Under prohibition, there is more "harm" from cannabis than there would be under a legal system. Decriminalization means some users won't go to jail, but the producers still will -- meaning they will continue to hide grow-ops in basements (when they should be growing in greenhouses, with safety standards and inspections) and organized crime will continue to profit from the prohibition-inflated prices.
Making cannabis/hemp legal would ensure that gangs no longer control the market (they need prohibited goods in order to make a lot of money), the price would drop (along with the incentive for young people to grow/sell it instead of getting normal jobs), grow-ops would cease to exist (again, greenhouses would be used to great effect), young people would not be able to get it as easily anymore (like alcohol and cigarettes, which are currently harder for young people to get than illegal drugs), and there most definitely won't be "clouds of pot smoke" on the streets (I'm sure you notice pot smoke on the streets sometimes now, and it's illegal -- and now that smoke of any kind is enemy #1 to so many, people won't be puffing legal joints in kids' faces.)
You said: "But legalize production, sales, trafficking and tax, I think not. Not if means being complicit in harm, addictions, health issues such as COPDs, possibly cancers, social problems and abetting criminality."
News flash: supporting the continued prohibition of cannabis makes you complicit in harm, as you support unregulated, gangs controlling a huge market that will not go away, mystery weed being sold and smoked right now, non-violent growers going to prison for having a garden (that's INSANE no matter what you think of cannabis -- we're the Green Party, we should never EVER support sending people to prison for growing or using a plant).
There are no addictions to cannabis, but there is habitual use, like many others are "addicted" to coffee every morning, wine every night, or even McDonalds every day -- but cannabis is much less harmful than any of those legal, "safe" products. If you're thinking of the American anti-drug propaganda "fact" that more young people go to rehab for pot than anything else, you ought to know that that's because they are arrested then given a choice: jail or rehab. So even though little Taylor got busted with a couple joints on a Friday night and "chooses" rehab does not mean he's addicted. It's the criminal justice system making him into a "criminal" or a "junkie", when he is neither.
If you think people should go to jail for producing and selling products that cause cancer, lung problems, and societal problems, then we need to make almost everything illegal. Unhealthy food is MUCH more dangerous than cannabis, but it's legal and fed to toddlers and children all the time, causing diabetes, obesity, long-term and costly detrimental effects that we can actually see happening right now, whereas 10,000 years of cannabis use has never caused a single fatality or ailment. In fact, cannabis holds the cure for cancer (there are many, many studies on this -- go to www.showmethefacts.org and view the many cancer studies and other ones too, just for an education). But don't take my word for it -- if you're a progressive, open-minded and intelligent thinker, you'll do your own research and find out the truth.
If you still want to ask more questions about why we need to end prohibition, and if you want some great talking points about how to explain things clearly to "ordinary people", please ask me. This is my career, my specialty: ending prohibition for a safer, freer and more prosperous, green future.
Remember: prohibition funds organized crime, so supporting prohibition means you're supporting organized crime. After all, who wants to keep it illegal? Mostly organized crime. So, ask yourself: who's side are you on? |
