“Profit” isn’t the most important reason to Legalize Cannabis
There are many arguments for legalizing cannabis all over the world. Some advocates claim that legalizing cannabis will add more revenue to the state budget. While this is true, there are certain costs associated with cannabis legalization. This is why Gov. Hickenlooper, former governor of Colorado claimed that the revenue of cannabis is simply a “drop in the bucket”.
To think that legalizing marijuana will magically solve the problem with the economy is not realistic. It will most certainly help, but it won’t solve the problem. However, the story we’re talking about today isn’t about whether or not cannabis will make money; we know it does.
Colorado recently passed the $1 billion in tax revenue marker, making the 1937 Popular Mechanics article 100% true, “The One Billion Dollar Crop” (in reference to Hemp). However, this shouldn’t be the motivator behind legalization.
In fact, making this one of the motivators behind legalization means that if it fails to produce the revenue promised, it tarnished the good will cannabis has garnered over the past few decades. While it is true that cannabis can make money, bureaucratic systems makes it more expensive and reduces the odds of normal folk participating in the legal market. This is exactly what happened in California when they decided to legalize cannabis for adult use.
Money shouldn’t be the motivator, even though it might seem enticing. What we should be focusing on as the primary reason for legalization is “Freedom”. It’s a crime against humanity to keep cannabis illegal.
Drugs can’t be illegal, only you can!
This is the fallacy we have been chewing on for the past five decades; “Illegal Drugs”. The truth of the matter is that drugs are inanimate objects. Legal or not, it exists and does not abide by the rules of the human.
Conversely, you are very much alive and do play by the rules of people. In other words, “banning a substance” is not banning the substance at all, but rather your option to engage with the substance or not.
This is by far a more pressing issue that needs to be made public. People need to realize that “drug laws” are merely laws at restricting their freedoms. I’m not saying we should sell crack at Walmart, but I am saying that the idea behind “illegal drugs” are wrong. The only thing illegal about drugs is whether you have it on you, or not.
Let’s put it this way. What happens when a cop walks down the street and finds a baggy of weed? He probably will pick up the baggy, and take it back to the station. Maybe the cannabis is thrown away, maybe it’s destined to a place where they keep all the drugs. However, that is the extent of what would happen if a lonely bag of weed was found on the floor.
Now, in that exact same scenario, what happens when the bag of weed is in your hands? Oh, suddenly YOU are committing a crime and YOU need to be hauled down to jail. The cannabis, now becomes evidence to prosecute you for holding a plant and choosing to consume “something” that other people (not you) deemed you shouldn’t.
This is where you realize that the drugs are irrelevant without a subject to make them relevant. In the case of the subject, that is you and me.
If we truly live in a free world, shouldn’t you have the ultimate authority over what goes in and out of your mouth?
So what? Some drugs are bad!
Well, not all drugs are created equally…this is true. However, the principle behind drug prohibition is the antonym of freedom. We don’t make things illegal because it’s dangerous. If this was true, then we would have made alcohol, bungee jumping, skydiving, driving and everything else illegal.
We as a society have a tolerance for “danger”, however, for some reason people have the right to engage in dangerous activities without a problem, yet when it comes to their own physiology there is a problem.
Why is it that you can risk your life jumping out of an airplane, but you can’t deal with your existential angst by smoking a joint? Why is it that altering your perception of reality is so frowned upon? Who truly stands to lose when enough people unsubscribe from the official narrative.
While Profit is a sexier thing to peddle when it comes to legalization, I personally think it’s far more important to focus on the freedoms of the individual. It is the individual who is the most oppressed being within society.
Money is just money, but freedom has no monetary value. It should always be the highest principle in any debate, it is the thing people have died for, and will continue to do so to keep you free. Don’t squander it by accepting a policy that steals your freedom away.
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