Legalizing pot would wreak havoc on society

Zachary M. Raimi Smoke & Mirrors

The striking scent of marijuana will float over the Diag on Saturday, as the University community is scheduled to witness the 26th annual Hash Bash. The event, which features a rally to legalize marijuana, attracts participants from around the country.

While many students find Hash Bash to be quite enjoyable or worthwhile, many others - including myself - feel ripples of discontent every year. The purpose and message of Hash Bash are cause for great concern. Proponents of the legalization of marijuana argue that the drug has minimal or no harmful long-term effects. Also, they contend that it is not the government's role to ban marijuana. (I will leave the issue of medicinal use of marijuana for another day, or another columnist.)

Unfortunately, these people are deeply misguided. Legalizing marijuana would be a grave error. The drug has harmful effects - both physically and culturally - that threaten to hurt individuals, erode order and stability, and create more widespread use of illicit drugs. Moreover, the Hash Bash event itself is a sad and depressing use of one's First Amendment rights.

Effects and order

Despite decades of research, there appears to be no definitive answer to whether marijuana causes severe long-term physiological damage to users. For every expert who says it does not jeopardize a person's health, there is someone to refute the claim. This uncertainty is reason enough to keep the drug illegal.

What little researchers do know makes the case against legalization stronger. Most medical experts and marijuana users agree that smoking a joint makes a person "high" and, as a result, one's mental state is impaired. Motor skills are not as sharp, remembering actions becomes more difficult, and perceptions are altered. The National Institute on Drug Abuse said in some cases the physiological effects include "intense anxiety, panic attacks, or paranoia." In the end, users yield temporary control of themselves.

This, then, places the individual in great risk. Worse, the individual becomes a threat to others. If one's judgments are altered, then an entire community or society is at risk. The individual may lose sight of what is right and wrong, legal and illegal, and commit acts that harm others. (Many argue that alcohol produces the same effect. While it does, one glass of beer, generally, does not pose the same threat as one joint. So, individuals can regulate more easily the intoxicating effect of alcohol.)

Marijuana users are a threat to this country's safety, stability and order, not to mention themselves. It is the government's obligation to protect the society at large.

A gateway

Marijuana is often viewed as a "gateway" to harsher drugs, and it therefore must remain illegal. The theory goes like this: Illicit drug users begin with marijuana and then move onto cocaine and other stronger drugs. In a cover story in February, Newsweek magazine reported that "reliable research shows that virtually all heroin and cocaine addicts started out with pot."

By legalizing marijuana, the government would be giving all of its citizens a legal starting point to jump into worse and more harmful drugs. Such drug use could become more rampant, and all of the evils that accompany drugs - like crime - would roll across America at a quicker pace.

In the end, legalizing marijuana sends the wrong message, especially to young children. They will come to see that it is OK to engage in an activity that so easily leads one to yield self control and place others in danger. It may encourage young people to experiment with illicit drugs. All of this would contribute to a national lowering of standards between right and wrong, and safe and unsafe activity.

Cultural depravity

Despite all of the risks involved in marijuana use, thousands of people will descend upon Ann Arbor on Saturday and rally for the right to use it.

Although I am opposed to its legalization, I usually stroll through the crowds to try to understand what it's all about. And each year, I leave the Diag frustrated with those who've come out to rally. The event is a gross display of hedonism and a tremendous waste of human energy. The majority of the people involved in the rally appear to want the drug legal for no other reason than to get "high" without fear of prosecution. There is no larger purpose or plan. And this frustrates me because there are significantly worse problems in this country that need our attention. For example, the homeless problem, especially in Ann Arbor, is in dire need of help.

Call me moralistic if you'd like, but I can't help questioning the values of those who are fighting to legalize a drug.

- Zack Raimi can be reached over e-mail at rmz@umich.edu.

04-03-97