Good People Don't Smoke Marijuana : Morality Pushed On Cannabis Users

“Good People Don’t Smoke Marijuana” and why Morality has nothing to do with smoking cannabis

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One of the biggest cannabis myths is that “morality has anything to do with smoking weed”. This is the sentiement from the soon-to-be attorney general Jeff Sessions who claimed that (to lawmakers), “knowledge that this drug is dangerous, you cannot play with it, it is not funny, it’s not something to laugh about . . . and to send that message with clarity that good people don’t smoke marijuana.”

This statement asserts that “good people” do not partake of the sacred plant. But the real question everyone should be asking is, “What constitutes a ‘good person’?

What the Free dictionary has to say about “good people” is quite simple, “Someone who is good to someone else”. That’s kind of vague since the term “good” is still subjective in nature.

There was a better definition on Quora for me;

A good person is not a selfless person. A good person is not a selfish person. A good person is not a saint.

A good person is someone who thinks about their own needs and comfort as much as they think about other's.

A good person is not someone who helps you with money. It is someone who stands by you in your difficult times.

A good person is someone who accepts people for who they are and don’t judge other people just because their thoughts don’t match.

A good person is someone who respects you as a person, and doesn't hold your choices against you.

A good person is someone who understand that anyone else is just as susceptible to make mistakes as they are themselves.

Good people forgive, good people support, good people get angry and lash out are deeply flawed.

Because just like others, they too are not perfect and they understand this above all.

Quora

cannabis plants

As you can see by this definition, there is no mention of “good people eat broccoli”. A good person in essence is someone who will help you when you need it, and will respect your person for who you are. Anything beyond that goes beyond the definition of being “good”.

The Moral Argument

The Moral Argument is something that Jeff Sessions cling to. This comes from the 1980’s drug warrior playbook where they painted a negative stereotype on cannabis users calling them lazy, apathetic and uninspired.

“Winners don’t do drugs” was one of the slogans used back then. This was to create a definite line between “achievers and non-achievers” by trying to label drug users as “non-achievers”.

The problem with this assessment is that “some winners did take drugs”, and “other losers abstained from drug use altogether”. The problem is that while drug consumption can have an impact on your life, it usually doesn’t take away your personality, drive or motivation.

Jeff Sessions wishes to play the moral card, however we could easily flip the script on him by asking, “does going to the church make you a good person?” If so, then are those pedophiles who lure in choir boys good people in your opinion?

Are “non-drug using bankers ‘good’ who defraud the public and pocket billions of tax-generated income?”

Good vegetarians ‘better than meat eaters?’ Does you bacon habit make you a bad person when it comes to the environment?”

The subjectivity of morality

passing the joint

As you can see, it’s impossible to peg someone as ‘good or bad’ in relation to their consumption habits. A good person is defined by the interaction thus said person has with another. Meaning, a good person is either good or bad in relation to the actions taken in favor of or against another being.

Which in this case, makes Jeff Sessions a ‘bad person’, since he’s not only judging the morality of people who have done nothing to him personally, he is also promoting deceptive ideas in order to incarcerate thus said people.

That is someone who isn’t tolerable to contrary ideas. Someone who is willing to use force to impose his own will. Someone who is okay with the notion of incarcerating people for doing something “less dangerous” than alcohol (something according to him that ‘good people drink’)

Either way, morality should never be involved in the creation of laws. We should never base a law on a subjective interpretation of actions. Some people believe that miniskirts are ‘immoral’, yet we don’t see laws being erected to curb miniskirt prevalence now do we?

The point here folks is that your consumption habits has nothing to do with your morality and Jeff Sessions is a tool. While he might cling to the old Raegan era drug rhetoric, it will be up to us to keep him in check.

These next four years will be critical for the cannabis movement to be vocal about their use. We need to break the stereotype and prove people like Jeff Sessions absolutely wrong in his logic.