Who are the opponents to a 28 million years old natural plant like cannabis that has existed on this planet, much before humans even came into the picture? Who are the opponents to a plant - to live with which and to benefit from which - humans and other animals have evolved receptors in many parts of their bodies? Who are the opponents to a plant that has been used as medicine, intoxicant, entheogen and means of livelihood by hundreds of millions of the world's people - often the poorest - across the world for thousands of years? The opponents - afflicted with a kind of madness that sees the world as a bounty to be plundered, entities without a face but massive global financial clout and reach, with a lack of accountability and responsibility for this planet - are today many of the world's largest industries and leaders who see the plant as a threat to their ambitions.
The opposition to cannabis is fueled by selfish interests, ignorance, misinformation, apathy and disinterest. Together the opposition has imprisoned or put to death millions of individuals who love the plant. Cannabis has been replaced by petrochemical based non-biodegradable plastics, dangerous compounds and synthetic materials that have polluted our natural world leaving no place left uncontaminated today. Millions have been denied access to the plant and have been led down the path of addiction to pharmaceutical drugs, methamphetamine, heroin and other opioids, cocaine, synthetic cannabinoids, alcohol, tobacco and novel psychotropic substances. Many poor farmers, rural communities and indigenous people have been forced to take up unsustainable crops for agriculture and eventually been driven to shanty towns, ghettos and slums in cities where they await their deaths in the middle of a hellish existence far removed from nature. Millions, and very possibly billions, face numerous physical and mental illnesses that could have been prevented by or treated with the cannabis plant.Today, alcohol and tobacco are the default legal drugs provided by the power structures for the majority of the world. Both drugs taking lives by the millions each year. Unknown varieties of the precious cannabis plant have been exterminated and gone extinct worldwide while many varieties lead precarious existences.
So again, who are the opponents of cannabis? Broadly we can classify them into two categories - the Businesses and the Power Structures that enable them. The Power Structures put in place laws and ensure that the laws are enforced to protect the Businesses. The Businesses control and influence the Power Structures, do whatever it takes to ensure that the laws are in their favor, and ensure that anybody who appears to be a threat is promptly suppressed.
So again, who are the opponents of cannabis? Broadly we can classify them into two categories - the Businesses and the Power Structures that enable them. The Power Structures put in place laws and ensure that the laws are enforced to protect the Businesses. The Businesses control and influence the Power Structures, do whatever it takes to ensure that the laws are in their favor, and ensure that anybody who appears to be a threat is promptly suppressed.
One can gauge the power of an entity by the nature of the adversaries
who wish it dead. So when the Businesses, world's biggest industries today - fossil fuel based petrochemicals and the allied industries of non-biodegradable plastics, synthetic fabrics, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and construction; the synthetic pharmaceutical industry; the medical industry; the black market for illegal synthetic drugs; alcohol; tobacco; opium; timber-based paper; etc, fear an adversary and employ all the tools of the Power Structure - politicians, law enforcement and judiciary, drug enforcement, media, religious orthodoxy and the armed forces
- to keep the adversary down, then that adversary is nothing short of
phenomenal. That, my dear friends and foes, is the power of cannabis. Is
it any wonder, then, that cannabis is the favorite herb of Siva, the
great god?
Let us take a closer look at some of these Businesses and components of the Power Structure.
The Businesses
Let us look at the Businesses that are the biggest opponents of cannabis. Many of them have emerged to fill the vacuum created after the prohibition of cannabis, while others have been directly involved in bringing about the prohibition of cannabis so that they can grow without the competition. All these industries are the world's largest industries now, with most of them having the word 'Big' prefixed to them.
The Fossil Fuel Industry
First we have the mammoth fossil fuel industry that entails coal, petrochemicals, and natural gas. Cannabis based materials are natural and organic and are perceived as threats to the industries that create synthetic materials using fossil fuels and its by-products. Natural cannabis for industries such as biodegradable plastic, biofuels, fabrics, construction material, cosmetics and other organic products have been phased out . Synthetics including petrochemical based non-biodegradable plastic, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, textiles, construction material and hydrocarbon fuels now dominate industry. Pretty much every industry has seen the impact of this. The fossil fuel industry and its ancillaries are quite easily the largest in the world today and responsible for the most damage to the world. This industry is, I suspect, the most vociferous opposition to cannabis. Is it any wonder that Iran, the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and Nigeria so vehemently oppose the legalization of cannabis by the UN?
First we have the mammoth fossil fuel industry that entails coal, petrochemicals, and natural gas. Cannabis based materials are natural and organic and are perceived as threats to the industries that create synthetic materials using fossil fuels and its by-products. Natural cannabis for industries such as biodegradable plastic, biofuels, fabrics, construction material, cosmetics and other organic products have been phased out . Synthetics including petrochemical based non-biodegradable plastic, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, textiles, construction material and hydrocarbon fuels now dominate industry. Pretty much every industry has seen the impact of this. The fossil fuel industry and its ancillaries are quite easily the largest in the world today and responsible for the most damage to the world. This industry is, I suspect, the most vociferous opposition to cannabis. Is it any wonder that Iran, the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and Nigeria so vehemently oppose the legalization of cannabis by the UN?
The Synthetic Pharmaceutical Industry
Then we have Big Pharma.
The legalization of cannabis will spell the death knell for whole categories
of drugs that Big Pharma relies on to bring in its vast profits. There is good reason for the synthetic pharmaceutical industry to fear cannabis like nothing else it has faced ever before. In US states and Canada
where cannabis has been legalized, the biggest losers have been the
synthetic pharmaceutical companies, as users substitute whole classes of
synthetic pharmaceutical drugs - analgesics, anxiolytics, anti-depressants, anti-cancer medicines, anti-psychotics, anti-epileptic medicine, muscle relaxants, sedatives, anti-stress medication, anti-convulsants, glaucoma medication, diabetes medicines, nausea suppressants, aphrodisiacs, digestives, ADD/ADHD, etc. - with cannabis. Just
the hugely profitable painkiller industry which relies massively on opium based drugs may end up becoming extinct. Opium stood to gain immensely in the late 19th century and early 20th
century when cannabis was prohibited first in Burma (today's Myanmar), Greece and India and then
slowly around the world while opium from China, Iran and Afghanistan took hold. When you look at the 30 plus medical conditions
(and counting), for which cannabis can be prescribed now in 38 US
states, pretty much the world's entire big pharma will need to reinvent
itself with world wide cannabis legalization. Any wonder then that Japan, China, France, India, the US and the UK - countries that boast of some of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies - are all strongly opposed to cannabis ?
