Am I Getting Old and Soft???

Well maybe the answer to that one is YES, if we’re talking about my attitude on the decriminalization or legalization of marijuana.  I’m now 64 years old and I have never used any kind of drugs in my entire lifetime, never even experimented. (Prescription medications taken for medical reasons and strictly according to a doctor’s instructions don’t count guys!)  There was I time when I believed that anyone who used the “evil weed” was just a hop-head and lowlife who should feel the full force of the law come down on him/her, but obviously that is not true and not compatible with our enlightened times.

That said, marijuana use is not without its risks. There are lots of people out there that will tell you that marijuana has never killed anyone. Well, even by their very narrow interpretation of this claim (that is a death caused directly by Cannabis overdose) even this statement is not exactly true. The US Center for Disease Control statistics show that there have been some 26 such deaths between 1999 and 2007. Their claim also disregards the fact that the US National Highway Traffic Administration records show that since the 90s around 20 percent of those killed in traffic accidents, autopsy results showed that they had drugs in their system and that the most common drug found was marijuana. Obviously impairment as a result of using marijuana was a factor in the accident in the vast majority of cases. Their claim also fails to consider the fact that the chance of falling asleep while smoking a joint or smoking a cigarette and causing a fatal house fire are exactly the same. This risk increases exponentially when marijuana or tobacco use is combined with alcoholic beverages. Proponents of marijuana use also completely gloss over the issue of drug related violence, deaths directly linked to the growing and trafficking of marijuana and these are extremely high.

So, are there arguments to be made in favor of decriminalizing or legalizing the use of marijuana? Of course there are, and they are very strong arguments indeed. They are arguments that any government should not ignore.

Medical benefits of marijuana are real. Presently in Canada and 20 states in the USA as well as several other countries there are programs which permit the medical use of marijuana to treat patients with incurable or terminal illnesses whose pain cannot be controlled by other medications. It would be cruel in the extreme to force such people to be criminals or brand them as such for using marijuana.

Reduction of gang related violence is also another real result. Once the powerful market for marijuana was taken out of the hands of criminals and traffickers, legalized and strictly controlled by government that eliminates completely any potential profit from marijuana for organized crime. It also eliminates the violent crimes that relate to the commercialization of marijuana. The only way for government to control something is to legalize it. We’ve seen this with other drugs probably far worse than marijuana – alcohol and tobacco are two prime examples of this. Both are legal, both are controlled by government regulation and even directly controlled by government distribution as in the case of alcohol in Canada. The system clearly isn’t fool-proof, but it works well to keep alcohol and tobacco products out of the hands of minors, reduce abuse and also provide funds for treatment of the ill effects. The tax revenues generated by alcohol and tobacco sales are substantial and can go a long way toward treating those injured in alcohol related accidents or suffering from tobacco related illnesses. Why should it be any different with marijuana then?

Once legalized and taxed by the government, local production of marijuana regulated and strictly monitored would stop almost all of the illegal marijuana trade as it has done with both alcohol and tobacco. Sure some clandestine production and smuggling still exists, but it’s nothing compared to what it would be if those were both illegal drugs. There is also the possibility to indirectly force reduced marijuana use, just like the Canadian government has done with tobacco for over a decade now. Simply raising the taxes paid on the purchase of tobacco in small and regular increments, every time this was done with tobacco more smokers decided to give up the habit. I see no reason that concept wouldn’t also work with marijuana. If it didn’t prompt users to stop outright, it would certainly give them cause to think about reducing the amount of their consumption in order to avoid paying more.

Another beneficial effect is that it could possibly lead to a reduction in the number of people taking up the use of much harder and more addictive drugs such as cocaine and crack. We’ve all known that drug pushers have loved marijuana because it was a means of getting young people to try something harder. Many even have been providing marijuana for free to young users, many school aged kids, just to later convince them to experiment with something that would even give them a better high. Something addictive, that they would eventually have to pay much more for than marijuana. This would be difficult to do if marijuana was legal and under government control.

Reduction of prison population for marijuana offenses and related costs would also be another tangible benefit. Keeping young people out of jail, where in most cases they receive graduate and post-graduate education in being better criminals would be a giant step to the overall reduction of crime. You can’t tell me that there’s never been some otherwise good kid sent to jail for smoking weed that didn’t end up being indoctrinated into a life of crime as a result. Would he or she have entered that life were it not for having been incarcerated? It’s hard to say definitively, but probably not.

Controlling the exposure of others, especially minors, to marijuana use is also a real possibility. Just like with tobacco products many countries and states now have strict laws on where one can and cannot smoke. There are laws in many places that govern where, when and how we can drink alcoholic beverages too. That would be just as easy to accomplish with marijuana and young kids would not see marijuana being smoked and would tend to not think of it as being “cool”, just as they don’t see tobacco as “cool” and many even harp on their parents to quit smoking.

So, am I getting old and soft? I don’t know, maybe I’m just getting a bit smarter or more objective and flexible on the subject of marijuana use. One thing I do know is that what most countries have been doing until now certainly hasn’t been working. Just like anything else, when something doesn’t work then maybe it’s time to think outside the box and come up with a whole new approach.

  Cheers, 
  William James Woodward – Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team