There is much debate about the idea of legalizing marijuana, but in the end, the justifications as to why it is illegal are simply wrong. One of the most common arguments as to why marijuana should be illegal is that it is a gateway drug. There are two reason why this is wrong.

1) Causation Fallacy

Any politician, individual, or even medical association making this claim are wrong. Simple logic shows that labeling marijuana as a ‘gateway drug’ is misguided.

While it is true that many people that do cocaine have also done marijuana, it does not mean that smoking marijuana causes one to do cocaine. This is a causation fallacy.

There is also a correlation between runners and people that eat healthy. But that does not mean one causes the other. The correlation is a result of the fact that healthy people tend to do both. Similar to drugs, it is the person’s personality or lifestyle that will lead them to do both marijuana and cocaine.

2) The Law Creates the Gateway Affect

Much like there exists a positive correlation between marijuana and cocaine use, there is also a correlation between people that use protein powder (or other supplements) to build muscle and people that take illegal steroids. However, the correlation between protein and steroids is much lower than the marijuana-cocaine correlation even though steroids are much more effective. Why would the correlation be so much less when looking at these two examples?

It is simple: There is a clearly defined separation between using protein powder and steroids - the law. If a law was passed making protein powder was illegal, it would take away this legal separation between protein powder and steroids. So if someone wanted to do something as minor as take protein powder, they would have less of a disincentive to do steroids, since both options are illegal. It narrows the ap between the two options making it more likely a person choosing to do one option would also do the other.

It is not the fact that marijuana is a gateway to cocaine use, it is the act of making it illegal that creates a gateway.

Marijuana Laws

Society is not against marijuana. It has been proven not to be associated with increased cancer risk and is likely less harmful than fast food. Plus, it is readily accepted, especially when you consider 94 million Americans have tried it. It causes much more harm to society by making it illegal.

By making marijuana illegal, politicians create many more problems:

• The act of making marijuana illegal leads to an increase in crime and violence (did we learn nothing from alcohol prohibition?)
• It decreases our resources for enforcement of other laws (including cracking down on harder drugs)
• It increases society’s burden to deal with people convicted of using marijuana (10 million Americans)
• It results in a massive decrease in potential revenue from taxes and farm income ($23 billion annually for the US economy).

This post is not to meant inspire individuals to stand up and fight for marijuana legalization - you likely already had a stance on the topic. Rather, it is meant to educate you so you can call out politicians that try to feed the public pure BS with no regard for the good of the public and only care about their perception in public.

I challenge any politician to make a logical argument as to why marijuana should be illegal. You will lose.

[A true story]
A known drug user was talking to a girl one day and told he her about a recent dream. As minor as it may seem, this casual encounter snowballed until it ended up with an innocent Eagle Scout getting being put in jail for 40 years. All with absolutely no physical proof.

Ryan Ferguson will be spending 40 years of his life in jail as a result of a former friend’s dream, an overly eager prosecuting attorney with political motives, a local police department desperate to solve the biggest unsolved crime in history of their department, and a group of 12 of your peers that wanted to do their part to “solve the unsolved mystery.”

Here are the actual facts taken from the trial:

• The Police collected DNA from blood found at the scene. However, the DNA was not Ryan’s (the Eagle Scout that was convicted for 40 years). It was not even Chuck’s (the kid who had the dreams that “confessed”). This ruled them out as possible suspects.
• The Police collected several fingerprints found at the scene. The fingerprints did not match Ryan or Chuck, and ruled them out as suspects.
• Hairs were found in the clenched hand of the victim. Once again, the hairs did not match Chuck or Ryan, and was another thing that completely ruled them out as suspects.
• During Chuck’s “confession” he said they drove in Ryan’s car after the murder. The forensic team tested the car and said that if the Chuck’s hallucinations were true, a luminol test would have found traces of blood. Since the crime was so violent and bloody, luminol would have found blood even after years. They concluded that the person that committed the crime never got in Ryan’s car.

Every piece of physical evidence found completely ruled out both kids. However, there were two witnesses of the scene. They gave police a description of person they saw at the scene.

• The witness gave a composite artist descriptions of the suspect, and said that he had blond hair, was about 6 feet, weighed 200 pound and was in his twenties. Then in court, the witness pointed out Ryan, who at the time of the crime, had black hair, was 5 feet 5 inches, 145 pounds and was 17.

Not only did all of the physical evidence prove their innocence, but the only testimony that linked the kids to the crime was from the hallucinating kid, Chuck, who said he was not sure if it actually happened or if it was just a dream. During the interrogation of Chuck Erickson, he told police how the murder was committed. He was wrong. The police interrogator then tried to feed him the correct response. When Chuck was told how it was actually done, Chuck told them that was not how it happened, realized there was no way he was part of any crime that happened like that and said “maybe I don’t even know what I’m talking about.”

• Even after he admitted he wasn’t sure of the facts and saying his hallucinations may have been just a dream, his initial taped “confession” was the only thing that led to the conviction of Ryan Ferguson.

Reading this may not seem believable to you. Please, scour the internet to find out as many facts as you can and you too will be unsettled as to how an injustice like this can occur in our country.

Ryan and his family are currently going through the appeals process.

What can you do?

1. Research the story so you know the facts.
2. Make yourself heard in the forum at the local newspaper.
3. Contact the Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Crane and let him know you that feel this is an injustice (he does not make his email freely available) and would like to see more evidence.
4. Support all aspects of the legal system to ensure justice. Support forensics, prosecutors and public defenders.
5. Don’t stand for mass manipulation of the judicial system from people with personal motives.

For a slightly more detailed description of these events, you can read it here, you can also find more info at these sites.

All statements in the story are believed to be true by the writer. If you are involved in this case and see information that is not accurate, please contact the owner of this site.