Republicans and weed – it’s complicated
Activists have been fighting for your right to smoke cannabis for years. As we begin in mid-2021, some might argue that cannabis rights activists won this war.
But do you really have that?
Is today’s legal cannabis landscape what freedom fighters envisioned of yore? Or do we see that a ban shapes the regulation of cannabis – much stricter than other more dangerous substances?
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In this article we will take a closer look at what is happening in the international cannabis market and how legalization could very well be a “less restrictive version of the ban”.
Are Republicans the Last Drug Warriors?
It’s true: the cannabis ban has steadily declined over the past few decades. We can confidently see 2012 as the decisive shift in public opinion following legalization in Colorado and Washington that set the precedent.
But despite the dramatic change of opinion, there were still some “old school drug warriors” between the will of the population.
This recent Rolling Stone article, titled “Cannabis Is The Newest Battleground in the Republican War on Democracy,” suggests that the “Opposition to Legalization” is a Republican effort.
While it is true that a large proportion of Republicans are more against the idea of legalizing cannabis, it is incorrect to assume that only Republicans have a self-interest in maintaining the status quo.
Damn it, President Biden himself is strongly opposed to allowing Americans to choose their own vices. “We need more research” is the official answer from the cops ***, but the truth is that if you build a career in drug use and become president, you will still be someone’s slut.
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Therefore, the best stance the president can take without offending his corporate sponsors would be to propose decriminalization or a shift in the official classification of cannabis under the Controlled Substances Act.
Of course, we know that a Schedule II ruling – something Biden is very fond of – would only really benefit Big Pharma and effectively make it impossible for mom and pop stores to keep up with the regulatory requirements of such a classification.
A listing on List II would essentially be a shadow ban on cannabis, which technically makes it “legal” but still comes with heavy fines, police powers, and a monopoly on all supplies.
And this is not a “republican conspiracy” – this is as blue as it gets, which people should understand by now; the left-right dynamic is a pretext for the hideous corporatism that has democracy on its ovary!
… But the Republicans!
While Republicans tout their moral philosophy and public outrage over the idea of legalizing a drug, they only obey one god. And that’s the god of money.
We can see a lot of conservatives the moment they start to see the dollar bills come in. Furthermore, the Republican ethos is to “leave it to the states,” and while federally they are more against legalization, the recent surge in legalization efforts in the red states shows that there is a dissonance between representation and what is represented.
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Prohibition has always been a bipartisan monster, and suddenly shifting the blame on is insincere. In Colorado, the latest attempt at draconian cannabis restrictions came from a Democrat.
Representative Yadira Caraveo (D-Colorado) tried to set an arbitrary upper limit of 15% for THC products, with “mental health problems” and “youth consumption” being the motivation for this step.
On the other hand, why are you trying to enact an activity for adults and force them to abide by the rules for minors?
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And even in the medical field, the legislature tries to restrict topics such as access for young people across the board, if only these particular weak points need to be emphasized more strongly.
Still, both Republican and Democratic officials have tried to curb the expansion of the cannabis industry, either by directly attempting to “make it unconstitutional to ever vote on illegal drugs” as they attempted to invade Idaho.
The other form of prohibition is restricting access, such as creating high entry costs, excluding minorities, over-regulation and so on.
The most oppressed minority …
It was Ayn Rand who said, “The smallest minority in the world is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. “
Of course, Ayn Rand had numerous errors of thought and was an extremist in the truest sense of the word. However, the fact that someone who once said something does not mean that what they said was not true.
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In today’s society we need to understand that there is a delicate balance between the “tribe” and the individual. It’s a very fine line because when the tribe gets too powerful there is oppression. And when the individual is above the law, civil society begins to deteriorate.
These norms are constantly shifting, but with the war on drugs, the balance of power between “individual” and “tribe” has shifted unilaterally to the tribe. The police became an antibody against the “virus,” which in this case was freedom of choice, expression and physical property.
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As part of the current guidelines, The Tribe has incorporated the idea of cannabis use, but wants to impose its restrictions on the individual due to other “perceived threats” to the tribe. To put it more simply, the government’s position to ban cannabis completely no longer corresponds to the will of the population. But that doesn’t mean that the paradigm of prohibition ceases to exist. It merely suggests that the ban must adapt and become restrictive rather than hindering it.
Legislation is now becoming a tool of oppression. Over-regulation becomes a means of discouraging individuals from participating in a market that the “tribe” deems to be unsuitable. But the tribe (society) has long since given up these ideals.
RELATED: Mitch McConnell is Still the Capitol Hill Cannabis Grim Reaper
There is a dissonance between the current leadership and the will of the people. This lawful throttling of the cannabis industry is a means of doing legalization its way, when it was the freedom-loving counterculture that hacked through the thick forest to create a path to legalization.
Setting upper limits on THC and restricting adult choices based on the recycled fears of the prohibitionists (a la Save the Children!) Is simply the attempt by the prohibitionists to shape legality according to their will.
It is important that the individual is at the center of cannabis policy and not the state, nor the indefinable “children”, nor the police or the state treasury. But the will of the individual and his right to choose what he can and cannot add to his body.
This does not mean that the market as a whole does not need to be regulated. What we see in the case of cannabis, however, is that the “regulation” is not the same as that of more harmful drugs like alcohol or tobacco.
This article originally appeared on Cannabis.net and was republished with permission.
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