ing it’s distribution and production the federal government, and private industries will be making marijuana safer, and at the same time eliminating the crime element of drug cartels. Millions of dollars will be saved on law enforcement especially narcotics agencies. It will give them the ability to focus on more dangerous drugs. I am not advocating marijuana as a health friendly substance, although it has far more medicinal uses than alcohol and tobacco and is far less harmful than cocaine, heroin, and just about every other illegal drug. That is really not the most important issue concerned with this debate. An American’s freedom to decide whether to smoke a marijuana cigarette, or drink a beer to relax in the privacy of their own home is vital. When the government begins to infringe on those unalienable rights, what is in the way of stopping them from continuing to cross further boundaries? All the evidence points to marijuana as equal in stature as alcohol and tobacco, and yet we continue to consider it in a totally different category, probably because it has been illegal for so long, and probably because the government wants us to see it in this way. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” Well, what if it has been broken so long that no one knows the difference, and they don’t want to make a change and do something about it? That seems to be the attitude toward marijuana prohibition. The “reefer madness” propaganda campaigns that were compared to witch hunts; produced little evidence and pointed fingers toward the scapegoat of marijuana. This lead Quinn 4to the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, based on loose, unproven theories and lies. A law based on a lie should not be a law at all. Didn’t they learn anything from the 1920’s? Alcohol prohibition...
