Legalize Marijuana?
The unknown origin of 4/20 aside, it has become a tradition for hippies across the planet to celebrate the smoking of this plant on April 20th. Since I hate the smell, I’ll try to stay in.
This said, I shake my head at our outdated prohibition laws on a plant that grows in the ground when there are so many more harmful drugs around that are killing our kids.
Lumping together marijuana and other drugs is a serious disservice to parents and children.
But wait, isn’t marijuana a gateway drug?
Sure it is.
Little Billy tried smoking marijuana and decides it’s not so bad. Since he has already broken the law, the law treats them as equally bad, and his dealer has access to a myriad of other drugs, why not go off and get hooked on crystal meth?
But is this the fault of the plant, or the fault of the law?
I would strongly argue the latter. It’s precisely because of the total lack of education, the misinformation, and the illegality of the plant. The plant itself is not nearly as harmful as other drugs, nor as harmful as the propaganda makes it out to be. Kids are smart; they know bullshit when they hear it. So they presume all the information about all the other drugs is also false. Unfortunately, much of the information about the other drugs is true, but it’s too late for little Billy.
Furthermore, the social consequences of marijuana tend to be far less than alcohol abuse, or that of most other drugs (for those who don’t pass through the gateway).
However, because it is illegal, marijuana is sold by criminals. And criminals trade in all sorts of illegal things – like guns, harder drugs, and prostitution – precisely the sorts of things we should be cracking down on.
The Liberal Party of Canada’s answer a few years back was decriminalization. This is the stupidest policy ever – telling children it’s OK to go and consort with criminals. Whoever thought that up certainly wasn’t a parent!
Full legalization is the only solution, and, frankly, the inevitable one. Anyone who thinks otherwise in 2009 has their head a mile deep in the sand.
I don’t smoke this plant, nor do intend to. But should anybody be thrown in jail for smoking it? Come on.
Unfortunately Canada cannot legalize marijuana. First, the United States must. We have too much at stake to do this unilaterally and not destroy our economy in the process. I wonder if it’ll take a serious incident along the Mexican border before America finally gets it?
In the meantime, we continue to spend billions in our fight against a plant that was around long before we were. This strikes me as incredibly stupid.
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