California voters succeeded in passing a proposal to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana as prescribed by doctors. The passage of Proposition 215 seemed to symbolize a promising trend toward understanding the substance. However, after reading an article by Eric Schlosser in the April issue of Atlantic Monthly, I was shocked by the reality of what is happening elsewhere. Many of us are aware of the idiocy of our legal system that treats marijuana offenders worse than violent criminals. I doubt, however, that many Americans are truly aware of how some people's lives have been destroyed due to current practices in the so-called "war on drugs." Now, some 15 years after its inception, the “war on drugs” has become a war on personal freedom and toes the line of authoritarianism. At the dawn of the 21st century, this is not a good sign for preserving our future, nor that of democracy. In 1989, a small business owner and Vietnam veteran, Douglas Lamar Gray, who had only petty crimes to his name, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after purchasing a pound of pot for himself and his friends. He made the purchase from a convicted felon who was working as an informant for a local Alabama task force. Gray's wife, left with a 2-year-old son and no source of income, attempted suicide unsuccessfully. The informant was paid $100. Life sentences exist in 15 states for nonviolent marijuana-related crimes. In Montana the penalty can be imposed for the cultivation of a single plant or for the sale of a single joint. But such martial law is not as terrible as that at the federal level. Tough federal anti-drug policies were adopted in 1982 under President Reagan. The biggest leap forward came in 1986 with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act which... middle of paper... took away privileges, which laws like the Anti-Drug Abuse Act do not do. (FREEDOM is not a privilege; it is an inalienable right!) I see no other option than to adopt further solutions to embrace the decriminalization of marijuana. I will not discuss the ethics of occasional use of the drug. I will simply state that it has never been linked as the sole cause of a single death and that no long-term harmful effects other than depression have ever been demonstrated. Furthermore, no evidence was found that law enforcement discourages its use. (To prove otherwise just take the examples of the Netherlands and Sweden.) The facilitation of phenomenal corporate profits among merchants and state and federal organizations, coupled with the deprivation of citizens' constitutional rights, is the evil that must be addressed aim and shot down. This will only be made possible by the legalization of marijuana.