Drs. Lester Grinspoon and Eric Voth present arguments for and against the legalization of marijuana in the paper dated June 1994, “Issue 8 Should Marijuana Be Legalized as a Medication?” A web search reveals that Grinspoon is an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Harvard with a long history of pro-drug publications. A search on Voth reveals that he has had a number of positions with anti-drug organizations and causes, as well as a similarly long history of anti-drug publications. An interesting side note is that it appears that St. Francis Hospital in Topeka, Kansas (Voth’s employer at the time this paper was published) no longer has a drug dependency unit.

Grinspoon presents a number of arguments for the legalization of marijuana. His primary argument is medical, he asserts that marijuana is extremely useful in treating a variety of conditions including: nausea due to chemotherapy, elevated eye pressure due to glaucoma, and loss of appetite and nausea in AIDS patients. Grinspoon makes the point that treatment with marijuana is very beneficial, but because it is illegal, patients must either go without treatment or commit a crime to obtain their medication. The clea

In my opinion, marijuana should be legalized and classified the same as alcohol. Both Grinspoon and Voth missed an important issue in this discussion. Grinspoon alluded to it by declaring how the current situation “erodes respect for the law”.

Perhaps the most compelling argument that Grinspoon makes is that criminalization of marijuana use promotes disrespect for the law and is eroding our fundamental civil liberties. Grinspoon states that (in the years preceding 1994) over 300,000 people per year are arrested on charges related to marijuana. This not only causes all levels of government to spend billions of dollars dealing with these arrests, it also promotes disrespect for the law and for those who administer it. In addition, the means used to enforce drug laws have led to significant erosion of civil liberties in the United States including: mandatory drug tests, unwarranted searches and seizures, and the use of the military for civilian law enforcement.

Grinspoon refers to only one medical study - the presence of THC receptors in the brain. Voth correctly points out that Grinspoon relies primarily on anecdotal evidence and not well-constructed and documented studies. However, Voth does not cite any specific studies either nor identifies the research groups who conducted them. He simply refers to “studies that have been conducted”. More importantly, in several of his arguments Voth leaves himself vulnerable to question his veracity. He states that while Prohibition was a violent time, the violence is attributable primarily to the Great Depression. This is simply not true. The Volstead Act became law on October 28, 1919 and was repealed on March 22, 1933. The Depression began in 1929, ten years after Prohibition began.

Some topics in this essay:
Kansas Voth’s, Cancer Society, Grinspoon Voth, Hippocratic Oath, York City, Legalized Medication”, Prohibition Voth, Volstead Act, Eric Voth, Currently Federal, marijuana legalized, drug laws, legalization marijuana, prevent taxes, grinspoon makes, arguments legalization marijuana, drug traffickers, arguments legalization, lobbies able prevent, disrespect law, marijuana voth, argument grinspoon makes, promotes disrespect, able prevent taxes, promotes disrespect law,