That number is the highest ever recorded by the FBI.

Of the 682,885 arrests made in 1998, approximately 88% were for simple possession. The remaining 12% were for sale and manufacture. Every 52 seconds, a marijuana smoker is arrested in America. This is truly a waste of law enforcement and a waste of our tax money. These people getting arrested are generally responsible adults capable of making their own decisions.

Marijuana was made illegal in 1937, but hemp was kept legal to use. Hemp provides from four to fourteen tons of dry fibers per acre per year. It can be made into paper, cloth, and cellulose for plastic. If drug laws would allow hemp farming, we'd have an alternative resource for paper, which would save our trees. When you look at the one-dollar bill, you are looking at a hemp farmer, George Washington grew hemp. The US Drug Enforcement Agency is ignorant to realize that there is a big difference between hemp and marijuana. Hemp can not be used to get high, and it never was used for that, but it still was put in the s

Marijuana is classified as a minor psychedelic drug. If it is used in large amounts, it could lead to a psychedelic effect. So can medication and alcohol, and it is okay to drink alcohol. This is not a new drug either; it dates back to 4,000 years ago in China. The emperor smoked it, and promoted its use for an all-purpose medication. It spread to India and other neighboring countries. Early Hindus used it for a variety of purposes as well. We have used it as a medical aid for thousands of years, and still are used for a variety of purposes, just not legally in most cases.

Another popular myth is that one joint equal about 4 cigarettes. Critics have exaggerated the dangers if pot smoking. Dr. Tashkin found that daily pot smokers experienced a "mild but significant" increase in airflow resistance in large airways. This is greater than persons smoking 16 cigarettes per day are. What examiners ignore is that marijuana smokers did much are better than tobacco smokers in aspects of lung health. Dr. Tashkin himself says that the notion that one joint equal 16 or maybe just 4 cigarettes is not true. An estimate that marijuana smokers consume four times as much carcinogenic tar as cigarette smokers per weight smoked. The average joint usually contains 0.4 grams of pot, a bit less than one-half the weight of a cigarette. A joint is equal to two cigarettes, which isn't an exact equivalency, but is more accurate. Marijuana affects different parts of the respiratory tract than cigarettes; tobacco tends to penetrate smaller passageways of the lungs. One consequence of this is that pot, unlike cigarettes, does not appear to cause emphysema.

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Approximate Word count = 3510
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)