Opium
Opium affects all classes of society, though it is predominantly the
wealthy classes, and the rich upper middle classes, that are the major
consumers and victims. Yes, there are persons from the poorer classes
who use opium, but they are mostly concentrated around the cultivation
areas where access to raw opium is easier for the poor. Once the raw
opium starts moving and getting processed, the poor hardly get a glimpse
of it. This is because opioids are priced in such a way that only those
with the money can afford to abuse it. That is why the global opium
industry is so powerful. The leading revenue earners from opium and its
derivatives, are the legal and illegal pharmaceutical companies, and
those involved in its illegal trafficking. The global opium market runs
in hundreds of billions of dollars, at the least. The opium distribution from crop to final
product is a well-oiled process that involves cultivation in poor
countries, processing in more advanced countries and then distribution
to the world's rich and powerful through the legal and illegal networks. The legal network consists of pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, pharmacies and physicians.
The pharmaceutical companies manufacture the opioids - primarily as pain
killers - and stock it with the pharmacists. When the limits of opium tolerance or finances are reached, the user quite often turns to the illegal
market for more potent opioids. Depending on the buying power of the
individual, the type of opioid consumed will vary. The well-heeled will
go for heroin or morphine, and even be fooled into buying fentanyl
derivatives these days. Others will search for morphine, oxycodone,
methadone, hydrocodone, etc., in the market. The poorer will look for
codeine-based cough syrups and tramadol. The global opium industry
ensures that it has enough product to cater to most of these categories. India
is the world's biggest producer of legal opium. Today, the illegal
cultivation of opium globally is, of course, mainly concentrated in Myanmar, Afghanistan, Colombia and now Mexico. In Afghanistan, the major opium consuming nations - the US, Russia and UK - have taken turns in invading and controlling the country. The military puppet rulers in Myanmar - with their strings pulled by China - keep the Myanmar opium cultivation regulated.
Alcohol
Next we have alcohol. When the British stepped up prohibition of cannabis in India in the late 19th century, one of the primary reasons was that cannabis was very cheap, could be grown anywhere and provided intoxication for the majority of the working classes, whereas western alcohol was more an upper class drink, much more expensive than cannabis. Despite widespread reports regarding the harms of alcohol as compared to cannabis, the higher revenue potential of alcohol was sufficient ground for the government to bring about cannabis prohibition in India, and to force the population to take up alcohol and opium. In the west, alcohol emerged from the prohibition misadventure in the US in the 1930s, needing a leg up to find its feet once again, and the US federal government gladly obliged by banning cannabis. Alcohol industries now massively fund governments as well as rake in vast profits due to the number of people world wide who consume it. The deaths, crime, violence, physical and mental health issues due to alcohol notwithstanding, no government has deemed it necessary that cannabis as a harm reduction mechanism should be legalized. Countries with leading alcohol industries such as the US, UK France, Italy, Russia, Australia, are strongly opposed to world wide legalization of cannabis.
Next we have alcohol. When the British stepped up prohibition of cannabis in India in the late 19th century, one of the primary reasons was that cannabis was very cheap, could be grown anywhere and provided intoxication for the majority of the working classes, whereas western alcohol was more an upper class drink, much more expensive than cannabis. Despite widespread reports regarding the harms of alcohol as compared to cannabis, the higher revenue potential of alcohol was sufficient ground for the government to bring about cannabis prohibition in India, and to force the population to take up alcohol and opium. In the west, alcohol emerged from the prohibition misadventure in the US in the 1930s, needing a leg up to find its feet once again, and the US federal government gladly obliged by banning cannabis. Alcohol industries now massively fund governments as well as rake in vast profits due to the number of people world wide who consume it. The deaths, crime, violence, physical and mental health issues due to alcohol notwithstanding, no government has deemed it necessary that cannabis as a harm reduction mechanism should be legalized. Countries with leading alcohol industries such as the US, UK France, Italy, Russia, Australia, are strongly opposed to world wide legalization of cannabis.
Tobacco
Next we have tobacco.
This is another industry that vastly profited from the prohibition of
cannabis. Many more people smoked cannabis than did tobacco at the start
of the 20th century, especially in places like India. The discovery of tobacco in the Americas by Europeans led to the European push to convert all smokers to tobacco. Many of the leaders and most influential people in
the US, Britain and Canada had large tobacco plantations that they were
keen on profiting from. Today's tobacco companies have grown to such
monstrous proportions, killing millions world wide each year, that all who promoted it in the past are now
trying all they can (at least in public) to rein in tobacco. The tobacco
story is more or less a parallel of the alcohol story.
The Medical Industry
The medical industry with its network of physicians, medical bodies, hospitals and treatment centers are a key opponent to cannabis. A person growing cannabis at home, and smoking it, is highly unlikely to want to visit a physician or get admitted to a hospital for treatment with synthetic pharmaceutical drugs. A joint a day will keep the doctor (and hospital) away in many cases. The number of ailments for which cannabis now qualifies as a cure in American and European countries is likely to render vast numbers of physicians and treatment centers redundant. The cannabis based range of disease treatments cover nearly all aspects of the human body and mind, as well as all age groups, genders and ethnic backgrounds. In fact, cannabis is universal medicine for mammals in general, meaning that even the veterinary medical industry would have to reinvent itself with worldwide cannabis legalization. But since the medical industry is largely supported by the pharma industry and governments, and it is an industry after all - with profits as the key motivation rather than universal health - it stands opposed to cannabis, irrespective of the amount of scientific facts presented to it. The medical industry was instrumental in bringing about cannabis prohibition in 19th century India, when it falsely linked cannabis usage with insanity. Using the false data of this linkage that emerged from the lunatic asylums of India, the medical industry was instrumental in spreading the cannabis causes insanity myth across the world, convincing most nations to prohibit cannabis.
The medical industry with its network of physicians, medical bodies, hospitals and treatment centers are a key opponent to cannabis. A person growing cannabis at home, and smoking it, is highly unlikely to want to visit a physician or get admitted to a hospital for treatment with synthetic pharmaceutical drugs. A joint a day will keep the doctor (and hospital) away in many cases. The number of ailments for which cannabis now qualifies as a cure in American and European countries is likely to render vast numbers of physicians and treatment centers redundant. The cannabis based range of disease treatments cover nearly all aspects of the human body and mind, as well as all age groups, genders and ethnic backgrounds. In fact, cannabis is universal medicine for mammals in general, meaning that even the veterinary medical industry would have to reinvent itself with worldwide cannabis legalization. But since the medical industry is largely supported by the pharma industry and governments, and it is an industry after all - with profits as the key motivation rather than universal health - it stands opposed to cannabis, irrespective of the amount of scientific facts presented to it. The medical industry was instrumental in bringing about cannabis prohibition in 19th century India, when it falsely linked cannabis usage with insanity. Using the false data of this linkage that emerged from the lunatic asylums of India, the medical industry was instrumental in spreading the cannabis causes insanity myth across the world, convincing most nations to prohibit cannabis.
