Marijuana.com

Pompo

Big pharma doesn't want to legalize
Policy on marijuania is hypocritical
12/5/07|Daily Utah Chronicle| by David Servatius, Opinion

Allow me to present Exhibit A in the case of Common Sense V. The United States of America.

Somewhere in this country, a man is sitting in a prison cell, wasting away. This man lived a normal middle-class American life up until his incarceration. He had paid his taxes and contributed to his community. He'd worked at a decent job. More than likely, he has a family trying to get by without him for the next 10 to 15 years. There is no chance of an early release for this man.

What did he do? He was found with a small quantity of marijuana in his possession. He wasn't an addict. He wasn't selling to children. It wasn't any sort of problem in his life or in anyone else's. To this man, a little bit of the bud was no different from a couple of drinks -- even better in many ways.

But in one unfortunate moment, he became collateral damage in this country's misguided and misnamed War on Drugs. His state's mandatory minimum law required that he spend many years in prison. The judge in the case wasn't allowed to consider his lack of a criminal record or his exemplary life in sentencing and, by any standard, this man's life has now been ruined.

What was just described is the common story of millions of inmates, both male and female, crowding our country's correctional institutions. According to FBI statistics, almost a million of the roughly 1.8 million annual drug arrests in this country are for marijuana. Almost 88 percent of those are for possession alone. In a recent report from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, it is estimated that taxpayers spend between $7.5 and $10 billion a year arresting and prosecuting people for marijuana violations.

Since 1992, a mind-boggling 6 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges -- more than the populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined. That is an immense investment of money, time, energy and human resources into a national project that has never had any demonstrable success.

Worse yet, in order to keep these citizens locked up in prison as required by law, and to comply with court orders to decrease crowding in the facilities, hardened and violent criminals are being paroled early. Other times they are moved to less secure county jails and are then more able to escape.

Doesn't this seem absurd? Is this little plant that human beings have partaken of for millennia really something so threatening to American life that it justifies this madness? California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a recent British GQ interview that it wasn't a drug, it was a leaf. He's right. We have attempted to outlaw nature. Where is the threat? What is the harm?

I don't think there has ever been a single person who has overdosed and died from smoking pot. I've never heard anyone say they smoked so much that they vomited all over their (fill in the blank) and had a headache the next day. You'll never find a case where someone smoked a joint and then beat his wife or got into a public brawl. I think the worst dangers are probably sore cheek muscles from laughing or a bad case of indigestion from the jar of peanut butter and the brick of Swiss cheese that suddenly tasted so amazing together.

So this all-out assault on marijuana use doesn't seem to make the least bit of sense, like so many things in modern America. But, also like so many things in modern America, it makes a little more sense if you understand the corrosive influence of corporate money in our legal and political systems.

For example, there is a widely-respected and taxpayer-funded public service organization called the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. You might remember their famous "This is your brain on drugs" ad featuring the frying egg. Now, how drug-free do you think the Partnership for a Drug-Free America really wants the country to be, considering that the group is actually a joint venture by the alcohol and pharmaceutical industries? Maybe free of just certain drugs?

The dirty little secret that the big pharmaceutical companies fear most is that marijuana actually helps a lot of people with a lot of things that these companies would rather sell people an expensive pill for. It provides a lot of harmless enjoyment and social lubrication for a lot of people, without the added toxicity of alcohol.

The lives of casual marijuana users are not being destroyed by a war on drugs -- they're being destroyed by an ongoing war on anything that a multi-national corporation can't control and generate profits from. Like Bill Maher said, if they could figure out a way to put a little Pfizer logo on each leaf, marijuana would be legal tomorrow.

 

disheartenedwamerica

(Note: This is a reply I made to a topic about when legalization will occur, but I think it is also relevant to this topic)



