Legitimize it, Mon! by John McCleary

If the question of legalizing marijuana were based solely on how dangerous it was, it would have been legalized long ago. With pot, there are diverse groups and divergent opinions about its status. In other words, the process is not as simple as if we were arguing the risks of poking oneself in the eye with a sharp stick.

Marijuana is illegal, not because of any medicinal or mental hazards; it is an economic dilemma, a political issue and a religious theme. The objections many people have are on moral and/or economic grounds.

All of the references to deaths created by marijuana are bogus fear tactics. Here are the most recent statistics on approximate deaths relating to drugs, each year, in America. (The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA)

Tobacco kills 435,000

Alcohol kills 85,000

Secondhand smoke from tobacco kills 50,000

Cocaine kills 3,000

Heroin kills 1,500

Aspirin kills 500

Marijuana kills 0

The Federal government has classified marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, in the same category as heroin. This insinuates that marijuana is even more dangerous than cocaine, which is classified as a Schedule 2 drug.

Sure, marijuana has its dangerous aspects; you could choke on the baggie. You could smoke so much that you might fall asleep at the wheel of your car. That is, if you could find your car.

The bottom line is that many self-indulgences can kill you or make you do stupid things. People eat themselves to death; starve themselves to death, drink to death, and jump out of airplanes with a scrap of cloth on their backs. Some folks even shoot themselves to death with their own Second Amendment rights.

All of the arguments for or against legalizing marijuana can be synthesized into a battle of conservative versus liberal ideology. Add the economic factor, and it becomes a conflict between capitalist businessmen and the working class “Joe.” Introduce religion, and it deteriorates into a debate over what morality is and who holds the patent on it.

My take on the morality issue is that it is actually just a way for some people to maintain control over other people. Economic or religious dominance and power is an aphrodisiac to some people who are insecure. Megalomania is, after all, one of the most destructive illnesses in this society.

The marijuana debate is between capitalists, Christian fundamentalists and family values people against the live-and-let-live working-class and/or liberal folks. I have no argument with family values; I just want to know whose family values we are talking about and whether or not I will be forced to change my family’s values just to live on the same planet with them.

We must remember, during all of this debate, that this country is a democracy…. No, it is actually the first real democracy, and by most accounts a wondrous creation. So, any time you are intolerant, prejudiced, or arrogant, you behavior is un-American.

And about religion…? I don’t want to get bogged down in the religious issue over marijuana because it offers no answers. The debate over self-indulgence verses self-flagellation has already been beaten to death. (Pun intended.) It is impossible to argue against a religious opinion, not because it is always right, but because it is based on faith; therefore, there is no way to prove it right or wrong.

An aspect more fiscally relevant to the legalization of marijuana, and one that is often ignored, is the basic fear held by many capitalists that marijuana will cause them to loss their passive, subservient and cheaply acquired workforce. Cannabis is a mind-expander, and we know from history that the “Fathers of Industry” don’t want their workers thinking too much.

Alcohol is a pacifier for the masses; marijuana is a liberator of the masses. During the industrial revolution, corporate bosses learned that they could tranquilize their employees by building bars and taverns outside their factories. At the end of each day, the tired and disgruntled workers leaving their assembly lines would be greeted outside the gates by a drinking establishment, often owned by their employer. They would imbibe and forget their pains and woes and trudge back to work the next day!

Marijuana, a mind-expander, makes the user think deeply about his existence and sometimes perpetrates changes in life and directions. The capitalist system does not appreciate such revolutionary thoughts and abrupt actions. It is hard to market your product to a moving target…. It is impossible to control a fertile mind.

Some of the loudest objections and biggest obstacles to marijuana legalization come from the legal, law enforcement, and penal systems. One wonders if they honestly oppose it because it would create more crime or really oppose it because it would reduce crime, thus decreasing their income or eliminating their jobs.

It is interesting to note that this subject, the legalizing of marijuana, is the one thing upon which the drug cartels and the legal system agree. They both oppose it. It would equally impact them both.

At this time, marijuana occupies the same place that alcohol did during prohibition of the 1920s. Any activity at the fringe of society will always appear immoral, sinful or unmarketable. Alcohol prohibition produced the mafia; today, marijuana and the “war on drugs” have created organized drug crime and made criminals of many otherwise ”God-fearing,” ordinary people who are just trying to make it through life.

Legitimizing something puts it in proper perspective. Then, at least we can start dealing with the good and the bad of it, and then it will not defeat us

Mankind is a strangely pragmatic creature. If we ignore something, it will not go away, it will just have more power over us because we have not acknowledged it and then dealt with it. Human beings are problem solvers; we were never meant to turn from the unknown, to ignore an issue or deny a problem.

I don’t want to appear as though I’m beating this into your consciousness, but most everyone is addicted to something, and we can’t insolate them all from their demons. Yet it is our “pleasure” and our obligation as a society to protect others from life’s dangers that, often, eventually spill over into the lives of the rest of us.

Marijuana is not even in the top 100 problems of this society. And there are those of us who think that the application of a little THC into our gray matter might just solve at least 95 of those problems.

Legalize it, mon!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.