The Black Market for Illegal Synthetic Drugs
Most black market operations involving cannabis these days are
multi-member network based operations, often spanning multiple
geographies, interstate and international. Cannabis is usually just one
of the activities that these operations are involved in. Hard drugs - heroin, methamphetamine, synthetic cannabinoids, novel psychotropic substances and cocaine,
weapons, money, illegal wildlife, and human trafficking form other parts
of the diverse business portfolio. Almost all operations function in
connivance with politicians, law enforcement, drug enforcement and excise officials. 90% or more of worldwide cannabis trade is through the black market, and global spend on trying to curb this,
which is a racket in itself, is said to be in the range of hundreds of
billions of dollars. The small farmer with his limited produce has very
limited chances of survival in this setting. Often difficult
circumstances force him to join the crime networks, where he ends up
becoming a victim of serious exploitation, enslaved to provide the
elites their fix. With legalization of cannabis, the legal market for cannabis overtook the black market for it within three years in Canada. Legalization of cannabis will not only shrink the black market for it, but will also reduce the demand for the more dangerous synthetic drugs that exist because of cannabis prohibition.
The Paper Industry
Then we have the paper industry or should we say Big Timber. You may
find it almost unbelievable in hindsight that this industry actively
fought cannabis which was initially the predominant material used for
paper making at the turn of the 20th century. Paper from cannabis is
vastly sustainable since the cannabis crop could be regrown quickly
within months to replenish the raw material needed to make paper.
Instead the timber industry decided that felling trees that had stood
for hundreds of years and which could never be replaced once lost was
the way to go to make paper. The trend still continues today. The paper I use to roll my joints is made of hemp because it is slow burning. Hemp based paper can be used for all sorts of purposes - currency, newsprint, packaging, etc., - all sourced from a cannabis crop that can be harvested more than once a year, a cannabis crop that sequesters more carbon than a tropical forest of equivalent space, a crop that restores soil fertility while consuming much less water than most other agricultural crops, a crop capable of growing in the most diverse conditions.
The global arms industry may not seem like an obvious competitor. It is well known that consumption of cannabis vastly reduces
aggressive behavior. Societies that tone down aggressive behaviors have
less need for weapons and arms. If you look at the world's biggest arms
manufacturers, sellers and buyers, you will find that these are located
in the very same countries most opposed to cannabis legalization,
protecting the petrochemical industries and other opponents of cannabis.
Countries like Saudi Arabia, India, China, France, US, Russia, Israel
are among the top arms trading countries of the world. You could say
that the arms industry thrives on the anxiety, fear, stress and conflict
it creates in the world and the assurance of security it provides with
arms through governments for petrochemical and legal/illegal
pharmaceutical industries. The arms industry will stand to lose vastly
if countries start adopting
peaceful and non-aggressive mindsets as well as reducing their
dependence on opium and petrochemicals and it is in their biggest
interest to keep the levels of aggression at the highest possible level
by playing every side against everybody else.They work very well with
governments on this front.
The Medical Cannabis Industry
Strange as it may seem, big cannabis
could also be an opponent of cannabis. It all depends on how big
cannabis plays out. If cannabis businesses grow large and can only be
set up by those willing to pay high license
costs, while a economically poor individual is unable to set up a
cannabis business, then big cannabis is an opponent. If big cannabis
corners cultivation areas and drives out the poor farmer through its
connections with the government and regulators then big cannabis is an
opponent. If big cannabis uses its financial clout to patent cannabis
strains and plays a hand in reducing the diversity of cannabis plants,
promoting only the ones that it deals in, then it is an opponent. If big
cannabis plays a part in making cannabis inaccessible and not
affordable to each and every individual in this world while making it
available only to persons willing to pay high prices then it is an
opponent. Already there are increasingly worrying signs of big cannabis businesses
cultivating their patented strains on large pieces of land in poorer
nations, then exporting their produce to richer European nations and
American nations or for the use of large pharmaceutical companies, while
the local people continue to remain without access and the local
farmers continue to be prohibited from cultivating their own indigenous
strains on their small pieces of land. This is especially the case with the Medical Cannabis Industry which makes cannabis a pharmaceutical product, with medical cannabis companies growing it in poor countries, processing it and packaging it to supply to the rich developed countries, and the ruling classes of all countries, while ensuring that it remains prohibited for adult recreational use, thus keeping it out of the hands of the world's majority - especially the poorest people who need it the most. In a number of US states where medical cannabis was first legalized, the medical cannabis industry opposed adult use legalization. Their fears are not unwarranted, because just like the synthetic pharmaceutical industry they soon found their industry consumed by the adult recreational use legalization.
The Power Structure
The Businesses opposed to cannabis would not have been able to grow and thrive, and reach the monstrous proportions that they have reached today without the aid and support of the Power Structure of society as it stands today. The Businesses have shared a significant amount of the loot that they captured from the earth and its people with the corrupt persons who make up the Power Structure. Thus, both the Businesses and the Power Structure have grown in strength and influence to such levels that they crush the people of the world and the natural world. They enslave the majority of the people of the world, making them work for them, and loot the natural riches of the earth for their own benefit leaving behind a trail of death and destruction, contamination and disease. Numerous species of natural life have gone extinct, and the vast majority of the world's people toil night and day to make the Businesses and Power Structure prosper. Let us look at some of the key elements of the Power Structure.
