ups began to lobby for stricter punishments for the use of marijuana. With help of the DEA and president Reagan, the War On Drugs campaign was started. President Reagan installed two laws that put harsh punishments on all drug offenders as well as marijuana users. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act put mandatory sentences on all drug related crimes, the Crime Control Act of 1984 put marijuana on the same pedestal as much harder drugs as heroin. Frontline quotes the absurdity of the Crime Control Act, “Possession of 100 marijuana plants was equivalent to 100 grams of heroin” (BUSTED, America’s War on Marijuana).With the same laws as heroin, Marijuana must have factual effects that would cause such outrageous consequences to be brought about from its use. Irving J. Sloan presents the idea that marijuana could have a habituating or dependency effect. The habit caused by marijuana is one comparable to cigarette smoking, not an addiction seen harder drugs. Real drug dependency is seen in other drugs such as heroin and cocaine, but there are no records of marijuana being a dependency drug. Sloan discusses marijuana and addiction in his book Alcohol and Drug Abuse and The Law. Marihuana does not lead to physical dependence. Therefore, it cannot be considered addicting. Chronic users become psychologically dependent upon the effects of marihuana. Thus, it is classified as habituating. The fact that a drug is not addicting has little relationship to its potential for harm, since dependence, whether psychological or physical, is a serious matter (105).The habituating effect stated by Sloan may seem like a serious matter, and a possible habit for every person who experiments with marijuana. Lester Grinspoon does a good job explaining the kind of psychological habit that can be affected from marijuana in his book Marihuana Reconsidered, “While one Egyptian survey suggests considerable psychological dependence, inasmuch ...
