America is Being Denied the Right to Information

A few months ago I wrote my most popular blog to date entitled “Don’t Tell Me What I Can Do To My Body!” which argued that the Government has no right dictating what substance I willfully choose to consume. Now I wish to discuss another topic which is just as important and directly parallels this argument, which is the right to information. Not only are we being denied the right to govern our own bodies as we wish but we are also being denied our most sacred right of information and education. It is an absolute travesty that our Government is withholding the facts about marijuana by not allowing scientific research to examine both the positive and negative aspects of this plant. Instead we are force fed half truths and outright myths about cannabis in substitute.

                Education is the foundation of our ideals and personal opinions and this applies not just in America but the world. Every country that employs public education at the national level is always a more developed country. Every country that denies education to its people or feeds them misinformation will always be a third world country and or a country that is ruled over by dictators whether they be national or local (such as warlords). Education is the very element that makes us free! The ability to analyze and apply critical thinking to make judgments and form opinions is the most powerful weapon we posses against tyranny, injustice, and exploitation. To deny people of education is to steal life itself from them. It is one of the worst human rights offenses and yet we as Americans are experiencing this very offense, albeit on a small scale. This seems blasphemous to say but as we take a closer look and you will find that the Government has limited the research of cannabis thereby denying us our right to the proper information.

                There was an attempt to study marijuana and its effects on personal and social issues that was initiated by the government. This study was known as the “Shafer Commission” in which president Nixon launched in order to support the war on drugs. However this plan back fired and instead of a scathing report on marijuana Nixon received a report which dispelled many of the widely accepted myths about the plant. This report was not surprisingly rejected and the “Controlled Substance Act” (which this commission was intended to support) was passed through Congress and signed into law. This is the first major case of information (concerning marijuana) which was denied to the public because the outcome was the opposite of what the Government wanted. We were denied the right to information and as such we continued to believe all of the common myths associated with marijuana. We are still feeling the effects of this outcome from the slew of misinformation we receive about this plant. Every day we are bombarded by public service announcements and political scare tactics that pounds outdated and incorrect information into our heads. This bombardment is amplified by the fact that the Government does not fund additional studies about marijuana so that we might learn more about it. God forbid the information discovered would counter what has previously been believed as true. It is this denial of additional studies and information that stagnates us from discovering the truth about marijuana.

                We cannot and should not allow the government to dictate our right to information and education. We have to demand more unbiased scientific studies involving marijuana so that we as a country can make a more informed decision in the case of prohibition. The more informed decision is the right decision.      

Marijuana is a Gateway Drug

                If there was one accusation that has demonized marijuana more than anything else it has to be the “Gateway Drug” argument. This has been a popular argument and one of the most successful in keeping marijuana illegal. One of the reasons contributed to its success is that it utilizes fear to scare voters into keeping it illegal. However, this fear can be alleviated with simple reasoning that disproves marijuana is a gate way drug.

There is some ambiguity about the gateway drug theory and this causes it to be described in a couple of ways. This same ambiguity can also lead to its downfall in a civil debate. This argument has been described a number of ways in its existence but the way I remember being told had to be the most absurd. I was taught that marijuana is a gateway drug because people who smoke it for a long enough time stop getting high from it which leads them to move to more powerful drugs. Where do we start with this one? There is no drug in existence, legal or otherwise, that a human being can build such a tolerance to that they stop feeling all or most of the effects that it causes. There is no illicit drug, prescription drug, or legal drug like alcohol or nicotine that behaves this way. Caffeine doesn’t even do it, so why would marijuana be any different? This argument is so farfetched that it can be excused with simple reasoning.

The gateway theory is popular among prohibitionists because it uses statistics. However these people neglect the other variables that have to be taken into account. Many prohibitionists bring up the point that people who use harder drugs started with marijuana. Now I’ll admit that this statistic is somewhat true, but, you can make the very same argument about alcohol. Many people used alcohol roughly around the same time they started using marijuana. Very few actually started on just marijuana before they moved on to harder drugs. This is especially true with under aged people. People who drink under aged are far more likely to use illegal drugs in their lifetime. So we can make the argument that alcohol itself is a “gateway” drug using the same statistics and reasoning as the prohibitionists to support our claim. Why is alcohol ignored though? There are a few reasons but one of the main ones is how the statistical questions are presented. Many ask the question “what drug did you first start out with” or some other similar variant. On the surface this seems like a fair question, but it all depends on what the word “drug” means to the person being surveyed. Alcohol itself is a drug, but when asked about “drugs” it’s hardly the first one that comes to most people’s minds. When asked the question “what drug did you first use or start with” many people automatically think of illegal drugs which alcohol is not associated with. In this way the statistics can become incredibly skewed and therefore it becomes invalid in an argument. The problem with these statistical arguments is that the statistics themselves are flawed. Until there is a better statistical system in place we will never really know if marijuana (or alcohol for that matter) is a gateway drug.