Governments
Governments take the place of dishonor as the foremost perpetrators of cannabis prohibition. For some time, I thought that the US and Canada were the places where cannabis prohibition originated. Further reading updated me that in colonial British Burma (today's Myanmar) cannabis was already prohibited in the 1870s, so as to ensure the smooth flow of opium between China and Britain. After experimenting with cannabis prohibition in Burma (today's Myanmar), the British colonists introduced cannabis prohibition in the Bengal Presidency to start with. Then it was gradually prohibited in the other British Provinces and Native States of British India through the 19th and early 20th century, ignoring the recommendations by the Indian Hemp Drug Commission of 1894 against prohibition. The British Government of India made it quite clear that its priorities were greater taxation revenues - through the propagation of alcohol, opium and tobacco - as against the needs of vast sections of the working class, poorer sections of society and religious mendicants who had been consuming the inexpensive and medicinal cannabis for thousands of years. This template of government working with big businesses and using its armies and law enforcement bodies to prohibit cannabis was replicated across the world, spreading to the US and Canada and eventually the entire world by the 20th century. Governments everywhere decided to back the big businesses and prohibit cannabis - swayed in many cases by the propaganda that had been put together against cannabis based on incorrect and distorted information - and, of course, nudged by the money power of the businesses. Cannabis users worldwide, were some of the most peaceful communities and in many cases they constituted the poorer sections of society without the voice to stop the injustice. Today's governments continue to do all they can to keep cannabis prohibited, despite the vast mountains of evidence showing the error of this, and despite increasing public awareness and demand for cannabis legalization. Nowhere is this more evident than in the US, where about 70% of the public are in favor of cannabis legalization, and where 24 states have already legalized cannabis for adult recreational use. But then the US Federal Government is the one entity in the Power Structure most responsible for the growth and success of the Businesses opposed to cannabis. The US Federal Government more or less created the global prohibition of cannabis, as it stands today, by ensuring the inclusion of cannabis in the global drug laws and then bullying every nation that refused to sign up to cannabis prohibition into doing so. Today the US has the world's biggest synthetic pharmaceutical companies, is the world's biggest consumer of fossil fuels, is the world's biggest polluter, is the world's biggest spender on the arms industry, and the biggest roadblock to cannabis legalization.Drug Enforcement agencies
Drug enforcement agencies are also called the Excise department in some places. The father of all drug enforcement agencies, Harry Anslinger was the head of the US Federal Bureau of Narcotics in the 1930s, and is said to have set in motion the world wide prohibition of the plant through the US Marihuana Act of 1937. This was to protect his friends in the alcohol industry re-emerging from prohibition, and the paper and tobacco industries that viewed cannabis as a threat. 'Anslinger’s political influence eventually allowed for laws to be passed that made marijuana use highly restricted and at the same time strangled the emerging hemp industry, to the delight of his industrial backers who were scared of potential competition.' says a report. He is long dead but he has left a legacy that has subsequently evolved into the DEA, NIDA, US Justice Department and the Office of the National Drug Control popularly known as the 'Drug Czar's' office. Globally, these US enforcement agencies have served as the template based on which many governments and the UN have modeled their drug enforcement bodies. The DEA and the Drug Czar's office themselves receive vast amounts of US federal government funding based on their war on drugs and specifically the war on cannabis. This is so much so that budgets, in the order of billions, are unquestioningly allocated with no accountability. These organizations are given free rein to carry out their activities even in other countries, especially in South and Central America. As a result, the US is the world's largest consumer of heroin and cocaine today. These drug enforcement bodies would stand to see potentially massive cuts in their budget allocations if cannabis was to be federally legalized. The story is the same in every country of the world when it comes to cannabis and drug enforcement budgets.
Law Enforcement and Judiciary
Along with drug enforcement, there is the other executive arm of the government called law enforcement that is meant to address crime in society and ensure that society is a safe place. Law enforcement, at all levels and in all countries, work with the same motivation regarding cannabis as drug enforcement agencies do. Focusing disproportionately on cannabis - which in the first place should not even be considered criminal - and arresting its users to help inflate numbers, secure budgets and avail more resources is common to law enforcement everywhere. In the mean time, attention to the most important aspect of law enforcement is diluted i.e. to serious crime such as violent crime, theft, financial fraud, money laundering, extortion, environmental crime, etc. Law enforcement works with prison institutions to ensure that a steady supply of prisoners - mostly poor, minority or indigenous cannabis users - fill prisons to capacity ensuring higher budget allocations to both law enforcement and prison systems. Law enforcement works with governments and big businesses, protecting them and glossing over their organized crimes, while presenting a picture of zeal and efficiency by targeting cannabis and its users who are the victims in all situations. Everywhere law enforcement is one of the most vociferous opponents of cannabis legalization, resisting cannabis legalization the most, insisting that legalization will increase crime rates. The American prison system is said to be an industry of privately run prison institutions. They are for profit and their revenues are dependent on the number of prisoners they house. It is directly in their benefit to have the maximum number of persons within their prisons for the maximum length of time. This industry has evolved to such an extent that the US has the world's highest incarceration rates. Prisons and the law enforcement bodies that supply prisoners to these institutions benefit greatly from keeping cannabis illegal since a significant number of convictions are cannabis related. This is very likely the case in many prisons around the world.
The Religious Orthodoxy
Bizarrely, or maybe not so, conservative religious organizations oppose cannabis. Whether this is because of opposition to all things recreational and pleasurable - such as alcohol, tobacco, sex, music and cannabis or a very specific fear of cannabis making a person prefer introspective personal religion to the social and organizational religion which money-making religious organizations are - is worth pondering over. It could just be that the donations from wealthy individuals who, in turn, work for big businesses fuels the religious bodies opposition to cannabis. The funny thing is that the founding father of nearly every religion was probably a cannabis smoker. For the religious orthodoxy, rulers and businessmen of all religions - the people who are the most ardent devotees of material wealth and power, the people who benefit most from the rigid caste and class systems, the people who wish to keep the knowledge of one's divinity away from the lower classes and castes so that the upper classes can continue to play out the charade of brokers between god and man - the use of ganja is a direct threat to all that they wish to establish and strengthen. Thus, the religious orthodoxy of all religions, along with the rulers and businessmen of these religions, try and remove ganja from the equation.
The Media
Many of the places where cannabis legalization has happened, are places
where media and press freedoms are high. Increased awareness and an
independent media, tuned into the pulse of the people, have fueled the
rapid legalization of the plant in a positive feedback cycle between
public opinion and the media. In general, the media in any place is a
distillation of the mindset of its society. In places where there is a
vibrant and diverse society, the media is likely to be similarly
vibrant, thought provoking and unbiased. In places with regressive and
intolerant societies, the media is likely to be the same, with maybe one
or two exceptions that dare to go against the grain and often paying a
high price for it.. Societies and their media feed off each other. In
most parts of the world however, media freedoms are restricted by lawmakers,
and even more so by media house owners, who are involved in other big
businesses, or receive significant funding from businesses and
governments opposed to cannabis. Tight control, driven by misinformation about cannabis users and by the plant's illegal status, and priorities like getting rich and profitable prevent the media from talking positively about the plant or highlighting the harms to society due to the plant's prohibition.
Cannabis Prohibition Advocacy Groups
All cannabis prohibition advocacy groups are funded and employed by industries opposed to cannabis - the synthetic pharmaceutical industry, fossil fuel industry, medical industry, alcohol, tobacco and opium industries - or funded and employed by the tools these industries use to control the power structures of the world today - politicians, media, religious orthodoxy, law enforcement and judiciary, drug enforcement, the armed forces, the black market, etc. The
job of cannabis prohibition groups is to continuously spew out
unscientific nonsense and lies regarding cannabis to keep society afraid
of the herb. They prey upon the common fears of society and create
myths that amplify these fears, connecting cannabis to the fears and
ensuring that the propaganda is loud, widespread and relentless. With
the funding that they receive they organize campaigns to spread
misinformation among the public. The myths that cannabis prohibition groups typically propagate against cannabis are: cannabis is harmful and addictive; cannabis causes insanity; cannabis fuels crime; only the dregs of society use cannabis; cannabis is the devil's weed; cannabis destroys youth; cannabis causes traffic-related road fatalities; cannabis affects tourism; THC is a most harmful cannabinoid and must be permanently banned or kept under tight regulation; women who use cannabis are immoral; etc.
