So legalising cannabis is a thing that I think should happen. Partly because I don't think that smoking cannabis is a greater moral evil or threat to society than smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol, and partly because illegalising recreation drugs fails spectacularly at doing what we want it to do and excels equally spectacularly at causing negative side-effects.
So let's address the first point first, even if it's kind of self explanatory. All medical evidence points to the conclusion that cannabis is actually less harmful to one's health that either tobacco or alcohol. You could also argue that it causes fewer social problems (or would do if it was legal, anyway) than drinking, because cannabis notoriously chills you out and makes you love the world like a hippy and whatever, whereas alcohol has the unfortunate habit of facilitating pub brawls. All in all, it seems absurd, ever for the UK's devoid-of-reason national government, that cannabis is a Class B illegal substance when cigarettes and alcohol are legal, taxed, and on display in every supermarket and corner shop.
Now, it's possible you could argue the other way to what I want to happen, and say that cigarettes and alcohol should be banned. But since we live in the post-American-attempt-at-prohibition era, no-one's seriously going to argue that, because we know it would work even less well than criminalizing cannabis etc. Also, I would argue that the government should be acting according to Mill's principle of only criminalizing an action which directly harms others, and not trying to protect the self from the self. Also, we haven't yet got on to the myriad benefits of legalising cannabis/disadvantages of illegalising it. So let's proceed at posthaste!
Arguably the biggest disadvantage of illegalising cannabis is that it is the most colossal waste of time we could possibly be engaging in. All the figures from the Netherlands, Portugal etc. show that prosecuting cannabis users does nothing to make less people smoke cannabis. Getting cannabis is easy enough that everyone I know/know of my age with the remotest interest in smoking weed can do so, and this will always always be the case. No matter how many growers or dealers you track down and lock up, there will always be more waiting in the wings. As long as there is a demand for cannabis, people will find a way of providing. To make the slightest dent in the drugs trade would require astronomical human and fiscal resources, which would be much better spent on other things.
And the talking about the drugs trade brings me onto the second point. Currently, a significant portion of the revenue from the drugs trade goes to fund much more serious forms of crime, like terrorism. Legalise even just one currently-illegal drug, and you suck funds away from armed criminal rings and terrorist organisations. But as it is, everyone who wants to smoke weed is smoking weed, and by doing so they are inadvertently funding THE FORCES OF EVIL.
Money brings me on to one of the biggest advantages of cannabis legalisation (God, I'm good at transitions!). Not only is the government saving the henious amount of tax revenue they throw every year at the spectacularly useless war on drugs (or at least part of it), they will also raise considerably more tax money by taxing cannabis. Despite the government being, like, 50% idiotic and 30% evil, it's still good if they have more money, particularly if that money is obtained by means other than raising income tax or VAT. You know, that way they can spend more of hospitals and schools and job creation and suchlike. I feel like I'm beginning to state the obvious here. Moving on.
The other huge, wonderful benefit of legalising cannabis is that we get to use hemp. For those unaware, the hemp plant is the plant which cannabis is made from, which is why it's currently illegal to grow or use in most Western jurisdictions (even though you have to selectively breed the hell out of it in order to make it worth smoking, but whatever). Quite honestly, hemp is potentially the solution to almost every problem the human race has ever faced. It's a sustainable, durable, carbon-neutral made-of-awesome building material that can be used to manufacture housing, cars, paper, plastic substitutes- basically everything we ever need to manufacture. Hemp milk is a ludicrously nutritious substance that could feed millions for millenia. Hemp oil does all of the things which crude oil does, with none of the evil. It's awesome. So awesome. Also if the UK (or any other country, I suppose) starts making exportable goods out of hemp, we will finally have the competitive advantage to match or come close to matching China's cheap labour, because of hemp's cheapness and sustainability. As such, we get to make more stuff, which leads to more jobs. So to reiterate: hemp is awesome. It's far too good a resource to continue not to use.
So, yeah. We should legalise cannabis immediately. But what of other drugs? Well, most of the things I've blathered about (waste of resources, terrorism funding, extra government income, etc.) apply loosely to all recreational drugs. I would definitely argue for legalising the softer drugs along with cannabis - if not as strongly, because they aren't made of awesome building materials - but I might just stop short of advocating full legalisation for substances like crystal meth. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the government apparently endorsing stuff like this, or supermarkets being allowed to display it. So perhaps I would argue for decriminalisation, rather than full legalisation.
The other point I haven't mentioned, but is particularly relevant when discussing the effects of the stronger stuff, is that legalising recreational drugs makes it easier for addicts to get help. As it is, illegal drug users find it difficult to get support from anywhere, because making their drug use known to the authorities will probably result in arrest. Be legalising, or at least decriminalising, all recreational drugs, we will be able to help addicts properly, rather than just locking them up.
