Have you ever been arrested for possession of marijuana? Last year there were more than 695,201 marijuana arrests in the United States. Of those arrests 87.2% were for possession - not for sale or manufacture of marijuana. There have been over 11 million marijuana arrests in the United States since 1965. 12.7% of today's overcrowded federal prison population is made up of people incarcerated for marijuana offenses, with an average sentence of about three to four years. Even with heroin use on the rise, the police seem to be preoccupied with arresting marijuana smokers. In 1990 there were over 34,000 emergency room admissions resulting from the use of heroin and four years later, that number had doubled. Many of those patients did not survive. Yet even though heroin has done much more damage to this society than marijuana has, statistics say the chances of a heroin dealer being arrested are 1 in 10,900 "deals."
             Is marijuana really a harmful drug? The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy asked the United States Institute of Medicine to conduct a research to assess the possible health benefits of marijuana. In March of 1999 the review was made public. The evidence concluded that the THC in marijuana is effective treatment for symptoms such as pain, nausea, vomiting, anorexia, and "wasting", which is the resulting characteristics associated with cancer and AIDS treatments.
             Recently it has also has been proven that marijuana reduces muscle pain and spasticity caused by multiple sclerosis, prevents epileptic seizures, helps bladder control, and reduces eye pressure and blood flow to the optic nerve in Glaucoma patients. This conclusive evidence brings up the question why not legalize marijuana as medical drug treatment. Marijuana has been proven to be less dangerous than cocaine and morphine, two legalized drug treatments that have been proven to be addictive. According to the
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