The Armed Forces
The armed forces are mainly used by governments to protect the
very same industries that we are talking about being replaced by
cannabis. The armed forces are mostly used to suppress the very people
who grow and consume cannabis, the working classes of society whose
freedoms governments choose to restrict through armies. So a return to
cannabis by the armed forces would mean an essential transformation at
all levels, a major upheaval. Such an upheaval may go down right to the
core of the armed forces and bring to surface questions that all armed organizations ultimately
fear confronting,
which is of their necessity to society. The Arms Industry in particular will be badly hit if the armed forces become a part of the legalized cannabis society, at least, they fear that it will be so. Hence, through its role as protector of governments and the industries opposed to cannabis, the armed forces could be included in the Power Structure that works to keep cannabis prohibited.
So, there you go. The above are some of the entities - the Businesses and the Power Structure - opposed to cannabis, working actively to keep the plant prohibited.
Despite the collective effort of all these entities over the last 150 years, despite these entities having grown to the stature of the world's biggest, most powerful and influential industries in the world today, despite the men who run these industries becoming the richest people in the world today, and despite the control over the power structures of the world today, these entities have not been able to remove cannabis from their picture of how the world must be. Cannabis is still the world's most widely used illegal intoxicant, used by 250+ million people as per official numbers. The real numbers are easily more than double this. Cannabis is cultivated in more than 150 countries. Not only have the adversaries of cannabis not been able to eliminate it, they are now, in fact, seeing its unstoppable re-emergence that sounds the death knell for them. Two of the G7 nations - Canada and Germany - have now legalized it for adult recreational use, after Uruguay became the first nation to legalize it. Malta and Luxembourg have legalized recreational cannabis for adult use, as have 24 US states at the time of writing. The Supreme Court of Mexico and the Constitutional Court of South Africa have ruled that the prohibition of cannabis violates the fundamental rights of the individual. The UN re-scheduling cannabis from its most
restrictive category to its least restrictive category of controlled
substances in December 2020.
Some of the major opponents of cannabis - the synthetic pharmaceutical industry, fossil fuel industry, medical industry and politicians - got together in 2020 to create the biggest scam in the history of the world. They created a fake pandemic called Covid and managed to effectively fool the entire population of the world. The results of this scam were vastly beneficial to the conspirators, namely: authoritarian governments in the countries most responsible for the scam - China, Russia, India, the US and the UK - used the fake pandemic to suppress rising dissent against the government; the synthetic pharmaceutical industry sold huge amounts of their stock of drugs across whole categories - analgesics, antibiotics, antivirals, antihistamines, steroids, opioids, antifungals, anticoagulants - besides newly developed vaccines meant to address the fake pandemic; the petrochemical industry sold face masks, sanitizers, PPE kits, test kits, medical equipment, disinfectants across the world to nearly every person who could afford it; the medical industry fleeced the public by creating special facilities for the fake pandemic and maximizing the use of ICUs, ventilators, oxygen supplies, oximeters, etc., besides hospitalizing anybody who had money or medical insurance coverage, pumping these victims with entire cocktails of drugs and only releasing them after they were dead. This attack on the people of the world by these entities opposed to cannabis went on for two years before the people of the world revolted and tried to get back to their lives. By this time, the wealth of the richest people in the world had doubled - just in the space of two years. Hundreds of millions were pushed to poverty. The gap between the rich and the poor widened like never before. Till date, almost nobody seems to understand that they were victims of a scam on unprecedented scales. Most people still think that they faced a pandemic and were saved by the very people who looted and murdered them.
The wave of cannabis legalization that is emerging globally is a grassroots level movement of people especially individuals who are relatively immune to these big opponents and their financial clout. That is why cannabis legalization is a people's movement that most big businesses and political leaders oppose till they are forced to concede through the sheer volume of public opinion. Realizing the futility of going against the wisdom of the vast majority of educated and informed people, who these days have access to information and facts like never before, many of these opponents are starting to realize that it is time to reinvent their approaches. Many big industries like pharma, tobacco and alcohol have started to explore ways to work with the emerging legal cannabis industry. Many politicians are starting to realize that funding from these big businesses may not be enough to win elections if the overwhelming majority of people around the world stand for recreational cannabis legalization, as opposed to these big businesses and their unethical, unsustainable and harmful functioning.
The war between cannabis and its opponents is the war between the world's rich ruling classes and castes that make up not more than 10% and the rest of the people of the world who make up the 90%. It is a war between human made destruction and nature. The outcome is certain and inevitable. Nature always wins. It is only a question of how much pain, suffering and death we want to put ourselves through before we recognize this reality. The sooner we do it, the better for all concerned. The rallying cry for the French Revolution was 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity or Death'. Everyone seems to have forgotten the last part of the call. It is time for the opponents of cannabis to recognize what is at stake, and what the inevitable outcome will be. It is even more important for the 90% of the world who sit on the fence to recognize that the more they delay the return of cannabis, the more their suffering will be, and the longer it will take to heal and restore nature...The power is in the hands of this 90% of the world's people who would surely want a world that is liveable in for humans - even if not for themselves then at least for their children and grandchildren...The cannabis plant is 28 million years old, and will be around long after humans have disappeared from the earth...It is only a question of making our own lives, and the lives of numerous other living species on earth and facing the consequences of human greed and folly, liveable or hell...Today, as I write this, India faces a heat wave like never before, and my city Bengaluru reels under a water crisis, the likes of which it has never seen. The story is the same in most parts of the world with unprecedented droughts, heat waves, floods and hurricanes. The opponents of cannabis however continue like nothing has changed. They continue to do all they can to keep cannabis - the one thing that can save and heal the world from all the damage created by these industries - prohibited, spreading the same lies and misinformation that they used in the first place to get it banned. Most people in the world continue to believe these opponents of cannabis...
Related Articles
Listed below are articles taken from various media related to the above
subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of your truly at the time of
reading the article
'Anslinger’s political influence eventually allowed for laws to be passed that made marijuana use highly restricted and at the same time strangled the emerging hemp industry, to the delight of his industrial backers who were scared of potential competition.'
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/43/17165
'Even with the changing viewpoint on marijuana legalization, there are some rather large opponents actively lobbying to keep marijuana out of reach. You may not be surprised by some of them, like the alcohol/beer lobby or big PhRMA (flashback 1990’s pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical industry that patients would not become addicted to opioid pain relievers), but private prison corporations are in the mix as well, providing a significant amount of campaign dollars to lawmakers.'
https://newfrontierdata.com/marijuana-insights/the-fight-for-weed/
'Volkow said she worries people who substitute marijuana for the Food and Drug Administration-approved medications buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone might be more likely to relapse.
