I think we will see the legalization for a few years, until we relearn the lessons of why marijuana and other mind-altering drugs were made illegal in the first place.
There are components in marijuana that permanently alter the brain. One particularly worrisome effect is that marijuana triggers psychosis; this can make a person violent. This effect is particularly pronounced in young people who use marijuana before their brains are fully developed, at about age 25. Another effect is the well-known lack of motivation. Marijuana users are infamous for not being able to do anything, for being content to sit around and contemplate the world.
In other words, marijuana has qualities that turn citizens into burdens on society.
Despite the propaganda that claims that marijuana is completely safe, the evidence is otherwise. As marijuana is legalized, and there is more interest in conducting research on it, I think the evidence will keep growing within the medical literature on the deleterious effects of marijuana.
The claims that marijuana is some miracle drug that has been suppressed (insert some vague conspiratorial claims about profit here) are not supported by evidence in the medical literature. There is some interest in the potential of cannabidiol as an anti-seizure medication—in fact, one of my researchers has gone through the effort of getting the licenses necessary to research it for that purpose. I am not certain whether that will pan out.
The argument that what drug abusers do to their own bodies does not affect society at large also does not hold water. We end up spending a lot of taxpayer money to try to rehabilitate them, and there is no way our society is going to turn our backs on drug addicts. And that isn’t even counting the criminal acts they commit in order to keep up their habits.
I smoked long before I went into The Marines and I can assure you not once in my life did I ever run into someone violent or in a “psychosis” episode.
But I can assure you my time in The Marines and out I’ve run into numerous violent drunks under the effects of alcohol and they far outnumber any predisposed number of supposed violent pit heads
“Despite the propaganda that claims that marijuana is completely safe, the evidence is otherwise.”
If this were true prohibitionists would be sharing actual evidence to validate their claims.
‘One particularly worrisome effect is that marijuana triggers psychosis; this can make a person violent.’
sorry, that’s nonsense...because...
‘Marijuana users are infamous for not being able to do anything, for being content to sit around and contemplate the world.’