A Sticky State of Affairs
Why Iowa (and the world) needs cannabis
Let’s be blunt. Cannabis is here to stay, and as time progresses, its becoming increasingly difficult to remain neutral about this plant.
As a society, we know more now about cannabis than we ever have; this is a given. Ancient societies knew a great deal about cannabis as well, but we have the advantage of better record-keeping, compounded knowledge, and greater tools of observation. The international scientific community is on the cutting edge of marijuana research, and has made great strides in developing new cannabis products, and have found endless potential in marijuana. It is not merely a drug, it is a fiber, a building material, a food and a fuel. My brief list cannot begin to do this complex plant justice, so I feel an explanatory graphic is in order:
If the cannabis plant is capable of so many things, what is stopping us from harnessing its full potential? I hate to be broad, but the simplest explanation is money. As you can see from the graphic, cannabis would be pervasive throughout a multitude of industries, just like cotton or petroleum. This puts it in direct competition with the long-established, government subsidized, global agriculture, fuel, and pharmaceutical juggernauts. With the introduction of commercial cannabis, other products could fall out of favor with consumers. It would force manufacturers to lead, follow, or dig in their heels with regards to adopting cannabis technology, all of which costs them money (an unsure investment for most).
So corporations stand to lose (or make) a lot of money from the sale of cannabis products, but there’s a massive obstacle. People are already making money off of marijuana being illegal. Our prisons are expanding and law enforcement are cramming people into cells like sardines because they, too, operate like a business.
It’s baffling at this point, why marijuana cannot be redeemed from the deceitful smear campaign it’s suffered for years. Marijuana is safer than alcohol and we know it. Any way you measure it. It will not turn you violent, it will not turn you apathetic, and you will not catch the “reefer madness.” That alone is enough to question the legitimacy of most drug laws in the U.S. So why are we being lied to, and lying to ourselves? Why be in the dark about something so important? Profits, of course! Misinformation has a motive.
If you want marijuana prohibition to change, you’ve got to take a look the roots of prohibition, and you need to know three names: William Randolph Hearst, Harry J. Anslinger, and J. Edgar Hoover. Each one of their careers thrived because of the lies they perpetuated. You can even thank them for their efforts to tie drug use to ethnicity, stoking the flames of racism, and offering the American public a vile strain of sensationalism sure to sell to xenophobes amidst mass immigration of non-whites. Sound familiar?
What if, instead of wasting money on a failed scheme against the American people, we try to be fiscally and morally sensible? Colorado is raking in tax dollars like crazy from legal cannabis sales. Entrepreneurs are starting new small (and large) businesses left and right. Imagine a police force that spends their time and resources locking up true criminals rather than cannabis users. Minor drug arrests are not so minor when it comes to police funding. “Fish in a barrel” arrests, as I like to call them, disproportionately affect poor and minority citizens. They are arrests for non-violent crimes. Their purpose is not to keep anyone safe, but to keep poverty alive. If poverty fuels crime, and crime keeps police employed, you can see how a vicious cycle develops. Every time someone gets locked up, they suffer financially because of it, usually for life. With little or no opportunities for employment, crime rises.
It’s time to admit the war on drugs and the propagandists behind it have failed. Its time to realize that the end of marijuana prohibition is the start of a brighter future. It will bring new life to our goals of greater renewable resources, give an alternative to those dependent on expensive prescription drugs, and will flood our economy with needed tax revenue. Farmers will hold the key to the revitalization of agriculture, and profit greatly. Our refusal to accept cannabis has already cost us so much, and we need to make it known.