"If you don’t treat it properly, your risk of dying is quite high," Volkow told the USA TODAY Editorial Board in a wide-ranging interview. "My main concern is by basically misinforming potential patients about the supposedly beneficial effects of cannabis, they may forgo a treatment that is lifesaving."'
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/03/20/weed-marijuana-cannabis-opioid-addiction-withdrawal-nida-nora-volkow/3221792002/
'Meanwhile, the largest committee working against the initiative, Healthy and Productive Michigan, is reporting a sizable new contribution of $75,000 from national prohibition organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which has already provided over $1 million in cash and in-kind services to the effort. The prohibitionist committee also reported $100,000 from Dow Chemical Corporation.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/more-money-flows-to-michigan-and-missouri-marijuana-ballot-initiative-campaigns/
Local, state and national governments worldwide that oppose marijuana legalization and the international bodies that they constitute such as the UN, IMF and WHO, are funded by industries that view marijuana legalization as a threat. The arms, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, alcohol, tobacco, soda and illegal drugs industries are some of the key funders of these governments and their opposition to marijuana legalization...
And while Hearst had paper in mind, plastic manufacturing companies joined the “Let’s get hemp banned” party to ensure that their petrochemical-based plastics had a leg up over bio-degradable hemp-made plastics. The alcohol and tobacco industries also contribute astronomical sums to fund the “Weed is a dangerous narcotic drug” canard with absolutely zero sense of irony and the pharma industry would prefer that you buy expensive pain killer drugs instead of chewing on some bhang .'
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/rite-of-passage/article5643862.ece
'On consecutive days last week, Texas voters and President Trump effectively eliminated two of the legalized cannabis industry’s most significant political opponents, and advocates and investors took notice. In Tuesday’s elections, Democratic challenger and former NFL player and civil rights attorney Colin Allred upset 22-year incumbent Rep. Pete Sessions (R) to represent Texas’ 32nd District. Being the powerful chairman of the House Rules Committee, Sessions refused to advance any pro-cannabis bills, stymying both new legislation and roll-backs through amendments.
On Wednesday, post-election headlines were overshadowed by news that Attorney General Jeff Sessions (no relation) was resigning at the president’s request. Though most of the immediate buzz revolved around implications for special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, cannabis-related stocks surged in the final hours of trading on Wall Street.'
https://newfrontierdata.com/marijuana-insights/the-week-that-was-removal-of-pete-jeff-sessions-seen-as-boons-for-cannabis/
'Roughly half of survey respondents identified law enforcement as the main opposition group, specifically the Texas Sheriff’s Association (TSA). In testimony before the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence, members of the TSA argued that legalizing marijuana would “send the wrong message” to youth about the harms of drug use and that legalization in other states has led to increased use among teens. The focus on risks of marijuana reform for youth is a common framing choice among prohibition supporters (see Ferraiolo 2014). Whereas prohibition was once justified by beliefs that marijuana itself was evil and marijuana use immoral, such arguments increasingly strain credibility. Realizing this, marijuana opponents have sought more realistic frames. The message that marijuana is a gateway to further delinquency for youth that harms their health and achievement has resonated with a larger audience than past arguments based solely on morality claims....The TSA represents an organized interest that favors the status quo, and it intends to fight to preserve that status quo'
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0043820017716683
'The ads, paid for by prohibitionist committee Healthy and Productive Michigan (HAPM), attempted to stoke fears about legalization, incorrectly claiming that the initiative would allow for “unlimited potency” cannabis products.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/tv-stations-pulled-anti-legalization-ads-ahead-of-midterm-marijuana-votes-advocates-say/
'Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), co-founder of the anti-marijuana group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, spoke out against the legalization bill and sparred with lawmakers. At one point, he was asked whether he believes alcohol should be prohibited—and after hesitating to respond, he said he did not but that alcohol advertisements should be more tightly regulated.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/watch-new-jersey-lawmakers-debate-marijuana-legalization-ahead-of-critical-vote/
'Sabet's idea of replacing arrests with warnings, citations and small fines is a far cry, however, from what most drug reformers have in mind. Although he says SAM is still formulating its approach and aims for flexibility, the recommendations in the "model legislation" on the group's website read almost like a parody of bureaucratic overreach.
Low-level offenders—which SAM typically defines as someone caught smoking weed in public or carrying more than 10 grams of cannabis for personal use—could face a "mandatory assessment of problem drug use after the first citation." Those found to have a drug problem would be sent for treatment; those who do not could be sent to social services to address "other life factors" that might be contributing to drug use.'
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/features/slowing-legal-weed-freight-train
Once Mexico legalizes and starts producing its own high quality legal varieties of marijuana, multiple superhighways connecting the two countries may be a better option than a wall. Coming to think of it, demarcating land borders between countries wherever possible with marijuana varieties contributed equally by the countries concerned should be a global best practice. This should of course be in addition to the policy of mandatory ingestion of marijuana by all heads of state as a qualifying criteria for office. Legalize it worldwide!
'Bannon told POLITICO that his team is studying whether its wall could be constructed from the hemp-based building material hempcrete. “Do you understand the irony of using hempcrete to keep out marijuana?" Bannon said. The group has entered into a partnership with the Kansas-based America’s Hemp Academy to supply the material if it is selected, according to organizers.'
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/05/maga-border-private-wall-bannon-kobach-prince-1147210
'All of which raises the question: Why would the nation’s top public health official choose to publicize disinformation?
Whether it’s representative of an institutional bias in Washington, DC, or a warning of what’s to come from the Trump Administration, experts contacted by Leafly News couldn’t say for sure. Some called it yet another example of an “alternative”—that is, false—assertion from Team Trump.
“He has access to better statistics,” Sam Kamin, a professor of marijuana law and policy at the University of Denver, said of Adams’s tweet. “It’s like Donald Trump tweeting out what he just heard on Fox News rather than what he’s hearing from his intelligence services.”'
https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/the-us-surgeon-general-just-tweeted-what-about-cannabis
Overzealous bureaucrats standing against positive change come what may and insisting on implementing outdated and backward policies which have been rejected by the creators of the policies themselves. Like soldiers who don't want to leave the battlefield even though the war is over and the death count has been devastating on all sides..
'The INCB’s president, Dr. Viroj Sumyai, noted in the foreword to the report that the conventions allow only for the medical and scientific use of cannabis, noting:
“The legalization of the use of cannabis for nonmedical purposes in some countries represents a challenge to the universal implementation of the treaties, a challenge to public health and well-being, particularly among young people, and a challenge to the parties to the treaties.”'
https://mjbizdaily.com/incb-medical-cannabis-violate-treaties/
'Still, moral entrepreneurs like Anslinger and Sessions have a unique place: they occupy a bully pulpit that amplifies their moral positions, while attempting to strengthen the position of the bureaucracy they run. Of course, the media environment within which Sessions operates is very different, too. While Anslinger carefully cultivated the media’s coverage of marijuana, numerous sources offer different viewpoints on marijuana that potentially dilute Sessions’s rhetoric.'
