Annotated Links Post

Drug Enforcement Administration’s Position on Marijuana

This link outlines explicitly the strongly anti-marijuana stance adopted by the US Justice Department’s DEA. In essence, the DEA is strongly against all forms of marijuana use, including the less controversial use of medical marijuana. Not only does this link serve as a useful starting point for visitors to understand the reasons underpinning the DEA’s position; more crucially, it can also be used a resource by which reasons for the criminalization of marijuana provided by the government can be critically examined, and where appropriate, challenged.

Myths and Facts about Marijuana Use

This website serves as a useful resource when used in tandem with the link above. In this link, the myths and facts of marijuana use are outlined, with close support from a wide range of referenced sources. A comparison of the material presented in this source and the DEA’s website therefore gives a more rounded picture to the nuances surrounding the polarized character of the marijuana question.

Perspectives on the Question of Legalizing Marijuana

This report by The CQ Researcher Online puts forward general arguments for and against the legalization of marijuana, which are useful to the extent of providing a broad overview of the immense breadth of the topic. Visitors to this website will find amongst other things a detailed presentation of both sides of the argument for marijuana legalization, a useful chronological timeline of marijuana milestones in the country, as well as links to other web resources for further research.

Marijuana Use Statistics

This link is a useful factual resource that breaks down the numbers and types of marijuana arrests from 1980 to 2008 in an easily-understood table form. The legitimacy of its statistics comes from the fact that it is derived from figures supplied by official governmental agencies, such as the FBI and the Department of Justice. The numbers show that marijuana is the drug most commonly used in America that results in an arrest. It further shows that of the number of arrests made for marijuana use each year, an improportionate number are for marijuana possession alone.

State Laws Governing Marijuana Use

The website of The National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws provides a comprehensive section that details the individual laws governing marijuana use across the different states of the country, and a quick comparison of these laws through a drop-down menu would reveal their lack of uniformity across different states.

Historical Circumstances of Marijuana Legalization

This website provides a gateway into the ”reefer racism” which had characterized early marijuana policy in America. Through a juxtaposed historical presentation of marijuana’s initial acceptability and subsequent criminalization by the federal government, the website informs that the marijuana laws that have come to govern modern-day drug policy was couched more in xenophobia and bureaucratic paranoia than in rational scientific thinking.

Opinions on the Slippery Slope of Marijuana Legalization

This opinion page hosted by The New York Times contains responses contributed by renowned academics and bureaucrats on whether the legalization of marijuana would result in higher rates of addiction. It also contains a plethora of comments posted by the online community in response to the initial posts put forth. Taken in its entirety, the dialectical structure of this link helps to contextualise the debate surrounding the merits of marijuana legalization, revealing its nuances in the process.

The Relative Harm of Marijuana in Comparison to Alcohol

This link contains a scientific report on a study conducted by scientists from the Department of Pharmacology from the University of Sydney, who investigated the interaction between alcohol and marijuana. One of the key findings of the report was that alcohol was found to have relatively more harmful effects than marijuana, in spite of the former’s legal status.

Marijuana as a Substitute to Alcohol

This link argues – with support from scientific sources – that the use of marijuana is safer than that of alcohol. While it is clearly favourably biased towards the latter, a critical reading of the source allows the reader to grasp the fundamental arguments raised in support of such a stance, which may then be used for further evaluation and analysis.

A Former Police Chief’s Stance of Marijuana Legalization

This link details the interesting stance of marijuana legalization taken by retired Seattle Police Chief, Norm Stamper. The main thrust of his argument is that because marijuana is safer than alcohol, there is no basis for its continued criminalization that is in contrast to alcohol’s legal status. This is just one many related articles on marijuana hosted by political blog The Huffington Post, and any visitor with the time and effort to pore through them would find that they contain a multitude of perspectives pertinent to the discussion of the marijuana question.