Making Cannabis More Available Might Actually Reduce Use
If the experience of Holland is any example, making cannabis available more widely, albeit for medical reasons, will likely have no impact or if it does change anything it may reduce use as counter-intuitive as this may seem.? We humans are hard to figure out sometimes...
It strikes me as humorous that we are making such a big deal about allowing a very safe drug to be made more available when the two most dangerous ones -- alcohol and nicotine -- are glamorously promoted, and lethal pharmaceuticals are a regular headline these days.
Wouldn't that be great if cannibis could be made more available, politicians could quietly cross their fingers that it would surplant use of alcohol and nicotine as well as more dangerous pharmaceuticals, and the net impact would be dramatically improved public health.? It may take a bold and science-led leader like Barack to approach such a thing...god knows most would rather posture than look at science's century of conclusions about cannabis -- never caused an overdose death, very minimal chance for dependence compared to all other drugs.? Society could improve health even more if we could avoid any distortion/glamorization/demonization of its true impact and then tax it and dedicate such revenues to educating people about it and making assistance readily available for people having any cannabis-related problems...
New millennium...new mistakes...
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Because something is legal does not automatically make it laudable.
Increase use doesn't necessarily equate to an increase in net harm either.
Set and Setting do define harm risk (a point that prohibitors prefer to overlook). Making cannabis [use] less stigmatized would enable quality epidemiological research.
A patient (or recreational user, practicing preventative early intervention) has a fundamental right to 'informed consent', where fully informed is fully armed and consent is 'self determination'.
I would expect a reported increase in use post ANY prohibitory regime. That should surprise no one.
But at least a little bit of pot sitting somewhere hurting no one will cease to lead to arrest and incarceration and the life long stigma of a conviction for what MOST thinking people believe to be 'of little matter'.
If marijuana was legalized than the united states could make billions of new jobs and put a tax on it and could potentially lead the united states further out of debt. The only problem i can think of is the THC that is found in marijuana but if it was legalized than the FDC could regulate levels of THC and make it safer to use. Also If it s legalized The government could out a age limit on it and sell it in stores and prevent kids from buying it on the streets. Of course probably still going to be able to get their hands on it but kids get their hands on alcohol and nicotine to. And of course crime rates would go down significantly.
It only makes sense that usage among teens would decrease. I suspect that part of its attractiveness to young people is its outlaw status: "The Man doesn't want us to do this; let's do it!" But associate it with life-threatening illness instead of "forbidden fruit" and immediately there's a "Yuck" factor. :)
Actually, in certain extreme cases, some young people might benefit from medical marijuana use. A friend of mine has a teenaged son with multiple medical issues, including seizures and anxiety attacks, and he has responded very well to cannabis.