“The drug war is our current attempt to stop human nature and criminalize the alteration of our consciousness. We have tried this before – it was called alcohol prohibition.
Alcohol prohibition led to increased gang violence, innocent people being killed, increased youth consumption of alcohol, dangerous/poisonous alcohol product, illicit alcohol production, increased police/political corruption, the criminalization of otherwise law abiding citizens and worst of all the enrichment and strengthening of organized crime. Does all of this sound familiar? It should – it’s an exact parallel of what our drug war has resulted in.
So why don’t we do something about it?
I think it is because common people just don’t know the facts. Facts like this one:
It isn’t just a coincidence that violence increases when you make a substance that has a high demand harder to get and whose use and sale carries with it the potential for long jail sentences. It’s a no brainer!!!
So why do politicians like Carole James of the NDP think that ending marijuana prohibition won’t reduce violence? It seems to be pretty obvious when you read your history that we are just repeating previous mistakes.
In my opinion, Carole James is supporting marijuana prohibition because she’s either being willfully obtuse and ignoring the facts, or she is insane. And I really don’t think she is insane so that means she’s choosing to ignore the facts? Why?
I suspect she’s ignoring the facts because it’s politically convenient and advantageous to continue to outlaw cannabis even though it is less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco and even though prohibition causes enormous social harms. Shame Carole James!
But also shame on all of you who don’t know enough about the dark side of drug prohibition – get educated! Then get upset and get out there and do something to end this failed social experiment we call the drug war. Only when we know enough to be dangerous will our useless politicians get the message and change our drug policies.”
