Californians are taking the initiative to pursue the legalization of cannabis by the end of 2014 despite copious Americans' pessimistic beliefs against it. To legalize and unleash the United States' third most consumed drug behind alcohol and cigarettes seems ludicrous to most Americans yet more than half of Californians find it ideal. Although the consumption of cannabis may cause health hazards, criminal punishments, and motor impairments, an active social reform is underway in hopes of optimistic outcomes influenced by Washington's and Colorado's movement. The Prohibition era ended decades ago so why is its' lingering principles constricting cannabis' potential to assuage illnesses, induce happiness, conserve millions of dollars in criminal offenses, and bring in even more money in potential taxation? Cannabis deserves to be legalized and regulated in manner similar to alcohol and cigarettes to be cultivated, distributed, and consumed responsibly in California in order to benefit society as a whole. .
It's been 65 years since the DEA perpetually inserted politics to blockade the regulatory process that should have been left to the FDA and medical sciences. For decades, politicians have been advocating that cannabis has no medical value while denying the permission for scientists to prove otherwise. Cannabis is the only Schedule I drug that is prohibited from being produced by private laboratories for scientific research by the DEA. LSD, Ecstasy, heroin, and cocaine are classified as less dangerous than cannabis and is available to researchers from DEA-licensed private laboratories. Federal law may prosecute medicinal marijuana consumers, distributors, and cultivators in any state despite the tenth amendment's permission to legalize cannabis under state law (Federal Marijuana Law - Americans for Safe Access). Scientists are hindered by possible prosecution to study the drug without a DEA license which is nearly impossible to obtain.