(X-posted from my Tumblr blog...)
Before I get started, let me put this disclaimer out there, ok: I do not smoke weed. I have in the past….I may again in the future. But guess what; I have other money, career and health issues. So it’s not on my repertoire of guilty pleasures at the moment. I can pass a drug test at anytime, I promise you. But even so, I feel that non-users need to speak up on this issue as well. So here is my own [very personal] take on the issue.
1. Mandatory drug testing is a huge waste of time and money. Unless you also include the test to screen for alcohol use. Even so, it’s largely irrelevant. 95% of employers out there have no right to dictate what you do on your own personal time. And the bias stops at the professional/entrepreneurial level. How many people drug test their attorney, doctor or financial consultant? Even so, what would you do if they failed? Food for thought. And I’m not the only one that thinks so. Even Florida, the “Mistake State”, shot down drug testing for welfare recipients…and that should tell you something!
2. Marijuana is illegal simply because of a racist, political agenda. In 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act criminalized the possession of marijuana to everyone except some medical and industrial organizations on a federal level. In the decades prior, the majority of states had outlawed marijuana out of fear and disdain of Mexicans (initially) and African-Americans (later). The racism continues today, in that Black Americans are almost 4 times more likely to be arrested on marijuana-related charges than a White person; in spite of comparable rates of use.
3. The War On Drugs is a huge waste of money. This is not a secret. Yet the public by large remains apathetic on the issue (they would rather complain about minimum wage increases, health care reform, and welfare it seems). But here are the facts…for what it’s worth: the War On Drugs costs taxpayers about $50 billion dollars per year. Oh and its effectiveness? Well in the 40+ years since Nixon declared this phony war, daily drug use has remained about the same since 1975. Now that’s just embarrassing.
4. The public is not opposed to marijuana legalization. For the most part, most people realize that the emperor has no clothes. 58% of Americans support marijuana legalization. Compare this number to the 12% that supported such back in 1969. Yeah, a lot of us have walked away from that pitcher of Kool-Aid that Nixon/Hoover/Regan poured for us.
5. Let’s be real, the “medical marijuana” movement is a joke. For sure, there are medical conditions that marijuana can help with; such as cerebral palsy, anxiety (and other psychological issues), chronic pain and epilepsy. But unfortunately, the lifting on legal restraints on marijuana for medical use has led to the average consumer of medical marijuana [in California at least] being a 32 year-old White male with no debilitating medical ailments. Not to mention all of the shady doctors and dispensaries that just work the system to make a buck by calling a pigeon a golden goose. My opinion may not be a popular one, but I would rather be forthcoming and call things out for what they really are. And today, the “medical marijuana” movement is just an easy out to try to obtain marijuana for recreational use.
Just like prohibition failed, the prohibition against marijuana has failed as well. The only difference is that the government wishes to staunchly deny this failure in spite of the mountains of evidence to the contrary.