Jun 12 2008
US Drug Policy is Full of Lies
I could go on and on ranting about how the United States’ futile attempts at controlling illegal drugs have done little to make any of us safer or healthier, and have in fact contributed significantly to the continued crumbling of our society, but today I want to complain about a very specific piece of propaganda issued by the White House. I’ve complained about this crap before, but as long as they keep publishing it I intend to keep complaining.
As referenced in this AP Article (via Yahoo! News), the Office of National Drug Control Policy warned us today that marijuana now averages 9.6 percent THC, versus just under 4 percent in 1983. The message is clear: Baby Boomer parents, pot may have been no big deal when you were young, but it’s a big deal now! Oblique references are made to a variety of scary ailments and to the now laughably discredited Gateway Drug Theory. Correlative study results are shamelessly presented as causative ones.
All this despite the fact that increased drug potency is a good thing. Despite the obvious fearmongering of the Executive Branch, THC itself is non-toxic — something our government loves to conveniently forget. Even if the physical health problems they reference are one day conclusively linked to cannabis use, they will be associated not with THC but with other factors. My bet is that they’ll end up being associated with inhaling burning plant matter.
I wonder whether these people have ever been, known, consorted with, or even met cannabis users. Perhaps they went to college somewhere far more reputable than I, but they seem to be forgetting something very important here: when you have in your possession stronger drugs than usual, and you aren’t addicted to those drugs, you will use less of them. Net effect: less total consumption of burning plant matter, and fewer health problems. (The linked article briefly quotes a policy reform advocate who says exactly this, but without providing any context or commentary.)
Saying that stronger weed is going to kill our children is about as ridiculous as saying that gin should be banned because it contains more alcohol than wine, with two important differences: Cannabis doesn’t produce legions of uncontrollable addicts, and stoners don’t often kill people. If we wouldn’t make the second argument with a straight face, why are we making the first?
The statements made by the White House are shameful distortions of reality, and the media’s unwillingness to actively question them is terrifying in a society populated almost entirely by people too complacent to do their own research.
everybody must get stoned…