Listening and Learning From Jacob Sullum
Nowadays, everyone seems to be talking about cannabis: pot is good, pot is bad; cannabis can be harmful, or it can save the world; marijuana should be banned because it’s a dangerous drug, even if it can save your life; it is all a matter of morality and ethics, and smoking pot is just wrong; etc. Journalists, experts and normal bloggers seem to have a lot to say about the subject, and they really do say a lot of things of different kinds. It is, however, rare to meet someone who expresses his/her ideas with clarity and authoritativeness. And that’s precisely what Jacob Sullum did this week in his article “Marijuana Prohibition Is Unscientific, Unconstitutional and Unjust”, which was just published on Forbes.
His post is a masterpiece: starting from his “It is hard to rationally explain why Congress, less than four years after Americans had emphatically rejected alcohol prohibition, thought it was a good idea to ban a recreational intoxicant that is considerably less dangerous,” continuing with his underlining of the fact that “According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 2,200 Americans die from alcohol overdoses each year. By contrast, there has never been a documented human death from a marijuana overdose.” Plus, “The CDC attributes more than 38,000 deaths a year to three dozen chronic conditions caused or aggravated by alcohol abuse,” he also says. His point is that “The comparison of alcohol and marijuana presents an obvious challenge to anyone who thinks the government bans drugs because they are unacceptably dangerous,” and that “It is patently unfair to treat marijuana merchants like criminals while treating liquor dealers like legitimate businessmen, especially in light of the two drugs’ relative hazards. It is equally perverse to arrest cannabis consumers while leaving drinkers unmolested.”
What I love about the article, in an era where people can buy pot online and discuss openly about legalization, is that it brings us back to the simple fact beyond rhetoric, words and political discourses: marijuana prohibition simply doesn’t make sense. There is no need to quote Jesus or the president, no need to be angry or patronizing, hippies or republicans: it’s pure logic, and it is tremendously refreshing. You should read it yourself and then think about how many times we get lost in never-ending discussions when the facts are simple and clear. It is not about “cannabis good” or “cannabis bad”: it’s about the fact that cannabis prohibition is simply unscientific, unconstitutional and unjust.