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1536504217742387
The man doesn't like tea. So he says that I shouldn't be having it either...
'The man behind SAM is Kevin Sabet, a former advisor for the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama administrations. Sabet started SAM in 2013 with Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Ted Kennedy and a former Rhode Island congressman. SAM “envisions a society where marijuana policies are aligned with the scientific understanding of marijuana’s harms, and the commercialization and normalization of marijuana are no more,” according the group’s website.'
https://cannabiswire.com/2018/10/03/an-anti-cannabis-crusader-ramps-up-for-the-midterms-and-beyond/
'Phillips has made it patently clear that he won’t design cakes that conflict with his religious views—namely his belief that being gay or transgender is at odds with Christian values—but that also apparently extends to “controlled substances like marijuana and alcohol,” according to the complaint.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/baker-who-denied-same-sex-couple-now-complaining-about-marijuana-themed-cake-requests/
Legalize the ganja. Prohibition of any kind including alcohol or ganja only plays into the hands of the black market. Cartels make huge money, the product gets adulterated and millions of the poor end up in prison or die while the 'elitists' remain almost completely unaffected. Prohibition does not work anywhere or for almost anything. Respect an individual's freedom of recreational choice...prohibition is coercive governance...
'“With all humility I can only say that opposition to prohibition, saying it interferes with personal choice is just elitist. By this yardstick, one could even talk about legalizing marijuana use, as is the practice in some parts of the West. But we have to understand that alcohol addiction hurts the poor and the marginalized the most. It is like choosing between life and livelihood on one hand and lifestyle on the other.”'
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/nittygritty-of-prohibition-debate/article8534675.ece
Targeting marijuana...AIIMS of all the people should know that marijuana especially in traces will not kill...propaganda...
'The blood and urine samples of the first-year medical student who was found in a semi-comatose state at the AIIMS auditorium on September 18 and is battling for life have revealed traces of cannabis, also known as marijuana.'
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/marijuana-traces-in-blood-samples-of-aiims-student/article5158406.ece
Lying contented on the grass and gazing at the sky is not interesting or worthwhile according to some people who are supposedly experts on the functioning of the mind...poets, artists, astronomers, scientists, thinkers, philosophers, shepherds, climatologists, nature lovers, bird watchers, meditators to name a few - you are not doing anything interesting or worthwhile...join a de-addiction camp and make sure to get your head checked by a shrink...don't forget to pop the pills that you are given afterwards to get you buzzing around like a busy bee...
'Stating that a cannabis user would be content just lying on the grass and gazing at the sky without any motivation to something interesting or worthwhile, he says, the fact that tobacco and alcohol is legal does not warrant making cannabis legal even if India has a history of social sanction to it.'
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/out-of-joint/article4395349.ece
'Anslinger’s political influence eventually allowed for laws to be passed that made marijuana use highly restricted and at the same time strangled the emerging hemp industry, to the delight of his industrial backers who were scared of potential competition.'
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/43/17165
'Even with the changing viewpoint on marijuana legalization, there are some rather large opponents actively lobbying to keep marijuana out of reach. You may not be surprised by some of them, like the alcohol/beer lobby or big PhRMA (flashback 1990’s pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical industry that patients would not become addicted to opioid pain relievers), but private prison corporations are in the mix as well, providing a significant amount of campaign dollars to lawmakers.'
https://newfrontierdata.com/marijuana-insights/the-fight-for-weed/
'Volkow said she worries people who substitute marijuana for the Food and Drug Administration-approved medications buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone might be more likely to relapse.
"If you don’t treat it properly, your risk of dying is quite high," Volkow told the USA TODAY Editorial Board in a wide-ranging interview. "My main concern is by basically misinforming potential patients about the supposedly beneficial effects of cannabis, they may forgo a treatment that is lifesaving."'
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/03/20/weed-marijuana-cannabis-opioid-addiction-withdrawal-nida-nora-volkow/3221792002/
'Meanwhile, the largest committee working against the initiative, Healthy and Productive Michigan, is reporting a sizable new contribution of $75,000 from national prohibition organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which has already provided over $1 million in cash and in-kind services to the effort. The prohibitionist committee also reported $100,000 from Dow Chemical Corporation.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/more-money-flows-to-michigan-and-missouri-marijuana-ballot-initiative-campaigns/
Local, state and national governments worldwide that oppose marijuana legalization and the international bodies that they constitute such as the UN, IMF and WHO, are funded by industries that view marijuana legalization as a threat. The arms, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, alcohol, tobacco, soda and illegal drugs industries are some of the key funders of these governments and their opposition to marijuana legalization...
And while Hearst had paper in mind, plastic manufacturing companies joined the “Let’s get hemp banned” party to ensure that their petrochemical-based plastics had a leg up over bio-degradable hemp-made plastics. The alcohol and tobacco industries also contribute astronomical sums to fund the “Weed is a dangerous narcotic drug” canard with absolutely zero sense of irony and the pharma industry would prefer that you buy expensive pain killer drugs instead of chewing on some bhang .'
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/rite-of-passage/article5643862.ece
'On consecutive days last week, Texas voters and President Trump effectively eliminated two of the legalized cannabis industry’s most significant political opponents, and advocates and investors took notice. In Tuesday’s elections, Democratic challenger and former NFL player and civil rights attorney Colin Allred upset 22-year incumbent Rep. Pete Sessions (R) to represent Texas’ 32nd District. Being the powerful chairman of the House Rules Committee, Sessions refused to advance any pro-cannabis bills, stymying both new legislation and roll-backs through amendments.
