Drugs are a big controversy and have been for many centuries in the United States because of its “exotic” nature. Most of the other countries have already legalized drug use or they never banned it at all. The United States has the opportunity to legalize drugs, but during the past couple of year, legalization has become a major topic throughout the country and a very big controversy as well. Colorado and Washington are the first in America to partake in legalizing marijuana and have benefited greatly from it. If the United States legalized the use of drugs, the economy would have another chance to grow, the crime rate would fall drastically, and people would be smarter and more knowledgeable about drug use.
First, we will begin with the history of marijuana and get a little background knowledge on it. The first record of the drug’s use is back in 4000 B.C. (Blaszczak-Boxe 2014). It was used as an anesthetic for a surgery in China. Jumping back to more of today’s time, the United States did not always have strict laws on the use of marijuana. In 1906 the Pure Food and Drug Act which prevented the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes (government library. Web.) This act enforced labeling marijuana as a “poison” (Cardinale). Many rumors started to swirl around the nation about what marijuana could cause people to do. The depression soon hit after.
The assumption that marijuana would incite violent behavior, lead to insanity, addiction and drug abuse, and even spur someone to commit sex crimes, were fueled by the 25% unemployment rate, increasing animosity toward anyone perceived to be the cause of a floundering economy. (Cardinale). “Since 1970, the federal government has paid men with guns to cage human beings for growing, possessing, or selling the popular marijuana plant.” (Friedersdorf).
In 1931, the government connected heinous crimes by the non-white communities with the use of marijuana. By 1932, twenty nine states outlawed the use of marijuana and congress passed the Uniform State Narcotic Act which gave the government control over, prevention of distribution and usage of narcotic drugs. In 1936, the movie Reefer Madness was released which portrayed the effects of marijuana as having a crippling mental illness. The United States’ public had officially lost all interest with any use of marijuana.
In 1952, Congress passed mandatory sentencing laws which strengthen the penalties of marijuana laws. But after the laws passed, marijuana began to gain momentum again as a sign of a rebellious act against the government. In the 90’s scientist began to study on the effets of medical marijuana. Scientist soon discovered that the patients began showing improvements in their health. Medical marijuana improved the health of seizure patients, Chronns disease, the nausea of cancer patients, etc. With these new learning states wanted to legalize marijuana for medical use. The government still opposed all of marijuana. “If these patients truly find comfort by using medical marijuana, the federal government should not deliberately deny prolonged pain relieving treatments.” (Pfeifer). Pfeifer states the patient has the right to any treatment they can find and has a proven success rate. Since states can govern themselves to an extent, many began entertaining the legalization of medical marijuana. The first state to legalize marijuana was California in 1996. California realized and saw the benefits of the use of medical marijuana as a treatment and have or has plenty of success with it. Now fourteen others have followed in their footsteps.
Just recently stastia.com showed the United States view of marijuana has changed substantially. From 2003, the approval rate of marijuana was just thirty four percent, while in 2013 the approval rate rose to fifty eight percent. With this growing approval rate, Colorado and Washington made marijuana completely legal for the first time in over eighty years. It is only a matter of time before other states follow in the footstep of these two states.
The 10th Amendment states that it is to “define the establishment and division of power between the Federal government and state governments.” (Lowry). The 10th Amendment was made to protect the powers of the state governments and the Federal governments. The states have a right to say whether they want to be a part of the clearing of marijuana. In 1996 when California had passed their medical marijuana regulations, the Federal government threatened the states physicians that if they would recommend marijuana to their patients, they could lose their licenses.
A case like this was called Conant v. Walters (formerly known as Conant v. McCaffrey). According to the text, the federal government had appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The “government agreed with plaintiffs that revocation of a license was not authorized where a doctor merely discussed the pros and cons of marijuana us. The [federal district court] went on to observe that the plaintiffs agreed with the government that a doctor who actually prescribes or dispenses marijuana violates federal law. The fundamental disagreement between the parties concerned the extent to which the federal government could regulate doctor-patient communications without interfering with First Amendment interests.” (Canna Law Blog) The first amendment states that it guarantees the rights to freedom of expression and action. The action would be to take the medical marijuana in this instance which the Federal government is not abiding by the Constitution.
Another case would be Santa Cruz v. Mukasey. The federal government has sabotaged the medical marijuana laws which violates the Constitution on the 10th Amendment. The federal government went out of its way to arrest doctors, patients, and dispensaries that work with the states government. "There was a calculated pattern of selective arrests and prosecutions by the federal government with the intent to render California's medical marijuana laws impossible to implement and therefore forced Californian's and their political subdivisions to re-criminalize medical marijuana." (Stancliff).
The father of nullification is John C. Calhoun. It is a doctrine that occurred because of a crisis between Calhoun and President Jackson. It was meant to foreshadow Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the Kentucky Resolutions. In a political sense, nullification is the state’s refusing to allow a federal law to be enforced or the failure or refusal of a US state to aid in enforcement of federal laws within its limits, especially on Constitutional grounds. As more states began to legalize marijuana, the federal prohibition has crumbled, according to Mike Maharrey in the Tenth Amendment Center. “[By prosecuting state-authorized medical marijuana users,] DOJ, without taking any legal action against the Medical Marijuana States, prevents them from implementing their laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana by prosecuting individuals for use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana that is authorized by such laws. By officially permitting certain conduct, state law provides for non-prosecution of individuals who engage in such conduct. If the federal government prosecutes such individuals, it has prevented the state from giving practical effect to its law providing for non-prosecution of individuals who engage in the permitted conduct.” (Maharrey). Medical marijuana states are nullifying the federal marijuana prohibition and bringing it into effect. If California would have never acted, the United States Congress would not have been able to act without the evidence to back up the cases that these states are having with marijuana. California set all of the motions to help them get such legal cases to help support their rights by using the amendments and their states’ rights as well.