So, basically, cannabis should be legal. Illegalising it makes no sense and has pretty much only negative effects. Legalising it has a plethora of wonderful benefits.
And that wraps it up for this time, kids... Or something...
So let's address the first point first, even if it's kind of self explanatory. All medical evidence points to the conclusion that cannabis is actually less harmful to one's health that either tobacco or alcohol. You could also argue that it causes fewer social problems (or would do if it was legal, anyway) than drinking, because cannabis notoriously chills you out and makes you love the world like a hippy and whatever, whereas alcohol has the unfortunate habit of facilitating pub brawls. All in all, it seems absurd, ever for the UK's devoid-of-reason national government, that cannabis is a Class B illegal substance when cigarettes and alcohol are legal, taxed, and on display in every supermarket and corner shop.
Now, it's possible you could argue the other way to what I want to happen, and say that cigarettes and alcohol should be banned. But since we live in the post-American-attempt-at-prohibition era, no-one's seriously going to argue that, because we know it would work even less well than criminalizing cannabis etc. Also, I would argue that the government should be acting according to Mill's principle of only criminalizing an action which directly harms others, and not trying to protect the self from the self. Also, we haven't yet got on to the myriad benefits of legalising cannabis/disadvantages of illegalising it. So let's proceed at posthaste!
Arguably the biggest disadvantage of illegalising cannabis is that it is the most colossal waste of time we could possibly be engaging in. All the figures from the Netherlands, Portugal etc. show that prosecuting cannabis users does nothing to make less people smoke cannabis. Getting cannabis is easy enough that everyone I know/know of my age with the remotest interest in smoking weed can do so, and this will always always be the case. No matter how many growers or dealers you track down and lock up, there will always be more waiting in the wings. As long as there is a demand for cannabis, people will find a way of providing. To make the slightest dent in the drugs trade would require astronomical human and fiscal resources, which would be much better spent on other things.
And the talking about the drugs trade brings me onto the second point. Currently, a significant portion of the revenue from the drugs trade goes to fund much more serious forms of crime, like terrorism. Legalise even just one currently-illegal drug, and you suck funds away from armed criminal rings and terrorist organisations. But as it is, everyone who wants to smoke weed is smoking weed, and by doing so they are inadvertently funding THE FORCES OF EVIL.
Money brings me on to one of the biggest advantages of cannabis legalisation (God, I'm good at transitions!). Not only is the government saving the henious amount of tax revenue they throw every year at the spectacularly useless war on drugs (or at least part of it), they will also raise considerably more tax money by taxing cannabis. Despite the government being, like, 50% idiotic and 30% evil, it's still good if they have more money, particularly if that money is obtained by means other than raising income tax or VAT. You know, that way they can spend more of hospitals and schools and job creation and suchlike. I feel like I'm beginning to state the obvious here. Moving on.
The other huge, wonderful benefit of legalising cannabis is that we get to use hemp. For those unaware, the hemp plant is the plant which cannabis is made from, which is why it's currently illegal to grow or use in most Western jurisdictions (even though you have to selectively breed the hell out of it in order to make it worth smoking, but whatever). Quite honestly, hemp is potentially the solution to almost every problem the human race has ever faced. It's a sustainable, durable, carbon-neutral made-of-awesome building material that can be used to manufacture housing, cars, paper, plastic substitutes- basically everything we ever need to manufacture. Hemp milk is a ludicrously nutritious substance that could feed millions for millenia. Hemp oil does all of the things which crude oil does, with none of the evil. It's awesome. So awesome. Also if the UK (or any other country, I suppose) starts making exportable goods out of hemp, we will finally have the competitive advantage to match or come close to matching China's cheap labour, because of hemp's cheapness and sustainability. As such, we get to make more stuff, which leads to more jobs. So to reiterate: hemp is awesome. It's far too good a resource to continue not to use.
So, yeah. We should legalise cannabis immediately. But what of other drugs? Well, most of the things I've blathered about (waste of resources, terrorism funding, extra government income, etc.) apply loosely to all recreational drugs. I would definitely argue for legalising the softer drugs along with cannabis - if not as strongly, because they aren't made of awesome building materials - but I might just stop short of advocating full legalisation for substances like crystal meth. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the government apparently endorsing stuff like this, or supermarkets being allowed to display it. So perhaps I would argue for decriminalisation, rather than full legalisation.
The other point I haven't mentioned, but is particularly relevant when discussing the effects of the stronger stuff, is that legalising recreational drugs makes it easier for addicts to get help. As it is, illegal drug users find it difficult to get support from anywhere, because making their drug use known to the authorities will probably result in arrest. Be legalising, or at least decriminalising, all recreational drugs, we will be able to help addicts properly, rather than just locking them up.
So, basically, cannabis should be legal. Illegalising it makes no sense and has pretty much only negative effects. Legalising it has a plethora of wonderful benefits.
And that wraps it up for this time, kids... Or something...
No comments:
Post a Comment