White House’ Negative Cannabis Coalition Just the “Same Old Same Old”
According to a recent Buzzfeed Report, the White House has a Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee which instructed 14 Federal Agencies and the DEA to submit data that demonstrates the ‘most significant negative trends’ about marijuana and the ‘threats it poses to the country’.
For some, this is evidence that Trump is flip flopping on the cannabis issue and that secretly the administration is working on derailing the cannabis movement and rolling back some of the changes already accomplished.
The truth of the matter is that the Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee is nothing new, and neither are their tactics. In fact, all government sponsored research on cannabis since the 1970s have been solely focused on finding the “negative impacts of marijuana” on people in order to strengthen the ‘anti-pot rhetoric’ that sustained the war on drugs for so long.
Many of these bias studies have been debunked over the years and in turn it only strengthened the Pro-Cannabis trend we’re seeing today.
Does Marijuana Legalization Have Negatives They Can Find?
Of course it does! Everything, including water can be negative under the right circumstances. Some of the obvious points that would be included in their final report would include;
- Traffic Fatalities and DUIs – While there is a slight uptick in terms of DUIs and Traffic collisions and the presence of marijuana, there is no correlation between the two. There are numerous studies that have shown that marijuana is a statistically insignificant factor when it comes to traffic fatalities. The fact that more people are testing for marijuana only shows us that more people are smoking it, however considering that cannabis can stay in your system for up to 90 days…it doesn’t indicate that anyone who crashed was actually “under the influence” of marijuana.
- More People are Smoking Marijuana – This is an obvious point. Yes, as cannabis becomes more available to the general public, more people will consume it. However, interestingly while more people are consuming marijuana, fewer people are being admitted with “Marijuana Use Disorder” [addicts according to DSM-IV]. This means that while more people are consuming it, there is no uptick in heavy users as was predicted by the prohibition camp. Of course, some people will abuse marijuana, however the vast majority of consumers will continue to have a healthy relationship with the plant.
- Illegal Grows – I am almost positive that they will include the prevalence of illegal grow operations within national forests as a “Threat to the nation” talking point. The problem with this talking point is that this issue isn’t related so much with marijuana legalization, but rather the existence of “prohibition states” within the landscape of legal marijuana. Considering that cannabis increase in value within prohibition states, the incentive to grow illegal crops increases. If the entire United States embraced legal cannabis, the incentive for illegal grow operations decrease due to wider availability of the crop. It’s simple economics, however mark my words that this will be a talking point within their official report.
There are plenty of other talking points we could include here, but until we actually see what the agencies come up with, it’s not good to speculate too much.
Rather, we should be asking whether or not we should be concerned for this “Anti-Pot Committee” or not.
Should We Fear the Inter-Agency Coalition?
I would say no. We’ve come a long way when it comes to educating the public on cannabis. The idea that prohibition is somehow better than legalization is now generally considered to be ignorant. We have tried prohibition for nearly 50 years and have not done anything to change the availability of the drug.
Rather, the only organizations that benefit from the prohibition model are organized crime factions and law enforcement while society is stuck cleaning up the mess and paying the bill. The legalization model has shown that while we cannot stop people from consuming a drug, we can reduce risk and make it safer for everyone involved while turning a profit.
I don’t believe that any report that the government comes up with that outlines the negative elements of marijuana would persuade the general public that prohibition is better. Furthermore, marijuana has already integrated itself with society at such a level that to remove it from the fabric of society would be akin to unmaking soup.
The cannabis industry employs thousands of people all over the world, they generate millions of dollars in taxes which are being used for education, infrastructure and regulation. Let’s also not forget that Canada will have legal cannabis within a week’s time.
The efforts from the U.S government to dissuade the American people on the benefits of legalization is not only outdated, it’s a waste of taxpayer money. Come November, more States will opt in for legal marijuana and with it federal legalization will only speed up…not slow down.
Trump's Cannabis Policy Coordination Committee Report Will Focus On These 3 Cannabis Problems from CannabisNet on Vimeo.
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