Contrary to many of the recent propaganda efforts, marijuana users are still the government's primary target in the drug war. We can see this most clearly in sentencing laws and the arrest count. The Sentencing Project, a non-profit that monitors drug laws and their effects, has found that of the increase in drug arrests of 450,000 since 1990, 82% have been marijuana offenses and 88% of those have been for simple possession. Those marijuana arrests now are now 45% of total arrests nationwide, for everything including murder and rape and DUI, and total marijuana arrests are 700,000 people a year. Our nation as a whole spends some $4 billion ANNUALLY merely to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate marijuana offenders.

And that's not all. Marijuana law has become a means of controlling the black population. Polling data has found that only about 14% of blacks use the drug, yet of arrests blacks account for 30%. Arrest rates go up based on the population of the area. Malibu for instance has far less of its share of marijuana arrests than does Oakland.

Now, I'm sure you think I'm biased in saying that marijuana poses no dangerous health risks, but here is the evidence. In the many countries that marijuana has been either legalized outright or reduced to a civil penalty (i.e. only fines, no jail time), there are zero deaths and no hospitalizations due to marijuana. Interestingly, the same remains true in the U.S. with its heavy-handed approach to controlling what people recreate with. It remains true, that is, if you minus all the indirect injuries and deaths caused by zealous drug warrior police and truly violent criminals at your county jail or the state pen. A note on that, of marijuana offenders sentenced to prison 1 in 4 is a low level offender. That means non-violent and usually possession of over one ounce and/or intent to sell. You KNOW what happens in prison. Every American does by now from one TV special or another. The war on drugs is a war on marijuana users which is a war on Americans, many of whom obey most every other law and are otherwise decent people until the criminal courts get a hold of them.

How dangerous is marijuana? It depends on who you are and where you live.

Learn more about this author, Micah Myers.
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