Marijuana is the Least of Our Problems!

Considering I have posted several times about decriminalizing marijuana, many may think I'm a big pot-head, but the truth is I never smoked it...the smell alone makes me sick. But, I have known many people who have smoked it over the years and I've read a lot about the issue and there is no doubt in my mind, marijuana laws, and the time and money we use to implement them are a waste of valuable resources.

Over 10.4 million Americans have been arrested for "pot" since 1990. The resources required to incarcerate that many individuals is enormous, especially when compared to the "harm" marijuana possession does to society, which is minimal, at most...I would argue alcohol is much more harmful.

Last year alone, a record 829,625 Americans were arrested for violating marijuana laws. 89 percent of that total number arrested was charged with possessing marijuana ...nothing else! 2006 will be a year that will go down in history -- unless this trend continues -- as the year for most Americans arrested for violating marijuana laws, tripling the total number arrested in 1990.

The impact, arrest for violating marijuana laws has on people's lives, greatly exceeds the transgressions of possessing or smoking pot. The "collateral consequences" can be far greater than for those arrested for violent crimes.

We are barraged with misinformation and manipulated statistics about marijuana's link to violence; that it is the "gateway drug" that will lead our young astray. We are presented with studies proving marijuana's medical efficacy, but still consider it more threatening than the simple process involved in acquiring an AK-47. The purpose of creating and distributing anti-marijuana propaganda is to distract us from what is truly perilous and to protect the pharmaceutical industry for one.

How can we focus in on the pharmaceutical industry when we are all concentrating so hard on how this innocuous inexpensive little plant will cause the destruction of mankind? What about all the expensive, dangerous drugs that are advertised on TV and shoved down our throats on a daily basis? After the ad finishes disclosing all the side effects, I would think people would start to question why the government focuses so much on criminalizing pot but could care less about the drugs we end up spending our life savings on. We don't question because it's legal and whatever is legal must be beneficial to us, right? Wrong. That's what "they" want us to believe and we have been conditioned through our educational system and by our families to accept and not question.

Most of us have been raised in an environment of nebulous authority, where the most important rule was to obey those in charge without compromise. We were not encouraged to analyze or scrutinize why we should conform to oftentimes vague, arbitrary and misguided rules that did not make any sense. Thinking for oneself is normally was a punishable offense in most households and classrooms, therefore most people avoid employing one's mind rationally and objectively in evaluating or dealing with any given situation no matter how big the elephant in the room is.