I have my own “gateway” theory that I would like to introduce for the first time on this blog. I feel that this theory better addresses the true underlying cause of hard drug use. The gateway is not the drug itself, but it is the illegal activity that is associated with the drug. A person buying marijuana off of a drug dealer is exposed to the other hard drugs that the dealer also sells. It becomes a “gateway” to illegal activity. The dealer will eventually convince someone to buy harder and more profitable drugs. The buyer is already breaking the law by buying marijuana several times, and this repeated action can seem benign to him over time. Since the buyer is no longer afraid of purchasing marijuana then what would stop him from buying other drugs? He is introduced to an illegal drug culture which becomes a gateway into harder illicit drug use.

You may be asking yourself why a person would take part in an illegal activity in the first place. We can address this question by looking at another study that observes drinking at universities. Many universities have done studies to determine which students attending their schools drink the most. What these studies found was very intriguing. The majority of students that drank alcohol were in the freshmen and sophomore classes whose age range is 17-20. Junior and senior classes whose ages range from 21-23 were far less likely to drink. Why would under aged people drink more? The fact is that there is an appeal to something that is forbidden. People who drink underage usually feel the excitement of getting away with something that they are not supposed to take part in. Once they become of legal age to drink, the excitement of doing something forbidden is gone and drinking loses the appeal that it once had. Buying and using marijuana can bring about the same exciting “forbidden” feeling. This feeling introduces them into an illegal lifestyle that could lead to harder drug use. The forbidden feeling is constantly fed while taking part in this activity, and this causes people to push themselves into harder drug use in order to maintain the excitement the activity brings about. Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in America, so if we were to make it a legal substance then we would take all of those marijuana users away from an introduction into an illegal lifestyle. By doing this we greatly reduce the chance that these marijuana users will take part in harder drug use.

Let’s face it; marijuana is a gateway drug because it is illegal. If it were legalized then people would not be introduced into an illegal culture that could lead to harder drug use, thereby protecting our citizens. By keeping this plant illegal we are allowing drug pushers to introduce our citizens to harder drugs like heroin. Let’s take the illegal lifestyle out of the equation by making marijuana a legal substance.           

            

The ATF's Fast and Furious Blunder

If we needed any more evidence that the war on drugs is a losing war, the ATF has alleviated any doubt we might have had resting in the back of our minds. If you are unfamiliar with what took place just Google “ATF fast and furious” and I challenge you not to become absolutely disgusted.  Where do I start with this one? Should I begin with how we are fighting the cartels the wrong way, treating them more like a gang when they behave more like a small army? Or should it be that we are targeting their weapons instead of their money or product which they use to fund the purchase these arms? Anyway you look at it you can’t deny that if we keep fighting the war on drugs the same way we have been for the past thirty years, then we aren’t going to make any progress. It’s time for a new strategy, one that gives more rights to the citizens of the United States while more effectively combats the cartels.

                This type of operation is not uncommon for the ATF or any other government or local law enforcement agency. There are many examples of how this strategy has worked to combat gangs in America. There is just one problem when using this strategy to combat the cartels. The cartels are not gangs they are small armies. Make no mistake about it these cartels behave more like an oppressive army than a gang. Just think about it for a minute, what gang do you know of carries out professional hits on government officials? What gang is responsible for so many mass graves like the ones found in Mexico? What gang uses grenades and other explosives in military style ambushes? This is unlike any gang in America which law enforcement is so used to combating. How can we expect our law enforcement to fight something that they have never seen the likes of before? The truth of the matter is we can’t, so we need to find a different and more effective way to address this problem.

We need to change our strategy when it comes to fighting the Mexican cartels. One of the simplest things we can do is to get marijuana legal. If marijuana was completely taken away from the cartels then that would have a significant impact on their operations. All at once they would have less money to work with and would become weaker than any gun or drug bust could ever leave them. Instead of focusing on guns we would focus on taking away their money. Money that, let’s face it, they can use to buy guns anywhere. We would focus on the root of the problem instead of the surface which is the violence that we are so used to seeing on the news. The cartels cannot function without money like any other organization so let’s hit them where it hurts most.

 We could fight the cartels’ gun trade forever if we wanted to. As long as they continue to sell drugs and make money they will always be able to buy more guns. No gun bust however big will ever be enough to effectively end the cartels’ operations, but if we go after their product and take it away from them then we have a chance. There is no simpler or more effective way to accomplish this than to decriminalize marijuana.