ated heavily in the colonial period. After 130 years of being able to grow and consume marijuana, the potential problems of marijuana were brought into the public eye in 1932. Harry J. Anslingler, the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, authored the book Marijuana: Assassin of Youth (Goldman 88). In his book, Anslinger portrayed images of Mexican and Negro criminals, as well as young boys, who became killers while under the influence of marijuana. With this and other added public pressure from Anslinger's book, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law he Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. This law made the use and sale of marijuana federal offenses, and at this point marijuana vanished from the public eye. In the mid-1960's marijuana reappeared and the "Hippy" emerged. Hippies were viewed as the abnormal people who did not "fit in" and were often referred to as freaks. Widespread objection to the use of marijuana remained because of the lifestyles associated with hippies. Contrary to the belief of the population, the use of marijuana appeared in colleges and among middle-class youths in the suburbs. Marijuana became a symbol of a counter-culture, youthful rebellion, and freedom for the non-hippie users. During the next ten years marijuana use escalated to a point that it was literally everywhere. Marijuana could be found in cities, towns, suburbs, the country, and just about anywhere a person could think of. People rooting from all different backgrounds were using it, and consequently, marijuana was becoming more accepted across the nation. For example, in 1997 a teacher at Pine View School for the Gifted in Sarasota, Florida was "relocated to a different school" because it was found that he was growing marijuana for personal consumption. The users of marijuana, and the attitudes about the danger of marijuana broke down. In 1970, the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act reduced the classification of simple possession and non-profit distribution of marijuana from felonies to misdemeanors (Himmelstein 103-104). However, President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs in 1973, and over the next 20 years, each succeeding president continued to escalate the drug war. This particular "drug war" is not only against marijuana but also against harder drugs that are more dangerous. This policy has obviously done nothing to stop the recreational use of marijuana in this country; on the contrary, it is causing great harm. The policy is preventing many people who could benefit from marijuana medicinally and us costing the taxpayers money with little results. It is time to try something new. When some people imagine the legalization of marijuana, they fear a marijuana free-for-all with everybody constantly getting high and the United States Government being burdened by legalization. In fact, the process of legalization would include a law passed by Congress allowing the government to control the content, quality, and distribution of marijuana. The laws would be similar to the current laws regulating alcohol and tobacco, including laws governing age, limits for driving, and distribution. A thorough investigation of the costs and benefits of legalization must be examined before any policy is implemented. In reality, legalization will only make legal what many people do everyday. There are a number of myths associated with the use of marijuana which people who are opposed to the legalization of marijuana repeatedly cite. One of these is that Marijuana causes brain damage. People who are opposed base their claim on a study by Dr. Robert Heath of the rhesus monkey in the late 1970's. Heath's work was criticized for its insufficient sample size of only four monkeys, its failure to control experimental bias, and the misidentification of normal monkey brain structure as "damaged" (Hager 1). Actual studies of human populations of marijuana users have shown no evidence of damage to the brain (Hager 1). In fact,

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Approximate Word count = 2840
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)