4 current articles on the Internet illustrate the past, and present failures of cannabis prohibition as well as point to the future in which we will make use of it, but others are beating us to the punch.
America's political commitment to the utter failure of cannabis prohibition profits fuel a worsening problem with outrageous Cartel violence in Mexico and causes large sums of money to change hands untaxed;
Meanwhile, over our northern border, sneaky Canadians are capitalizing on America's prohibition of hemp (same damn plant) to make strong, lightweight materials for electric cars. No... really. I don't have time to make this stuff up.
And it doesn't have to be this way: California is attempting to be the first state in America to fully do the right thing, but there are a number of blatantly dumb arguments circulating for continuing this unmitigated disaster of a policy.
It's all after the Jump™
The Past
Marijuana has been illegal in America since 1937. Since the 1960's people have been trying to get this changed but Republicans, beginning with Richard Nixon, dug their heels in and made this an artifact of their belief system: that marijuana is evil and terrible and should never become legal for any reason, ever. Marijuana remains illegal despite quantum leaps in relegalization activism and in no small part thanks to the InterTubes.
That's a gross summarization of how we have reached the 21st century and we still face political opposition to fixing what is clearly an indefensible disaster.
The Fail Of Ages.
And it's raging unabated at this very moment.
Drug traffickers, Mexican police battle within yards of U.S. border
(CNN) -- A "major gunbattle" between drug traffickers and Mexican federal police broke out Saturday evening in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, just 30 yards from the U.S. border at El Paso, Texas, causing U.S. authorities to cordon off a section of the city, according to a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman.
Three police officers were injured and one armed suspect was killed, federal police spokesman Ramon Salinas said.
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The incident comes less than two months after shots fired from a gunbattle originating in Juarez crossed into El Paso and hit City Hall, damaging the building.
There are stories of outrages weekly coming from Mexico now. It's not sufficient just to report each one: we have to put them in context., which is this: the violence isn't about "drugs", per se: it is about money. Trafficking drugs - cocaine or heroin or marijuana - is done to make money and moving it from ovne place to another is where the big bucks are and why you find these really horrible people coming out of the woodwork - they don't mind killing innocent people, bribing or killing cops, blackmailing governors, etc... All in a day's work for them. Because prohibition helps them immensely.
Long and short, most of the cartels that traffic marijuana grow their own. It's cheap and if they get it to America it makes American prices. Cocaine and heroin are totally different and, to my limited understanding, the cartels function as part of the pipeline - they don't actually produce their own.
So legalizing marijuana here - which means regulating it just like tobacco and alcohol - is the thing to do IF one wished to rain on the cartel's profit parade.
The Present
People in California are trying to do just that.
Using real political activism and - stop snickering - grassroots efforts, California appears set to have a legalization ballot on the November 2010 election and it appears to be popular.
A majority of Californians continue to voice their support for Prop. 19 — which would eliminate penalties for the private possession and use of marijuana by adults, and allow local governments to regulate retail cannabis production and sales.
According to the most recent Survey USA poll (conducted August 9-11), 50 percent of likely voters in California say they are certain to vote ‘yes’ on Proposition 19 versus 40 percent who say that they will vote ‘no.’ These totals are the same as reported by Survey USA one month ago, and indicate that voters’ support is holding steady despite increased attacks and propaganda from our opponents. (NORML Outreach Coordinator Russ Belville has just posted an excellent rebuttal to many of our opponents’ more outrageous claims here.)
There are numerous links in this short excetpt so do go and check the whole post.
The last part of that post notes that, no surprise, police and law enforcement are stepping up thier regurgitation of tired, disproven, disingenuos and flat-out stupid rhetoric - if you can call it that - about why the sky will fall and puppies will become addicted to heroin.
Which brings me to the second part of The Present: The 8 Most Absurd Excuses for Trying to Defeat Legal Pot.
