The War On Common Sense: Cannabis in America

"D.A.R.E. to stay off drugs!"
"Drug use is life abuse!"
"Mary Jane ruins the brain!"
"Just say no!"

We've all heard the slogans, seen the reasons, and witnessed the propaganda against drug use.  Generally speaking, the reasons are valid.  After all, drugs like methadone, cocaine, and black-tar heroin have been irrefutably proven to be extremely addictive and horrendously damaging.  But have you ever wondered why marijuana seems to be the poster child for most anti-drug ads?  It gets lumped in with black-tar heroin and all the other hard drugs so people can easily dismiss it as "bad," but have you looked into the facts behind cannabis?  What you find there might interest you.

Industrial hemp cannot get you high and has vastly untapped uses: Food, fuel, clothes, paper, building materials...Because almost any product that can be made from wood, cotton, or petroleum can also be made from hemp, there are more than 25,000 known uses for this plant.  One acre of hemp can produce as much usable fiber as 4 acres of trees or 2 acres of cotton.  It could essentially solve our food, energy, deforestation, and trade deficit problems, grows easily, and is much less damaging to the environment than industrial cotton.  In spite of all this, hemp was made illegal along with cannabis.

In 2002, the US Government Accountability Office was forced to admit cannabis use successfully treats AIDS, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, anorexia, cachexia, cancer, Crohn's disease, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV, migraines, multiple sclerosis, nausea, pain, spasticity, and wasting syndrome.  There is strong anecdotal evidence that suggests marijuana can successfully treat far more diseases, but adequate research has not yet been done.  It could replace every expensive pill from Advil to Vicodin and beyond.  Despite these findings, cannabis remains classified as a Schedule 1 narcotic by the DEA, which means it has "no currently accepted medical use in the United States."  Much like hemp, it grows easily with negligent (if not positive) impacts on the environment.

There have been several studies conducted on the addictiveness of cannabis when compared to other commonly used substances.  In order from most to least addictive, the results were: Heroin, cocaine, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and marijuana.  A primary indicator of whether or not a substance is addictive is the withdrawal symptoms suffered after quitting.  While it is not common, alcohol withdrawal has been known to cause death.  The most difficult withdrawal symptom of quitting cannabis is a moderate to severe mental desire to get high.  Interestingly enough, every year in America:

• 443,000 people die as a direct result of smoking cigarettes
• 98,000 people die as a direct result of preventable medical errors
• 75,000 people die as a direct result of drinking alcohol
• 38,000 people die as a direct result of prescription drug overdose
• 0 people die as a direct result of using cannabis: Historically, there has not been a single recorded death that was directly attributed to marijuana

Any time you think of the pitfalls of smoking marijuana, one "fact" inevitably comes to mind: Smoking marijuana kills brain cells and makes you dumb.  What you may not know is there was only ever one study done that "proved" this to be the case.  In this study, they placed a sealed gas mask on monkeys, then filled the mask with nothing but marijuana smoke.  As a result, the monkeys started to suffocate.  As you might imagine, one of the first side effects of a lack of oxygen to the brain is cell death.  Subsequent studies have shown marijuana to stimulate brain cell growth and activity, but these studies are not given the light of media attention.

Despite the mountains of factual evidence demonstrating the benefits and disproving the dangers of cannabis, it remains illegal in America.

Did you know that in America, the prison industry is largely privatized?

Let that sink in for a minute.

This means there are wealthy business owners all across America that stand to make money from your incarceration.  In fact, the average yearly revenue for the industry is $1.7 billion.  This helps to explain why America, which accounts for only 5% of the world population, has 25% of the world's prisoners.  Of these prisoners, about half are in prison on non-violent drug charges.

Here's the icing on the cake: There have recently been cases of police mistakenly invading the wrong home for drugs.  In one case, a 61-year old man in Tennessee attempted to defend himself and his wife against an apparent home invasion and was shot to death by police.  The officers involved have been declared "not at fault" by their supervisors and were placed on paid administrative leave.

As asinine as all this seems, there is an easy explanation: Billionaires want to remain billionaires.  If hemp is allowed to compete in the industry or cannabis is decriminalized, some very rich corporations stand to lose a lot of money.  The top 5 interest groups lobbying to keep hemp and cannabis illegal are as follows: Police unions, private prisons, alcohol and beer companies, pharmaceutical corporations, and prison guard unions.  And of course, dealers don't want cannabis legalized either for the same reasons: Money and power.

Don't get me wrong: Marijuana can absolutely be abused.  But so can cigarettes, alcohol, exercising, pornography, and cheeseburgers.  It's time we started blaming the abuser, not the herb.

The War on Drugs has been waged in the name of profit with unspeakable collateral damage to individual Liberty.  It is insane, it is expensive, and it should be brought to an immediate end.

Want to learn more?  The best documentary I have found on the matter is called The Union: The Business Behind Getting High, and can be viewed in its entirety on Netflix or Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT-UIe7l3-Q