The National Contrversy Over the Legalization of Marijuana
By: Jordan Kvanli
The national debate over the legalization of marijuana is affecting state laws and causes a conflict between state and federal legislative powers.
Currently the federal government has laws prohibiting the possession and cultivation of marijuana. However, in the past decade states have begun to decriminalize marijuana for cancer patients and others.
According to a 1999 study commissioned by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a Washington, D.C.-based component of the National Academy of Sciences, marijuana has been "used since antiquity for both herbal medication and intoxication."
"There is scientific evidence that [marijuana] helps 
with pain relief and nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy, for example, in terminal cancer patients," said John A. Benson, Jr., a principal investigator of the IOM study and a professor of internal medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
However, the Supreme Court has ruled that federal laws have jurisdiction over state laws regarding marijuana and people have been arrested by federal agents while abiding by state laws.
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana laws reports that 13 states have decriminalized the possession of marijuana. Typically, decriminalization means no prison time and no criminal record for a first time possession of a small amount of marijuana for personal use.
NORML reports that California laws allow a person to posses one ounce of marijuana without the threat of jail time.
However, in Texas the law states a person caught with up to two ounces faces a 180-day incarceration and a fine of $2,000.
According to the California state department, the state saved nearly $1 billion from 1976 to 1985 by decriminalizing the personal possession of one ounce of marijuana.
Currently 60,000 people are in jail for marijuana offenses at a cost of $1.2 billion dollars per year to the taxpayers according to The Federation of American Scientists’ Drug Policy Analysis Bulletin.
The FBI reports that over 734,000 people were arrested on marijuana charges in 2000 and 88 percent of those arrests were for possession only. Also, nearly five million people have been arrested for marijuana since 1992.
While federal laws still prohibit the possession and cultivation of marijuana for any reason, states are beginning to use their legislative powers to lessen the threat of jail time for marijuana offenses.
