Published: 11/02/2011 by Theodore Hartman
When the United States passed a constitutional amendment which prohibited: the manufacture, the sale, the transport, the import or export of alcoholic beverages, it leads to a period know as Prohibition. In this period of time and due to the prohibition of alcohol, nasty consequences were forthcoming. The prohibition of alcohol lead to the rise of powerful criminal gangs, so powerful, in fact, that the problem of criminal gangs that had been producing alcohol had made them so rich and powerful that the problem of organized crime is still being dealt with to this day. Also the production was now in illicit hands, and because the demand for alcohol was so great due to the depression many people died due to poisonings from cheap, bathtub brewed alcohol which often has all kinds of poisons that were added to the alcohol to increase its effects. As well in the prohibition period masses of people defied the rule of law and grew distrustful of the government.
These effects of the prohibition of alcohol are the same exact effects of the prohibition of cannabis. It is fact that due to the federal stance on cannabis that production and distribution in this period of cannabis prohibition is leading to the enrichment of criminal gangs. Their enrichment should be a cause for concern for every American. If the experience of alcohol prohibition tells us anything it is that, as cannabis is prohibited and criminal gangs have great control and gleam gigantic profits from its sale and distribution that they are willing to kill or harm any American to keep it going. This should be a matter of national security as those that profit are right across the border at this very moment waging war against the Mexican army to keep the drugs and profits flowing. Even Mexican President Calderon has made the statement that it is the appetite of Americans for drugs that fuels the violence that has killed more than thirty-thousand people in Mexico.
The solution is clear just as it was 14 years after the ratification of the 18th amendment. That was the enactment of the 21stamendment which repealed the 18th amendment ending the prohibition of alcohol. The government after passing the 21stamendment was able to successfully tackle the task of controlling and regulating alcohol production distribution and sale. As well most of the controls on alcohol we see today came directly from the period after the enactment of the 21st amendment and at the time the government dealt with the task of controlling alcohol it was thought at that time that alcohol was something that could never be controlled by the government. These arguments are the same that we hear today that cannabis cannot possibly be controlled by the government because of confusion between the differences of psychoactive varieties of cannabis and hemp. We also hear many of the arguments in defense of the prohibition of cannabis that were heralded by the temperance movement as they moved to make alcohol prohibited. The temperance movement thought that all of the problems from; homelessness, and poverty, domestic violence and all kinds of problems would be solved by alcohol prohibition.
As we know now that is not the case, that the end to the prohibition of alcohol resulted in alcohol being controlled and taxed and no longer were criminal gangs raking in profits and power.
We still deal with the social problems of alcohol though the societal problems of alcohol are not nearly as horrifying as armed gangs of goons wielding money and power.
That is the main benefit that will result in the end to the prohibition of cannabis. Ending prohibition of cannabis and instituting the same kinds of controls on cannabis that we have on alcohol. They thought it couldn’t be done in the alcohol prohibition period and we may think that cannabis couldn’t be controlled now. That is not the case. Even though the War on Drugs has been a massive failure, The Drug Enforcement Agency in my opinion could become much more efficient, much more focused and therefore more successful if we end the prohibition on cannabis. This is because the methods the agency employs currently are a waste of taxpayer dollars and time. The end to cannabis prohibition would mean the agency could focus more people, and resources to those harmful drugs that are truly detrimental to people and society. If the War on Drugs is a failure it truly is because of cannabis prohibition. Where the prohibition of puts undue stress on an agency which could be much more successful at interdicting most if not all of the supply of criminal gangs imports of narcotic substances if only it could stop wasting time and resources on a losing battle and battle that would be much better fought stopping the cartels and profits in their tracks, but I feel that it is only possible if their mandate to battle cannabis production stop.
The benefits to this kind of approach is monumental; just imagine hundreds if not thousands of good honest hard working Americans who choose to use cannabis for whatever reason would no longer feel the need to keep themselves from prosecution. This, I think, would lead to a more responsible approach to cannabis consumption and could actually decrease cannabis consumption among younger age groups.
The benefit of decreasing cannabis usage has been proved. In Portugal where they employ the tactic of harm reduction the rates of youths using cannabis has actually gone down.
Also, think maybe that the responsible use of cannabis could lead to a decrease in alcohol consumption today, but that inevitably the greatest benefits are thus: weakening profits and power from criminal gangs, a reduction in fear and mistrust of the government and authorities, creating the responsible controlled regulated and taxed atmosphere of cannabis consumption in America, where now what exists is an uncontrolled, unregulated, and untaxed atmosphere.
In the same way poor people in the alcohol prohibition period were subject to poisonous spirits, because they couldn’t afford higher quality spirits, lead to deaths, In the same way cannabis consumers in the United States, subject to criminal gangs, have no way of knowing what is present in what they’re using. The need to end prohibition to make way for a controlled system of regulation and taxation is a benefit, in that people could be sure that no foreign substances are being used.
Also there is a real benefit to ending cannabis prohibition, in that it would open the medical research community to conduct intensive studies on cannabis it’s component molecules and we can find out definitively for what therapeutic purposes cannabis can be used for. Also the misscheduling of cannabis leads to confusion which should be changed as there are medical organizations who have remarked on cannabis’s feasibility as medicine.
The end to the prohibition of cannabis could have much more sweeping nugs of benefit to American society as a whole, including the efficacy of using cannabis to deal with the widespread use and abuse of prescription anti-depressants. Cannabis, which simply contains compounds that our brains are hard wired to process, may be a boon of an alternative to Americans’ suffering from deep depression. And one could begin to understand the effect on American society of needlessly gobbling up, which in some cases, could be dangerous therapies to treat their depression (for example, some anti-depressants have the undesirable side effect of causing suicidal thoughts).
Not to mention the impact on the environment if industrial hemp production were permitted hemp could provide the alternative to what is needed, in terms of paper, that we would be able to drastically reduce the amount of national forest being cut down. The inefficacy of what’s present, is that cannabis can be produced annually, while for a tree to reach a desired height might take anywhere from fifty to hundred years. That is not sustainable in the least, but benefits abound in a program to lessen the needs to cut down massive amounts of lumber where hemp can provide a desirable alternative. Not to mention rapid deforestation by the lumber industry is a direct cause of Desertification.
The benefits are bountiful as are the consequences of letting this prohibition persist any longer.
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