On Wednesday, post-election headlines were overshadowed by news that Attorney General Jeff Sessions (no relation) was resigning at the president’s request. Though most of the immediate buzz revolved around implications for special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, cannabis-related stocks surged in the final hours of trading on Wall Street.'
https://newfrontierdata.com/marijuana-insights/the-week-that-was-removal-of-pete-jeff-sessions-seen-as-boons-for-cannabis/
'Roughly half of survey respondents identified law enforcement as the main opposition group, specifically the Texas Sheriff’s Association (TSA). In testimony before the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence, members of the TSA argued that legalizing marijuana would “send the wrong message” to youth about the harms of drug use and that legalization in other states has led to increased use among teens. The focus on risks of marijuana reform for youth is a common framing choice among prohibition supporters (see Ferraiolo 2014). Whereas prohibition was once justified by beliefs that marijuana itself was evil and marijuana use immoral, such arguments increasingly strain credibility. Realizing this, marijuana opponents have sought more realistic frames. The message that marijuana is a gateway to further delinquency for youth that harms their health and achievement has resonated with a larger audience than past arguments based solely on morality claims....The TSA represents an organized interest that favors the status quo, and it intends to fight to preserve that status quo'
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0043820017716683
'The ads, paid for by prohibitionist committee Healthy and Productive Michigan (HAPM), attempted to stoke fears about legalization, incorrectly claiming that the initiative would allow for “unlimited potency” cannabis products.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/tv-stations-pulled-anti-legalization-ads-ahead-of-midterm-marijuana-votes-advocates-say/
'Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), co-founder of the anti-marijuana group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, spoke out against the legalization bill and sparred with lawmakers. At one point, he was asked whether he believes alcohol should be prohibited—and after hesitating to respond, he said he did not but that alcohol advertisements should be more tightly regulated.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/watch-new-jersey-lawmakers-debate-marijuana-legalization-ahead-of-critical-vote/
'Sabet's idea of replacing arrests with warnings, citations and small fines is a far cry, however, from what most drug reformers have in mind. Although he says SAM is still formulating its approach and aims for flexibility, the recommendations in the "model legislation" on the group's website read almost like a parody of bureaucratic overreach.
Low-level offenders—which SAM typically defines as someone caught smoking weed in public or carrying more than 10 grams of cannabis for personal use—could face a "mandatory assessment of problem drug use after the first citation." Those found to have a drug problem would be sent for treatment; those who do not could be sent to social services to address "other life factors" that might be contributing to drug use.'
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/features/slowing-legal-weed-freight-train
Once Mexico legalizes and starts producing its own high quality legal varieties of marijuana, multiple superhighways connecting the two countries may be a better option than a wall. Coming to think of it, demarcating land borders between countries wherever possible with marijuana varieties contributed equally by the countries concerned should be a global best practice. This should of course be in addition to the policy of mandatory ingestion of marijuana by all heads of state as a qualifying criteria for office. Legalize it worldwide!
'Bannon told POLITICO that his team is studying whether its wall could be constructed from the hemp-based building material hempcrete. “Do you understand the irony of using hempcrete to keep out marijuana?" Bannon said. The group has entered into a partnership with the Kansas-based America’s Hemp Academy to supply the material if it is selected, according to organizers.'
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/05/maga-border-private-wall-bannon-kobach-prince-1147210
'All of which raises the question: Why would the nation’s top public health official choose to publicize disinformation?
Whether it’s representative of an institutional bias in Washington, DC, or a warning of what’s to come from the Trump Administration, experts contacted by Leafly News couldn’t say for sure. Some called it yet another example of an “alternative”—that is, false—assertion from Team Trump.
“He has access to better statistics,” Sam Kamin, a professor of marijuana law and policy at the University of Denver, said of Adams’s tweet. “It’s like Donald Trump tweeting out what he just heard on Fox News rather than what he’s hearing from his intelligence services.”'
https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/the-us-surgeon-general-just-tweeted-what-about-cannabis
Overzealous bureaucrats standing against positive change come what may and insisting on implementing outdated and backward policies which have been rejected by the creators of the policies themselves. Like soldiers who don't want to leave the battlefield even though the war is over and the death count has been devastating on all sides..
'The INCB’s president, Dr. Viroj Sumyai, noted in the foreword to the report that the conventions allow only for the medical and scientific use of cannabis, noting:
“The legalization of the use of cannabis for nonmedical purposes in some countries represents a challenge to the universal implementation of the treaties, a challenge to public health and well-being, particularly among young people, and a challenge to the parties to the treaties.”'
https://mjbizdaily.com/incb-medical-cannabis-violate-treaties/
'Still, moral entrepreneurs like Anslinger and Sessions have a unique place: they occupy a bully pulpit that amplifies their moral positions, while attempting to strengthen the position of the bureaucracy they run. Of course, the media environment within which Sessions operates is very different, too. While Anslinger carefully cultivated the media’s coverage of marijuana, numerous sources offer different viewpoints on marijuana that potentially dilute Sessions’s rhetoric.'
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1536504217742387
The man doesn't like tea. So he says that I shouldn't be having it either...
'The man behind SAM is Kevin Sabet, a former advisor for the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama administrations. Sabet started SAM in 2013 with Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Ted Kennedy and a former Rhode Island congressman. SAM “envisions a society where marijuana policies are aligned with the scientific understanding of marijuana’s harms, and the commercialization and normalization of marijuana are no more,” according the group’s website.'
https://cannabiswire.com/2018/10/03/an-anti-cannabis-crusader-ramps-up-for-the-midterms-and-beyond/
'Phillips has made it patently clear that he won’t design cakes that conflict with his religious views—namely his belief that being gay or transgender is at odds with Christian values—but that also apparently extends to “controlled substances like marijuana and alcohol,” according to the complaint.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/baker-who-denied-same-sex-couple-now-complaining-about-marijuana-themed-cake-requests/
Legalize the ganja. Prohibition of any kind including alcohol or ganja only plays into the hands of the black market. Cartels make huge money, the product gets adulterated and millions of the poor end up in prison or die while the 'elitists' remain almost completely unaffected. Prohibition does not work anywhere or for almost anything. Respect an individual's freedom of recreational choice...prohibition is coercive governance...
'“With all humility I can only say that opposition to prohibition, saying it interferes with personal choice is just elitist. By this yardstick, one could even talk about legalizing marijuana use, as is the practice in some parts of the West. But we have to understand that alcohol addiction hurts the poor and the marginalized the most. It is like choosing between life and livelihood on one hand and lifestyle on the other.”'
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/nittygritty-of-prohibition-debate/article8534675.ece
Targeting marijuana...AIIMS of all the people should know that marijuana especially in traces will not kill...propaganda...
'The blood and urine samples of the first-year medical student who was found in a semi-comatose state at the AIIMS auditorium on September 18 and is battling for life have revealed traces of cannabis, also known as marijuana.'
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/marijuana-traces-in-blood-samples-of-aiims-student/article5158406.ece
Lying contented on the grass and gazing at the sky is not interesting or worthwhile according to some people who are supposedly experts on the functioning of the mind...poets, artists, astronomers, scientists, thinkers, philosophers, shepherds, climatologists, nature lovers, bird watchers, meditators to name a few - you are not doing anything interesting or worthwhile...join a de-addiction camp and make sure to get your head checked by a shrink...don't forget to pop the pills that you are given afterwards to get you buzzing around like a busy bee...
'Stating that a cannabis user would be content just lying on the grass and gazing at the sky without any motivation to something interesting or worthwhile, he says, the fact that tobacco and alcohol is legal does not warrant making cannabis legal even if India has a history of social sanction to it.'
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/out-of-joint/article4395349.ece
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