The legalization of Mariguana use in USA - Research Paper Example

These countries include Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Chile and Argentina. The reality on the ground is that a good number of states in the US have taken a bold step to legalize this drug. Therefore, a true account is that the process of legalizing marijuana in the US is still going on despite the many controversies surrounding it. The heated debate over legalization of Cannabis sativa has been among the most controversial issues in the US. Studies reveal that as much as it is illegal, marijuana is smoked and used by millions of people in the United States.

The well coordinated black market ensures that consumers get access to this valued commodity. It is for this reason that the government’s intervention to stop its production has not been fruitful. Today, there are a total of 16 states in the United States that have legalized the use of medical marijuana. The laws were enacted in different years depending on the state. According to Eidelman and Voth (81) they include: Alaska (1998), Arizona (2010), California (1996), Colorado (2000), DC (2010), Delaware (2011), Hawaii (2000), Maine (1999), Michigan (2008), Montana (2004), Nevada (2000), New Jersey (2010), New Mexico (2007), Oregon (1998), Rhode Island (2006), Vermont (2004) and Washington (1998).

The US drug policy can be traced to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 whose main aim was to initiate a drug-free environment in the United States. The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) was the main driving force to the initiative. The act was meant to curb abuse of drugs, trafficking and mostly its consequences. In general, a move to reduce drug abuse was meant to start from preventing the youth from using drugs, reducing the accessibility and availability of these drugs. President Barrack Obama finds the initial ‘war on drugs’ by Richard Nixon to be counterproductive.

The proposition 19 on the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 sought to allow the collection of marijuana taxes, in addition to regulating the civil and criminal penalties that related to marijuana (Kassirer and Bakalar, 369). The ‘war on drugs’ by Richard Nixon was meant to reduce the consumption of drugs including marijuana. The era saw the introduction of various specialized agencies of law enforcement, techniques and officers. For quite some time, campaigns to reduce the consumption of recreational drugs, has been opposed by critics.

They argued that the sentiments raised during the campaigns were inconsiderate, and therefore misleading. However, the war on drugs initiative considered such drugs religiously, medically, politically and socially unfit for recreational use. Different countries around the world have varied legal positions concerning the use of marijuana. Some countries permit, and therefore control amounts of drug use while others totally prohibit it. However, the arguments for and against the issue of legalizing marijuana have since not changed.

According to Onstand (19) the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 allowed marijuana vendors to obtain a license for the same. Some antagonists feared that continued use of the drug would result into degeneration of some races for instance the Mexicans who were entering the country to seek for jobs. This was during the period of the Great Depression. Randall and Alice (7) reveal that as much as the law was easily passed, it soon faced great criticism by the American Medical Association (AMA). It followed that