Interesting Info About Marijuana.

The rally cry "flower power" from the late 1960s was often interpreted as reference to marijuana. The idea that flower power was going to change the world reflected a yearning for a simpler, less strained life, more natural, less chemical and no plastic. The idea being that if one smoked pot, they would relax and let go of the hurly-burly of living life in an industrialized society. Let go of toxic tension and feel the flow of a greater universe, become part of nature rather than its master. That social movement has been diagrammed ad infinitum. Needless to say, it was the greatest nexus in American culture of the past century, and marijuana was an integral part of it.

Starting nearly ninety years ago, marijuana was sucessfully demonized, not based upon facts presented by scientists or doctors, but in response to a newspaper misinformation campaign. The laws then written to control cannabis usage were ultimately aimed at supressing latino and black populations in the young cities of Los Angeles and Phoenix (even today the enforcement of anti-cannabis laws disproportionately jails many more blacks and latinos than whites). Since then, for decades America accepted as truth this politically orchestrated propaganda against marijuana. That all changed with the cultural revolution of the sixties. Young people then openly questioned everything established as accepted fact, and pot usage became entrenched in white America.

It was this world-wide awakening of white youth to marijuana use that set into motion reactionary political forces determined to squash it. Tougher laws were written and existing laws expanded in an effort to keep the pot-genie in the bottle. Some of the most draconian legislation ever written in the United States was conjured in an effort to push back against marijuana. This is seen by many as a proxy battle in the political culture wars that continue to this day.

Fortunately, the light of reason is starting to illuminate the truth about marijuana. Less dangerous than cigarettes, it is miles from being as destructive and debilitating as alchohol use. Marijuana users are widely percieved to be passive, generally non-violent, easy going and sometimes silly at the worst. They make an easy target for police, offering a low risk arrest. Estimates range just under 20% of the poulation use marijuana regularly - thus up to one fifth of the population are criminals simply because they use cannabis.

It now seems irreversible, this global movement towards acceptance of marijuana as only a choice and not a social menace. If it is examined logically, without misinformed predjudice, cannabis is not a threat to either the physical or mental health of people. Arrest and prosecution of marijuana users is a huge waste of public funds, never mind the untold grief and unjustifiable suffering experienced by those caught using. Continued illegalization of cannabis further fuels the growth of criminal organizations, such as the drug cartels of Mexico.

Legalization poses more of a threat to the embedded industries of big pharma and liquor production, than it does to society as a whole. Psychotherapists might be worried too, considering the stress-reducing quality of marijuana use. The facts are on the side of decriminalizing marijuana usage, only time will tell if logic prevails over propaganda.

 — Buddlee Best