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<$Project P.E.A.C.E. -- Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious Economics$>
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The following essay was posted at at the forum of Presidential Candidate John Kerry under the thread of discussion entitled "Marijuana Decriminalization, War on Drugs #3", Page 16.
I agree with much of what's been written here, about "decriminalization" of 'marijuana,' but some of the strongest reasons for ending Cannabis prohibition completely ("legalization") have been overlooked. The difference between Kerry's position on this issue and that of Dennis Kucinich is significant.
Regardless of whether you are talking about 'pot' or heroin, alcohol or cigarettes, the fact is prohibition is a counter-productive social policy that creates a black market in whatever is banned. "Forbidden fruit" is always more expensive, and the "Economics of Prohibition" (Dr. Mark Thornton) ought to be read by Senator Kerry in order to put this issue in its proper, proportionate perspective.
Prohibition of Cannabis makes control of drugs impossible, because Cannabis is what keeps the black market in drugs alive. When people have free and unrestricted access to 'marijuana,' the use of hard drugs is virtually eliminated. Ofcourse, there will always be people who use hard drugs, and some who abuse everything from sugar to gasoline, but the point is not how to control people's behavior. The point is that in a free society, government is not capable of enforcing laws that ineffectively substitute for individual choice.
There is no doubt that more effective regulation of drugs is achieved in the absence of laws constricting supply or criminalizing demand. It is for the government to eliminate the underlying conditions that have been proven to cause people to make poor choices. Symptoms of the imbalance that have been imposed, which are directly related to Cannabis prohibition include drug abuse, violent crime, environmental degradation, chronic illness, and global armed aggression.
Prohibition of the world's most useful organic agricultural resource, and potentially the most abundant source of vegetable protein on the planet, is directly related to issues characterized by radical economic disparity, erosion of civil liberties, malnutrition, food security, the spread of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. If this weren't bad enough, prohibition of drugs causes corruption at the highest levels of government, and in law enforcement because of profits to be made in the ever-present black market.
Consider the enormous threat that presently exists in the possible spread of biological agents (ie. anthrax) which could easily be introduced into the uncontrollable supply of prohibited drugs, going everywhere, through unregulated systems of criminal distribution. If people are truly concerned about terrorist retalliation for the Imperialist aggression of the BushCo regime, and the multi-national, military-industrial coterie that manipulates our existence, then you can be sure that there is no more dangerous threat hanging over the heads of people in every nation than prohibition.
Finally, worth mentioning is what becomes more evident every year, that we are rapidly approaching the end of the free-ride which our species has been enjoying, at the expense of the environment and future generations. With the increasing acceleration of global warming, obvious instability of weather patterns, increasing seismic and volcanic activity, increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather, and the spread of such organisms as Fusarium oxysporum, resulting from mankind's collective disrespect for the Natural Order, the likelyhood of synergistic collapse of critical systems looms in our lifetimes more proximate and certain than ever before.
Time is the limiting factor in the equation of survival. Because of time-lags that preclude our collective awareness of where we are in the toxic, terminal paradigm we are co-creating, and the inertia of past activities which we have no way of mitigating, the urgency of fundamental change makes debate about the future of Cannabis as a strategic resource much greater than is commonly appreciated.
Please read this and send it to John Kerry, and every one else you care about
http://formalcomplaint.blogspot.com/
if you want your children to have a chance of inheriting a liveable environment with enough to eat and no one shooting at them. Unless we all pull together at the same time to overcome the impacted economic dynamic that has infected our society, then the contest over who is President will become incidental to much more significant issues of how to avoid extinction.
Respect Nature.
PvH
biodynamic agriculturist, Cannabis scholar, global ecologist
Project P.E.A.C.E.
Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious Economics
http://www.webspawner.com/users/projectpeace/
posted by projectpeace @
9:43 PM
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Saturday, March 13, 2004  |
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