuana. There have beenover 11 million marijuana arrests in the United States since 1965. 12.7% of todays overcrowdedfederal prison population is made up of people incarcerated for marijuana offenses, with anaverage sentence of 3.25 years.(1) Even with heroin use on the rise, the police seem to be preoccupied with arresting marijuanasmokers. In 1990 there were over 34,000 emergency room admissions resulting from the use ofheroin and 4 years later, that number had doubled. Many of those patients did not survive. Yeteven though heroin has done much more damage to this society than marijuana has, statistics saythe chances of a heroin dealer being arrested are 1 in 10,900 deals.(2) Is marijuana really a harmful drug? The White House Office of National Drug Control Policyasked the United States Institute of Medicine to conduct a research to assess the possible healthbenefits of marijuana. In March of 1999 the review was made public. The evidence concludedthat the THC in marijuana is effective treatment for symptoms such as pain, nausea, vomiting,anorexia, and wasting, which is the resulting characteristics associated with cancer and AIDStreatments.(3) Recently it has also has been proven that marijuana reduces muscle pain andspasticity caused by multiple sclerosis, prevents epileptic seizures, helps bladder control, andreduces eye pressure and blood flow to the optic nerve in Glaucoma patients.(4) This conclusiveevidence brings up the question why not legalize marijuana as medical drug treatment. Marijuanahas been proven to be less dangerous than cocaine and morphine, two legalized drug treatmentswhich have been proven to be addictive. According to the Institute of Medicine, there is noevidence that marijuana use can lead to either addiction or to harder drug...