Well no one can really know for sure, but my best educated guess is somewhere between now and ten years. Right now the government has themselves in a catch 22. According to the DEA, marijuana has no “known medical uses”. Though this is their hard-line stance, the U.S. government contradicts itself in two specific ways: A) the government gives a limited number of “approved” patient’s medical marijuana and B) Marinol, the pill form of THC is prescribed to patients. If there is no “known medical use” why in the world would they make a pill form of it, and even more-so, why would they give these “approved” patients actual marijuana? Marijuana has only really been illegal for 70 years now. In addition Canada is moving, albeit slowly, away from a prohibition model, towards either a decriminalization/legalization model.
The legalization model would remove the gang and organized crime element due to reduction in gross profit margins, making it the obvious better choice. If we look back to the times of alcohol prohibition what we learn is that due to the illegality of alcohol huge crime rings formed to deliver supply to a country with an obvious demand. The same is true for all illicit drugs, and since it is illegal these rings can charge a premium for the risk they take distributing their substance. Due to this, profit margins are high and it is a business of easy money. Money fuels problems and as we see fuels gang violence. Truthfully if we learn anything from history it is that prohibition of any kind does not work, it drives the activity underground into unsupervised locations and provides a black market with the opportunity of inflated profits. Simple economics proves prohibition does not work. In addition it is quite clear from unbiased research that marijuana is neither as dangerous as alcohol nor disruptive as other drugs. Luckily for us, we have the truth to back up our claims, and the false information and propaganda spread by the ONDCP and NIDA can quickly be cast aside for real, truthful information. This is the age of the internet and anyone willing to take the time to discover the truth can.
Unfortunately it is an uphill battle as BigPharma and the Alcohol industry are against legalization 100%. Think about it, if every American could grow their medicine, and their own non-toxic intoxicant these two companies’ profits would plummet. If you could have a medicine you could grow, with no painful side effects would you go to Pfizer and buy overpriced medications with side effects that could leave you sterile or could kill you. I don’t know about the readers of this, but I certainly wouldn’t. In addition if Americans had a choice between a toxic substance (i.e. alcohol) and a plant, with no possibility for overdose, no possibility for physical addiction, and other then problems associated with smoking anything (which by the way can be removed by a vaporizer) has limited drawbacks, which intoxicant do you think would be their choice. I won’t even start with drunk driving. Yet still these industries don’t want this competition. Funny isn’t it, that the government protects the pharmaceutical and alcohol industry and not the interests of the American people? Unfortunately it’s not that surprising if you understand the billions of dollars spent each year to send lobbyists to Washington to protect these corporate profits. Yet again though, I emphasize we have the truth to back up our claims, they have lies. This will not be an easy battle though.
We the people, have 80 years of fear mongering and stigmatization to break through before we can hope for this goal , and as I great president once said, “we have nothing to fear, but fear itself” .Still I foresee in the coming years that we will have marijuana shops much as we liquor stores today. It is just a matter of time. In addition I implore EACH AND EVERY person who reads this to not just post but also to go and talk to just one other person about the truth of this situation. It may not seem like individually you can make a difference, but even one more person knowing is a huge victory. It is my hope that one day responsible adult choice will not be persecuted by big corporations or senseless government. It is my hope that we can return to America the Free, not America the Prison. Until then I will continue to spread the truth, and when that day does come I hope to sit down with friends and spark a nice legal blunt to celebrate America the Free again. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Broliette

Awesome article, my favorites....

I love that. Someone should send a memo out to the government letting them know you can die from drinking too much water too! Have to protect us from ourselves! Oh wait, *snap* can't make any money off a war that way....

Heh, or you run out of mayo and think ranch is a good substitute...

*applause*
That's the thing, the pharmaceutical industries do not' fear they KNOW Cannabis works. They know it works as a medicine, a fuel, a food source, and everything else wonderful it does! And they KNOW....that if Cannabis was legal in any sense....it would be considered "competition" and they couldn't control it

For me, it goes a bit beyond profits. It's about control. Controlling what we put into our bodies. Controlling what choices we have for medicine. Controlling our choices for energy and fuel. Controlling the choice, heh. Cannabis is the plant that could free us from many things. The pharmaceutical and alcohol giants know this. But the people don't. That's where the work of educating comes in

It's very sad for me to think that Joe Blow "good citizen" off the street with no criminal record can get years in prison for basic posession: it makes me think, "that could be me." That's a very scary thought. Hence one of my sigs...

"If you're not pissed about Marijuana prohibition, you're not paying attention." ~ rick

It's sad cause its true...

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Buzzby

Let's leave the bullshit to the drug warriors. There is no place in the United States where simple possession is a felony with a 10 year minimum mandatory sentence.

The author's heart is in the right place, but he destroys his credibility with this kind of hyperbolic nonsense.

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Pompo

Well, perhaps, or maybe his idea of what a "small quantity of marijuana" is and what yours is could be different. There was a time when a pound or two seemed like a small amount to me Now, if I look at a pound, I think "damn that's a lot of weed". I guess he must consider twenty or thirty pounds a small amount

But, you're right, that's quite the exaggeration

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__________________________________________________ ________________________Arcade

 

geowme

All it requires is that you change policy. If you get out and vote you can change what is and is not allowed in the United States. Candidates like Ron Paul are cool, they don't care what you do as long as you aren't hurting anyone. If you don't know who Ron Paul is, YouTube him. I ride around with a sign that says "Vote Ron Paul/Marijuana Okay". Cops don't like me much. Spread the word.

Buzzby

We don't get to vote for Ron Paul. If he is to become the Republican candidate for President, the Republican Party, at their national convention, has to vote for him. That has about a snowflake's chance in Hell of happening.

If you want to see an easing of the federal marijuana laws, you might think of supporting one of the Democratic Party candidates, all of whom have declared that they'll get the DEA off the backs of medical marijuana patients.

It will take a lot more than "the right President" to get marijuana legalized at the federal level. There are 435 Congressmen and 100 Senators, a majority of whom (60% in the Senate) must get behind it.

I'll tell everyone I know that the cops don't like you much.

Kushable

What I dont understand is why alcohol companies DONT want it legalized. Imagine buying a miller highlife and a budwiser blunt. See what I mean? (budwiser that makes good weed company name.)

BillieBudd

Although I have grown a couple of crops, in no way do I consider myself a horticulturist, so some of the real growers on this site can correct me.
I think that even under the most controlled circumstance, the quality, flavor etc. could vary enough from plant to plant and from crop to crop that some severe processing with chemicals probably would have to done to deliver a standard branded product, defeating the whole purpose of smoking weed as a healthier alternative to alcohol.
I just don’t think that it could be a viably marketable product and so, Budweiser and Marlboros see a threat in legalization, which, should it ever come, will likely be a very local affair economically, like organic vegetables or a local wine, for example… And would be heaven, so long as no one got greedy….
Small steps…..