Obama must keep marijuana promise

There is one campaign promise that President-elect Barrack Obama made that will easily be overlooked if America does not hold him to his word.

Obama promised to cease the federal arrest and prosecution of law-abiding medical cannabis patients and dispensaries by appointing leaders at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney General's office who will respect the will of the voters in the thirteen states that have legalized the physician-supervised use of medicinal marijuana.

Doing this would not legalize marijuana but simply give our country a step in the right direction toward legalization.

Though the legalization of marijuana was not a popular subject debated during the election, it is a popular subject for those who need marijuana for their health and well-being, and hopefully future politicians will realize the benefits legalization could have on this country.

Though the "War on Drugs" was not widely discussed, the state of the economy was. Little do people realize how much money legalization could save our country.

The "War on Drugs" that the U.S. fights costs an estimated $35 billion a year, according to the Washington Post. Somehow during this "war" marijuana was lumped into the same category as hard drugs, such as cocaine and heroin.

They were all labeled as dangerous and addictive. Countless studies have refuted this and although chronically inhaling marijuana smoke is not unlike tobacco in potentially causing lung damage, marijuana has been linked to no deaths in the U.S.

The removal of marijuana from the "War on Drugs" could save the U.S. billions of dollars a year.

According to the Sentencing Project, drug arrests have more than tripled since 1980 to a record 1.8 million by 2005. Four of five (81.7 percent) drug arrests were for possession offenses and 42.6 percent were for marijuana charges.

Nearly six in ten persons in state prison for a drug offense have no history of violence or high-level drug selling. These levels of arrests are simply deteriorating our government's limited resources and our citizens' limited tax dollars.

This "War on Drugs" is also a war on young people. Currently, 74 percent of all Americans busted for pot are under the age of 30. Many young people have unregulated access to marijuana easier than they have to legal, age-restricted intoxicants like alcohol and tobacco.

If marijuana was legal and regulated like alcohol and tobacco by the government, citizens would simply obtain marijuana the legal way. Fewer kids would interact and befriend dealers of marijuana that also push other illegal, more dangerous drugs.

Under prohibition, young people are being busted in unprecedented numbers. Under legalization, if marijuana was treated like alcohol or tobacco (narcotics proven to be far more damaging) young people would need to wait until a mature enough age to decide if, in moderation, marijuana is something they would like to do.

Funding for youth anti-drug campaigns have also been proven to be a waste of money as well. A $1.2 billion Congressional effort aimed at preventing and reducing youth drug use was found not to be effective by the U.S. Government Accounting Agency in 2006.

If Marijuana was not such a taboo in our culture, youth would understand the importance of not abusing substances and using them responsibly. Such campaigns would not be necessary.

College students are also being targeted by Congress. They are using federal college aid as a weapon of enforcement when it comes to denying college aid to those charged for drug offenses. I suspect this is how the government plans to save money: by denying future generations an education.

Early in Obama's career he made statements that he needs to follow up on. The statements were in favor of the decriminalization of marijuana possession by adults by calling for the creation of a bi-partisan presidential commission to review the budgetary, social and health costs associated with federal marijuana prohibition, and to make progressive recommendations for future policy changes.

On Election Day, voters in Massachusetts, Michigan and throughout the country gave Obama and the incoming Congress a mandate to end the Bush drug war doctrine, now the rest of the country needs to follow their lead.

Hopefully the taboo against Marijuana in our culture will change in time for us to realize the benefits that legalization could have on our country.