Photos
Marijuana starts stand on a shelf during the grand opening of the Seattle location of the Northwest Cannabis Market, for sales of medical marijuana products, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. Voters in Washington state last fall passed Initiative 502, which legalizes the recreational possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and calls for the creation of state-licensed pot growers, processors and retail stores. Recreational marijuana sales are expected to begin late this year, and in the meantime, the state's medical marijuana industry continues to operate. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
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Whether to allow sick people to use marijuana to alleviate their pain has been considered by Illinois lawmakers in session after session.
The legislation has never passed because of a combination of political cowardice, hardened law enforcement opposition and fears about it being a stepping-stone to legalization.
As usual, Illinois lawmakers are behind the curve. They should not only legalize marijuana for medicinal use but also for recreational use, as voters had the sense to do in November in Colorado and Washington state. The Illinois Constitution has no provision for voter-initiated referendum, so it’s up to lawmakers to act.
More than 850,000 people were arrested nationwide in 2009 for breaking marijuana laws and nearly 90 percent were busted for simple possession, according to the FBI’s uniform crime reports. Half of the drug arrests in the nation are marijuana related. More than 25 million people a year smoke marijuana, according to a federal survey.
Is marijuana addictive? The evidence on this varies, but we have no doubt that some people can’t do without it. It’s certainly not as addictive as other, harder drugs, such as methamphetamines or heroin.
Is it harmful? It’s certainly not good for your lungs, impairs judgment and can increase the risk of a heart attack, as can be expected from any drug in which you inhale chemicals into your lungs. That being said, it also alleviates pain for those who suffer from cancer, HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
Is it harmful? It’s certainly not good for your lungs, impairs judgment and can increase the risk of a heart attack, as can be expected from any drug in which you inhale chemicals into your lungs. That being said, it also alleviates pain for those who suffer from cancer, HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
But none of the harm from using marijuana is worse than the other two legalized drugs in the United States: alcohol and tobacco. It’s hard to take anyone who argues otherwise seriously.
Those drugs are heavily regulated and taxed. Laws can be enacted to bar those under the influence of marijuana from driving, just as we do with alcohol, and to bar smoking it in public, just as Illinois has done with cigarettes.
This state and 47 others spend billions imprisoning people who have bought and/or sold marijuana. If there is one silver lining from the recession, it has caused government to reexamine its spending priorities. Spending money to incarcerate people for using or selling marijuana and impairing their ability to get a job and be good, productive citizens ought to be near the top of the list when it comes to reconsidering the state’s priorities for spending.
Instead of tossing poor people off of Medicaid to save money, maybe the state can toss those who have sold or possessed marijuana out of prison, clear their records and close a few more facilities in the Department of Corrections.
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