Summary: Why Marijuana Should Be Legal In Colombia

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Why Marijuana Should Be Legal in Colombia

More than 70 years ago, marijuana began to be banned in the United States, and so in many countries around the world, Colombia included, and 50 years ago the US declared the Anti-drugs War. After a lifetime of prohibition policies, and the poor results of forbiddance in terms of consumption and addiction levels (as discussed below), the debate is open to whether or not marijuana should be legal. In fact, some countries and states have legalized it in recent years. In Colombia, this debate is now taking place, and here some arguments for the legalization of marijuana in our country are presented.

A good place to start is to ask why marijuana was forbidden in Colombia. In order to answer this question, …show more content…

It is curious, then, that marijuana came to be perceived as more dangerous than other drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, and even opium. It also began to be associated with madness and with 50% of the violent crimes committed in Mexican, Latin American, and greek neighborhoods, as stated former Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) director Harry Anslinger (Jonnes, 1996). This change of perception can be explained as the result of pressures from some educators and religious groups to outlaw cannabis (Sáenz, 2007). Some authors have even pointed out that the cotton and the paper industries sponsored that campaign, for the industrial applications of cannabis cane were threatening their business (Gardner, …show more content…

The main result of prohibition is the emergence of black markets with any regulation on cannabis quality, quantity and who the consumers are. There is a free trade of marijuana in the streets that only obeys the law of supply and demand. The black market does not care if children are those who buy the drug, nor does it care about the consequences of drug abuse. In Colombia, the gangs that control the drug trafficking use guns and violence to control the territories where they sell marijuana and other illegal drugs. But violence not only comes from gangs, it is worth wondering if being jailed and judged for marijuana possession is not more harmful than using it. Moreover, the government spends a lot of resources to pursue and repress consumption that could be used rather in prevention