Why Blame Marijuana?

I visited cnn.com today and noticed a report on marijuana smugglers in the States. I know that the laws in the states for marijuana smuggling or even possession have greater penalties than they do here in Canada. This report was more about what state would prosecute these “felons” but they also mentioned that there was a definite War on Drugs. To prove a point I want to switch focus for a bit, so let’s talk about cigarettes for a minute. Scientists and doctors denied the fact that cigarettes cause cancer and so of course the entire world believed them and kept on lighting up. The government was happy because they could make money off of cigarettes easily and so they kept cigarettes in process despite their proven deadly contents.

Now let’s look at marijuana. It doesn’t kill. When a person smokes marijuana the THC resin does not stay in their lungs. Marijuana actually raises a person’s metabolism granted that the munchies do not get the better of them. I also began to think of those anti-marijuana ads that have been on TV more so in the last couple of years. One in particular involves a guy who is smoking a joint and whilst doing this, he forgets to pick up his little brother from soccer practice. I hate these commercials for one very good reason. The marijuana is not the culprit in this case, it is the guy’s lack of complete and utter responsibility. If you have “shit to do” then DON’T SMOKE UP. It’s simple, and you can’t blame the drug, you blame the person who is stupid enough to get high before he has to do important errands. Think of it this way: if that same guy in the commercial was an alcoholic and got completely smashed before he had to go pick up his little brother from soccer practice, people wouldn’t blame his lack of responsibility on the alcohol would they? They will blame the person, “poor Billy Joe is an alcoholic” so why do we blame marijuana?

So why can’t the government and some anti-marijuana individuals think of marijuana in the same way? I would think it would be a no brainer and I consider marijuana right up there in the same category with alcohol consumption. It lowers your inhibitions to properly function depending on how much is consumed of either alcohol or marijuana. I know some will argue that marijuana isn’t legalized because you can’t test for the presence of THC in the body. I did hear somewhere that they can quickly swab the underarm of a person which can excrete THC. Some would also say that marijuana is bad just because the government hasn’t legalized it at all; people like to trust the government. But think about this: I’m sure all those drugs that you see advertised on television for allergies & bladder control have MANY more effects than marijuana, but people take those pills and some of them have been recalled due to adverse effects to the body, including death. People do this because the ole mighty trusting government says it’s ok. Hmmm...

If the government legalizes marijuana they won’t be able to make an ample amount of money from it because people can just grow it themselves. They would actually lose money because they would have to shell out the big bucks in order to create a plan of action of how they can test a person who is under the suspicion of being high if they are say, driving a car for example. In Max’s opinion, I’d rather have the money go towards that than to the “war on terror”.



References:

CNN Marijuana threshold?
http://edition.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/us/2007/03/14/lavandera.catch.and.release.cnn