U.S. drug laws weak in international scene
Casey Goodyear - April 3rd, 2008I’m not surprised that some of my favorite news of the past month didn’t appear in any mainstream news sites. The media hates to run a positive pot story. Late in February, Jamaica formed a government panel to investigate the legalization of cannabis. Thousands of miles from the Caribbean, the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic ruled that cultivation and possession of cannabis for medical purposes is not a crime.
At the same time, the National Institute of Drug Abuse issued a $4 million grant for the creation of the United States’ first Center on Cannabis Addiction.
Unfortunately, this trend of sociopolitical progress in the rest of the world and the exact opposite action taken here at home is increasing. For at least 30 years now, it has been common knowledge that draconian U.S. marijuana policies do not work. But we are still spending a heap of taxpayer money on an institution with a glaring oxymoron in the name.
Like any other substance or activity, marijuana may be psychologically addictive to some. Both scientific study and the experience of millions of American pot smokers, however, have proved it is not physically addictive at all.
In spite of the strength of the psychedelic movement of the 1960s and ’70s, our nation still lives by and large in the dark ages with respect to substances. It’s pretty clear we have a lot to learn from nations like Jamaica and the Czech Republic.
The United States would see an immediate increase in the effectiveness of law enforcement if marijuana were legal. Non-violent drug offenders comprise a large portion of our country’s prison population. The American public has nothing to fear from hungry, high people. We’d all be safer if the police could focus on catching dangerous criminals instead of busting stoners.
While states like California have beaten the Czechs to the punch, the rest of the nation needs to catch up. Aside from relieving pain, cannabis has been shown to be effective in preventing some cancers and Alzheimer’s disease.
Sadly, big pharmaceutical companies fight to keep cannabis illegal. The last thing a multi-billion dollar industry wants is competition that literally grows up from the dirt in 60 days.
Just like alcohol, sadomasochism or Catholicism, cannabis is not for everyone, but those who choose to partake responsibly don’t deserve punishment. While the “live and let live” ideal seems to go hand-in-hand with the American dream, it’s sadly obvious that developing and ex-Soviet nations have a better handle on it than we do. Stay low if you want, but don’t hold others down too.