April 20 is known for a number events internationally.
In 1861, Gen. Robert E. Lee resigned from the U.S. Army. In 1889, Adolf Hitler was born in Austria. In 1908, Marie and Pierre Curie isolated radioactive radium salts from a pitchblende in Paris, resulting in a Nobel Prize in physics. In 1945, Operation Corncob was launched, beginning a three-day attack on bridges in Germany. In 1995, a truck bomb exploded in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people. And in 1999, two teenagers in Littleton, Colorado killed 13 people at Columbine High School.
However, one event is "missing" from this list. According to the sub-cultural calendar in international cities, this date also marks the beginnings of Pot Smoker's Day.
I am aware that this does not belong among the aforementioned events for other reasons, but one main inaccuracy that the people who celebrate National Pot Smoker's Day must recognize is that it was not started on April 20.
The term "4:20" was actually coined by a group of pot smokers at San Rafael High School in California. It was a term used by the group in an attempt at having a "secret" language to communicate when they would get together to smoke marijuana, according to Steven Hager, editor of High Times.
However, possessing marijuana in Indiana (and most other states) is illegal. But why? What harm does it cause?
Despite pressure from the government of the United States, cannabis is cultivated in 33 countries -- including its neighbor, Canada. In fact, on Wednesday, Sci-Tech Today posted an article online about a cannabis drug that will be given to multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in Canada, the first nation to approve a cannabis-based medicine.
Sativex oral spray, produced by GW pharmaceuticals and Bayer HealthCare, will help ease the pain for adults with MS.
Aside from this recent product, marijuana has been a notable treatment for AIDS, cancer and other illnesses, according to Disinformation.
It seems that the criminalization of marijuana is more harmful to America than decriminalizing it would be.
According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Web site, in 2000, more than 734,000 people were arrested for marijuana-related incidents. This is up from the 600,000 they arrested in 1998. The arrests in 1998 cost American taxpayers more than $9 billion. The police officers involved in these arrests could have been arresting violent criminals who murder and rape, rather than the "potheads" across the street.
Arguments against legalization say that cannabis is terribly harmful to users. Physically, marijuana was found to be less harmful than alcohol. According to an article in Lancet, a popular medical journal in the United Kingdom, aside from the harms of smoking, cannabis is less of a threat than alcohol and cigarettes.
In fact, the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine said that cannabinoid drugs can potentially be therapeutic to patients for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting and appetite stimulation.
I am not saying that all the readers of this column should go and smoke a bowl right now, but I am suggesting that it may be time for the governmental bodies in this country to review the laws prohibiting the use of marijuana, especially for medicinal purposes, to stay ahead in the medical world.
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