Medical Marijuana Prohibition and Pluto
The people “in charge” of naming the planets have recently decided to boot Pluto from the Solar System. In short, the little “planet” is just not big enough—according to the authorities on these things, it never was good enough to be included in the elementary school lessons about planets. In a sense, this circumstance of naming and re-naming is reminiscent of Federal medical marijuana prohibition.
For thousands of years human beings have known of and used parts of the plant, Cannabis sativa L., for various purposes. Among these uses is medical. In 1937, when the 75th Congress criminalized the medical use of cannabis, the reasons given were misinformed and racist. In short, prohibition proponents slandered marijuana as an ipso facto cause of violent crime and argued that because Spanish-speaking immigrants reportedly used marijuana for personal uses, therefore, the plant had to be criminalized.
Today the Federal authorities do not argue that marijuana use, by itself, causes violent crime. They simply say that it is correlated with violent crime—of course, what they leave out is the fact that drinking milk is correlated with violent crime, too. Just about every human behavior, at some level, is correlated with violent crime. But correlation does not equal causation. If one controls for socioeconomic factors—such as income, education, or occupation—any relationship between marijuana use and violent crime disappears.
Today the Federal authorities do not argue that individual patients should be “harassed” for the medical use of marijuana. They simply say that the government’s focus is on the people responsible for large quantities of marijuana traffic—of course, what they leave out is the fact that they nevertheless fight to retain the ability to threaten individual patients with criminal sanction. Isn’t the threat of criminal sanction a kind of harassment? Why in the world, in a free country, would the government want to threaten the doctor-patient relationship?
The people “in charge” of medical marijuana prohibition have obviously decided to boot truth from the debate about the drug war. In short, medical marijuana prohibition continues today simply on the basis of bureaucratic will to power. In such a paradigm there is no truth, only an endless struggle to maintain budgetary funding, by any means necessary. Just like the way scientists name planets is not based on any moral understanding of our universe—how could it?—neither is the way the Federal politicians fight the war on drugs.
Typically, then and now, the Federal government does not fix its own problems. It takes a major disaster or a long, blunt presentation of the obvious to spur the regime to self-correct—sometimes, neither is enough to forestall calamity. Statesmanship could solve this problem, but divine chance needs to strike the hearts of the powerful for that. More likely: someday the ordinary, reasonable, and prudent people will realize that medical marijuana is a priority.
Kenneth Michael White is an attorney and the author of “The Beginning of Today: The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937” and “Buck” (both by PublishAmerica 2004). Visit www.thebeginningoftoday.com for more information.
For thousands of years human beings have known of and used parts of the plant, Cannabis sativa L., for various purposes. Among these uses is medical. In 1937, when the 75th Congress criminalized the medical use of cannabis, the reasons given were misinformed and racist. In short, prohibition proponents slandered marijuana as an ipso facto cause of violent crime and argued that because Spanish-speaking immigrants reportedly used marijuana for personal uses, therefore, the plant had to be criminalized.
Today the Federal authorities do not argue that marijuana use, by itself, causes violent crime. They simply say that it is correlated with violent crime—of course, what they leave out is the fact that drinking milk is correlated with violent crime, too. Just about every human behavior, at some level, is correlated with violent crime. But correlation does not equal causation. If one controls for socioeconomic factors—such as income, education, or occupation—any relationship between marijuana use and violent crime disappears.
Today the Federal authorities do not argue that individual patients should be “harassed” for the medical use of marijuana. They simply say that the government’s focus is on the people responsible for large quantities of marijuana traffic—of course, what they leave out is the fact that they nevertheless fight to retain the ability to threaten individual patients with criminal sanction. Isn’t the threat of criminal sanction a kind of harassment? Why in the world, in a free country, would the government want to threaten the doctor-patient relationship?
The people “in charge” of medical marijuana prohibition have obviously decided to boot truth from the debate about the drug war. In short, medical marijuana prohibition continues today simply on the basis of bureaucratic will to power. In such a paradigm there is no truth, only an endless struggle to maintain budgetary funding, by any means necessary. Just like the way scientists name planets is not based on any moral understanding of our universe—how could it?—neither is the way the Federal politicians fight the war on drugs.
Typically, then and now, the Federal government does not fix its own problems. It takes a major disaster or a long, blunt presentation of the obvious to spur the regime to self-correct—sometimes, neither is enough to forestall calamity. Statesmanship could solve this problem, but divine chance needs to strike the hearts of the powerful for that. More likely: someday the ordinary, reasonable, and prudent people will realize that medical marijuana is a priority.
Kenneth Michael White is an attorney and the author of “The Beginning of Today: The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937” and “Buck” (both by PublishAmerica 2004). Visit www.thebeginningoftoday.com for more information.
posted by Kenneth Michael White | 4:21 PM
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