Marijuana: A Double Toke

As the 2012 decision date draws nearer, the presidential candidates have been arguing over controversial issues. Both candidates are doing whatever they can to gain support from the American people. Now more than ever though, the most controversial topic on the board for discussion is the legalization of marijuana. After seeing this topic appear in the news multiple times, as well as hearing my professor discuss it during lecture, I couldn’t help but revisit the topic.

                In my previous entry, I took an informative approach discussing the history of marijuana and it’s crippling by the media. I would like to elaborate on that this time around, as well as contribute something extra. In the recent election, marijuana legalization has been a primary issue, as was stated previously. The primary reasons for this can be contributed to multiple sources. The medicinal marijuana business would help our economy, contributing massive pools of income. The herb, though it would be hard to regulate and detect in one’s body instantaneously, has been proven to be the cause of a near-zero quantity of deaths. Just knowing these facts, one can only assume that the executive decision has not been made at the current time. In reality, however, the media has been completely diluting the idea of legalization with corrupt undertones.

President Barack "Choom" Obama

                The idea that the media is corrupt is a comment one may humorously assume came from a “hippie”. People want to have faith in their government, and want to believe that the media is telling the entirety of the truth. However, the media’s corruption is all too real. A few weeks back, a story arose describing how President Barack Obama had been an avid marijuana smoker for years when he was a child. He would actually go around his hometown calling his small group of friends “The Choom Gang”, choom being a term used to describe pot smoking. The article was the center of attention for almost a full week, and then almost seemed to fade away into non-existence. Can one really assume that people lost interest in the fact that our president used to smoke, and continues to support pot legalization? Of course not; look at all of the forums on the internet concerning marijuana. There are thousands of references on these sites to the now-public story of the Choom Gang, describing how marijuana supporters should rise up and seek legalization. As the election draws closer, the legalization may become a reality.

                “The opinions of the masses aren’t properly expressed in the few leaders of our nation in this case.” If that statement was false, there would not be such an active push for the legalization at this time. To me, it seems like a revolution is happening, which will improve the state of this nation. So much of the government’s money is pooled into the “necessary” war on drugs. Drugs, in general, are not good. However, when something less addictive and harmful than caffeine is illegalized, something is not right. The only public instances describing the “dangers” of marijuana occurred within the last few months. The recent mass-murder of 12 individuals in a movie theater by James Holmes is looked upon as one of the most tragic events in US history. The media, though it had plenty to report on, decided that it would be better to express the fact that Holmes was an avid pot smoker, only briefly stating that he was also taking a cocktail of other drugs in addition to that. This information was drawn directly from articles in both the NY times and yahoo.com. Simply knowing that the media has that much pull over the uneducated masses strikes me as terrifying.

                In reality, I’ve found that the media tends to cover the entire story for any article which will support long-accepted ideas. The idea that pot is evil has long been the norm, while actually multiple celebrities and successful individuals support it. For example, Michael Phelps, a long-time supporter of marijuana, has just won his 19^th gold medal in this year’s Olympics. It didn’t cause his hair to fall out, or his body to shrivel to nothingness. In a recent interview with Jimmy Chong, another supporter of medicinal marijuana, Chong claims that he was able to fight back his cancer by controlled use of the herb. He stated, additionally, that in order for President Obama to secure the youth vote in this country, he (the president) would have to legalize pot. Looking at the legalized scenario, the benefits far outweigh the detriments.