This is a longer article and one you might want to read when you have a few minutes. I am unsure about ranking these looney objections is worthwhile, but it is a fine collection of intellectual FAIL
6. Legalizing marijuana will never raise any money because the social costs would outweigh any fiscal benefits… look at alcohol and tobacco!
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This is one of the instances where figures don’t lie, but liars figure. Indeed, the taxes we collect from alcohol and tobacco don’t come close to covering the social costs from those substances. Lung cancer, cirrhosis, emphysema, drunk driving, cigarette breaks, domestic violence, after a while the costs of smoking and drinking add up… because smoking and drinking are toxic and addictive.
Marijuana is neither toxic nor addictive. A Canadian study found that a tobacco smoker cost the country $800 per year, each drinker cost $165, and each toker cost $20, and half of that was laundry costs for Cheetos stains (I kid!). Also, it is not as if nobody is smoking pot now and post Prop-19 we’ll be overrun with tokers. People are smoking pot now and we’re taking in zero dollars in taxes and we’re spending a billion dollars in California failing to stop it.
He's got you there, but the joy of prohibitionist thinking - and why it is such an utter disaster - is that you don't have to acknowledge reality. You just keep doing what you've been doing. It's got a sort of brilliance to it.
Let's cut right to Numero Uno:
1. Workplaces would be overrun by workers smoking marijuana on the job!
Yep. People believe this.
Cannabis prohibition and it's years of stupid propaganda cause otherwise intelligent people to lose the ability to do simple tasks of thinking.
Prop 19 does nothing of the sort. It specifically retains “the existing right of an employer to address consumption that actually impairs job performance by an employee shall not be affected.” Nobody is going to be working blazed with no fear of being fired – California is an “at will” employment state, anyway.
The Chamber’s real fear – and they’re not even shy about saying so publicly – is that management won’t be able to discriminate against workers who might smoke pot off the job:
Employers would be prohibited from discriminating against marijuana users by taking marijuana use into account when deciding whether to hire an applicant.
When it comes to legal analysis, I prefer the non-partisan California Legislative Analysts Office take on Prop 19 and the workplace:
State and local law enforcement agencies could not seize or destroy marijuana from persons in compliance with the measure. In addition, the measure states that no individual could be punished, fined, or discriminated against for engaging in any conduct permitted by the measure. However, it does specify that employers would retain existing rights to address consumption of marijuana that impairs an employee’s job performance.
I don't think this will be nearly as big an issue as propagandists want you to fear: remember all the no smoking policies and the fact that states like Georgia (where I live) and California (the focus of the article) are both "right to work states" (means you can be fired just so the boss can see the look on your face and doesn't have to provide reason #1) - most people will not be blazing up at the water cooler. it will still be unacceptable to be stoned at work.
As well as stupid.
This little fact often gets overlooked.
Moving along.....
The Future
Up in Canada, as I had alleged, they are using cannabis fibre to built parts for electric cars: Meet the Kestrel
An electric car made of hemp is being developed by a group of Canadian companies in collaboration with an Alberta Crown corporation.
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Producing composites from glass or carbon fibre requires intense heating in furnaces and multiple chemical processes, Armstrong said, making it very energy intensive,
In contrast, plant-based fibres grow in a field using the energy of the sun.
"As a structural material, hemp is about the best," Armstrong said, as it has about twice the strength of other plant fibres. It doesn't require much water or pesticide use, and grows well in Canada, providing a high yield per hectare.
The article concludes with a little jab at the US:
"Plus it's illegal to grow it in the U.S., so it actually gives Canada a bit of a market advantage," Armstrong added. The U.S. does allow the import of processed hemp.
So, let's review what has Cannabis Prohibition Accomplished for all the money blown on it, all the Americans who have been arrested, harrassed, ruined by fines and jail:
* feeding criminal organizations,
* giving other countries a leg up in essential green technology development,
* making intelligent people spout nonsense in defense of Unmitigated FAIL.
* America isn't any safer.
Heckuva job.
America is smarter than this.