I mean, imagine it. A successful business man running his own company and pulling in $300,000 a year... with a weekend pot habit. That just don't work for the anti-drug people.
I couldn’t agree more. I actually know one of those “CEO” types, as well as any number of doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants, the occasional police officer who had to quit only because of drug testing, top salesmen (talk about a motivational career), writers, publishers, more IT people than I can shake a stick at, good mothers and fathers, a chemist, psychologist... well, the list goes on. There is even a study that shows occasional MJ users to have less absenteeism and more productivity than their peers (they probably stick around longer being abused at dead-end jobs too
). Lacking real science to support the war on drugs, particularly where MJ is concerned, we are left with heavy-handed propaganda of the “Reefer Madness” ilk.
I have seen cocaine and alcohol ruin people's lives (that I actually know first hand), but I have yet to see marijuana do the same. I have endangered my life and others’ a shameful number of times under the influence of alcohol. However, aggressive tendencies are not associated with MJ, and the burnouts that I have come across struck me as being on the slow track regardless of their drug of choice.
Is MJ a vitamin -- obviously not, though it actually can help in some medical conditions. But it's rather hypocritical to get down on MJ while kicking back with a 6-pack. Hey, if we’re not going to get around to decriminalizing MJ like much of Europe and even Canada seems to be doing, then I DEMAND we re-criminalize alcohol and tobacco too (though tobacco is almost there already). It’s only fair, and it would allow us to further weaken our civil rights while expanding the already bloated, entrenched and monolithic drug bureaucracies and the criminal industrial complex.
The problem is, the anti-drug bureaucracies are so entrenched that a realistic debate on the issue is unlikely. They are already targeting “seizures” based more on the $ value of the property than the potential criminality, with sometimes fatal results. Reducing or refocusing the criminalization effort into a treatment scheme would hurt the DEA/ATF/local police departments in the manpower and budget areas -- anyone who is in charge of something with a budget knows how appealing personally reduced importance and reduced funding are. These efforts will be resisted as strongly as any proposed changes to simplify taxation and reduce the power of the IRS, whether they are needed or not. It’s amazing how much individual liberty we, as citizens, have allowed slip away in the fight against drugs. Probable cause = individual whim now. Just wait until they decide to outlaw handgun ownership, or any number of pet issues that some find important, while others find ridiculous.
Charon
