I'm here today to talk about Jaren's Blog Stage #5.  Read it here.  Jaren is arguing for the legalization of medicinal marijuana. Jaren makes several good points, all of which I think make great arguments. I want to build upon Jaren's post to really send home some notions that will hopefully get people thinking a little more progressively about decriminalizing or even legalizing marijuana.

Did you know that George Washington grew fields of the stuff up at Mt. Vernon? Read about the history of marijuana, it's a trip, and pay special attention the the racial factors of it's outlaw. It's pretty messed up.

I think that the way the DEA and the Federal government look at Marijuana is just as wrong. As Jaren mentioned, the DEA classifies marijuana as a schedule 1 drug. That's up there with herion! Above even cocaine and meth!  That can't be right. I think the DEA needs to re-asses where marijuana really belongs on their list of priorities. Here's a link. One might think that arresting pot smokers would be good for a community but i believe it is exactly opposite. Prisons are filing up with people charged with possession. I just think that's a silly thing to be thrown in jail for. Especially when taxpayer money must be used to care for them while they're locked up. In 2011 possession arrests were higher than violent crimes arrests. Check this out. If anything, arresting people for possession only makes more criminals. Every one arrested for possession that walks out of jail is still considered a convict. Good luck finding a job. And of course there's the potential for those arrested to get involved in more crime.

The DEA shutting down dispensaries should be illegal. Those places are very carful to operate within their's state's laws. There's something obviously wrong if the DEA can arrest your dispensary employees because it's illegal at the federal level. Of course the federal government reigns supreme over state governments, but it's a sticky situation. How can something be legal (the people of california obviously support it) yet ultimately illegal? It's apparent that the federal government needs to re-think it's stance on marijuana.

At this point our culture is so ingrained with the notion that Marijuana (medicinal or recreational) is an "evil drug" that ruins people's lives. So much so that it'll be interesting to see if we can ever shake free of this stigma in the years to come.