High: The True Tale of American Marijuana

I figured for this post I would let someone else do the talking just to make all of you aware how many people believe that legalizing marijuana would benefit the country. In the video below this post is a documentary titled “High: The True Tale of American Marijuana”. This is a great documentary that addresses a lot of the myths surrounding the plant and discusses what positive impacts it could possibly have on America. It’s documentaries like these and other sources of information that made me change my views on marijuana. That’s right I didn’t always believe in legalizing this plant (shocking I know). I constantly believed that we were winning the war on drugs and that legalizing marijuana would lead to more crime. But if you looked at all the people, sources, and money that was spent to push these ideas on me, then how could I believe any different. Now that more and more people are questioning marijuana prohibition it’s easier to have access to other ideas, and this is what allows the individual to make an educated decision about the issue. This is what this debate is really all about. Giving people all of the information necessary to make their own decision based on facts, not myths or scare tactics that have been so prevalent surrounding this issue. This is my ultimate goal with this blog. To educate! To give people the information necessary to make their own decisions and then hopefully they will share my point of view. I hope you all enjoy the documentary as much as I did and please don’t limit yourself and view this movie with an open mind.   

Hempsters

This is a documentary I recently came a crossed that makes a great case for industrial hemp. Celebrities and politicians come together in this movie to help educate the public on hemp production and the many benefits that it can provide for America. Please watch and enjoy and feel free to leave comments on your thoughts.

Will Marijuana Legalization Belittle Our Law Enforcement?

This issue has to be addressed since it is often an argument politicians use to gain sympathy for our law enforcement agencies by means of victimization. Subsequently many people have accepted this argument as a legitimate reason to keep marijuana prohibition alive. It’s not unheard of for a person to argue that “legalizing marijuana will undo everything our federal and local police entities have sacrificed and worked so hard to achieve. How can you possibly want to make it legal?” This argument can be hard to combat since the individual making the comment has been convinced that ending marijuana prohibition is not a political idea, but another deviant strategy that criminals are utilizing to target our law enforcement members. How does an individual come to believe this fallacious argument? It comes with decades of conditioning. The government has demonized marijuana to the point that anyone who has a favorable opinion of it is labeled a criminal. If you buy weed you are breaking the law therefore you are a criminal! Since you bought it you are now in possession of a controlled substance which is illegal therefore you are a criminal! If you sell some to your friend you are a drug dealer therefore you are a criminal! If you smoke it you are breaking the law therefore you are a criminal! If you support it becoming legal you are either selling it, buying it, possessing it, smoking it, or all of the above therefore you are a criminal! As funny as this may seem it is true that many people have acquired this thought process. How can we change this perception and how can we make people realize that ending marijuana prohibition is not intended to harm our law enforcement officials?

                It all starts with debunking commonly held myths, something that I always try to accomplish through this blog. In this case prohibition supporters are victimizing law enforcement officials instead of the usual targets like the helpless addict or the child killed in the middle of a drug deal gone wrong. This victimization causes guilt and an otherwise intelligent individual is overcome by emotion instead of utilizing reason. “How could I possibly support legalization? Our poor police officer puts his life on the line to keep these drugs off the streets. I’m such a fool!” Thus the argument becomes “marijuana needs to be kept illegal because it’s illegal!” But wait, are these people really saying that? Yes they most defiantly are! Yet the individual does not notice that he or she is making this erroneous argument because it is cleverly disguised as a sympathetic appeal towards the poor cop walking his beat.

                Does marijuana legalization really belittle our law enforcement officials? The answer is a resounding NO! If it does anything it helps them by removing them from a failed drug policy that has lasted decades. If marijuana was legalized 10 years ago we would have fewer dead cops and failed operations like “Fast and Furious” would never have taken place. Violence in Mexico would have declined and our prisons would not be overflowing with petty drug offenders. To say that legalizing cannabis hurts our officers more than to continuingly throw them into dangerous drug busting operations is insensitive and offensive. Our law enforcement has done the best they can but the drug war failure does not fall on their shoulders, it falls on the shoulders of our lawmakers. And to create the illusion that our law enforcement agencies haven’t “quite done enough” is sickening.          

The 420 Counterculture

Marijuana is unique among controlled substances in that it has an unprecedented counter culture that surrounds it. Just Google marijuana and I will guarantee that that you will find an overwhelming amount of forums, activist pages, magazine websites, medical marijuana dispensaries, conventions, arguments for and against prohibition, paraphernalia stores, and of course blogs dedicated to the subject ;). There is such a large following that if you didn’t know marijuana was illegal you would have a hard time believing it is. What is so unique about cannabis that gives it so much appeal even though it is illegal to possess, sell, and consume it? Why are we not seeing this phenomenon with other controlled substances? Since there is such a large following then why hasn’t anyone seen the potential of legalization? There are many answers to these questions but I plan to highlight the big picture surrounding the subject of the 420 counterculture.

                Why is marijuana so appealing to so many people in the country? I guess a superficial answer would be that “it gets you high”, an answer I usually receive from people in favor of prohibition, but I’m not willing to accept that as the main reason. A lot of things get you high, cocaine, heroin, LSD, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms, meth, peyote, nitrous oxide, Oxycotton, Demerol, and a plethora of other prescription drugs. But none of these have the same dedicated following that matches marijuana. The simplest way I can describe why cannabis is so popular is by combining two broad reasons, it’s safer than other recreational drugs (including alcohol) and it’s enjoyable to use. These are the very basic reasons why marijuana has such a large following. Sure there are other reasons that are involved but most of them stem from these two categories. The fact that it is enjoyable seems to be an obvious reason for its use, but there are other drugs like heroin, meth, and crack cocaine that at first may be used for enjoyment but quickly transition into being used to maintain an addiction. Very rarely is anyone a slave to marijuana addiction and this allows people to continue using without many negative effects. This brings us to the next reason for its popularity which is its relatively safe use. No one overdoses on marijuana like many other drugs which is why marijuana maintains its popularity in numbers and which is also why we don’t see this phenomenon with other “harder” drugs. No one is killing themselves with it. This safe appearance of cannabis within the 420 counterculture maintains its popularity. Because it is so enjoyable and because it is safer to use marijuana has gained an epic fan base in this country and is also the reason why harder drugs do not follow this same trend.

                With marijuana as popular as it is why hasn’t anyone seen the potential of legalization? The answer to this question is much simpler. People have seen the potential for legalization and more often than not it is the marijuana user and activist that sees it. The user does not want to have to sneak around trying to find weed somewhere, they would much rather want to walk into a store and purchase it without having to look over their shoulder. People who want to end prohibition are not criminals but everyday people that want to see crime decrease and more jobs created from marijuana legalization. The main hurdle to leap over in order to end prohibition is to overcome the negative stigma that marijuana has acquired over the years. We can see that we are achieving this goal with recent polls showing that half of Americans would like to see marijuana legalized. After all overcoming this stigma and ending prohibition is what the 420 movement is truly all about.