End the war on drugs

Since the passage of the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, drug enforcement policies have been a top priority for the federal government. The Nixon and Reagan years marked the beginning of the controversial war on drugs, arguably the most costly and narrow-minded piece of domestic policy to date. According to the Drug Policy Alliance Web site, the United States spent an estimated $40 billion financing drug enforcement legislation in the year 2000, with $18 billion being allocated to the National Drug Control budget and upwards of $20 billion being spent on the state level. The Drug Policy Alliances estimates that this amount will continue to increase annually in stark contrast to the budget allocated toward funding of other domestic programs, such as federal student loans for higher education.

Though our editorial board was unilaterally opposed to this senseless policy, opinions on how the nation ought to address the problem of dealing with illegal drugs and narcotics were many and diverse. Drawing comparisons to the prohibition era, some of us argued that such heavy-handed governmental control over the sale of illegal drugs will only facilitate the continued rise of petty street crime in urban centers, where organized crime syndicates are able to operate with a high level of anonymity, distributing drugs and contributing to the established states of mob rule in many the poorest of our nation's city districts. This quickly led to a rapid-fire discussion about the much-debated topic of drug legalization in America.

On this controversial topic, our editorial board overwhelmingly favored a modified national drug policy that would lead to the de-classification of marijuana as a schedule I substance. The Controlled Substances Act defines Schedule I substances as substances that have a high potential for abuse and have no established medical benefits. Other Schedule I substances include heroin, LSD and MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy. We find that it is difficult, in the current political climate, for the government to argue that marijuana poses a serious threat as an addictive substance and believe that enough evidence has been established to conclude that marijuana does possess legitimate medical benefits. There are currently 13 states with medical marijuana laws and Cannabis Club dispensaries, according to Cannabis.com's dispensary directory, and we believe it is high time that the federal government intervened to change the scheduling of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act.
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