What Marijuana Prohibition Means In The US

a picture of cannabis leaves.

There have been some unpleasant events in US politics over the last few months, particularly the chaos at the Capitol Building. Since then, politicians have been discussing the requirement for a truth commission, like South Africa’s effort after Apartheid.

It is unsurprising that the losing party appears keener on reconciliation as compared to the truth. Likewise, drug enforcers part of the failing team in the battle for marijuana consumers would rather act as if it never occurred.

It is perhaps not the right time to bring justice for millions who lost a lot due to marijuana’s ban. Anyhow, we can always understand our past mistakes in a way that allows avoiding these in the future. Nowadays, we consider Canada the leader in the process of legalizing marijuana, but it has not always been the case.

In January 2005, some of Canada’s newspapers that took an anti-prohibitionist stance featured Jack Aubry’s articles, with fascinating top headings and emphasis. For example, the National Post featured a headline that said teenagers consider marijuana less dangerous than cigarettes. At the same time, other Canadian newspapers used headlines that highlighted the ease of getting cannabis for students in relation to cigarettes.

Health Canada paid $56,000 for a report made on the basis of some focus groups split into 3 age classes: 10 to 12, 13 to 15, plus 16 to 19. The divided focus groups were from Regina, Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto, but not from Vancouver. The omission of Vancouver was fascinating because marijuana had a nearly-legal status in the city.

People seriously doubted getting straightforward answers from teenagers and even grown-ups about cannabis-related queries in 2005. They say that the situation could be the same even today, but it was especially the case 16 years before.

Cannabis in Canada

That report was made as part of the attempt of Health Canada to aid teenagers in coping with or refusing cannabis.

It appears that teenagers from Canada considered cannabis a less unsafe product than cigarettes. That was seen with apprehension, which inevitably caused sub-headings with phrases like lack of details about marijuana-related health implications.

Marijuana advocates still counter that negativity with science about the plant. For one, Leslie Iversen of Oxford University wrote a book about it where he said that science does not support extreme addictiveness to marijuana, or its connections to infertility/mental illness.

Iversen also regarded cannabis as a safe substance that does not cause mental illness, brain damage, cancer or infertility. Why? Because research participants who smoked cigarettes directly and passively experienced positive health effects from marijuana.

Perhaps the naysayers have not read Iverson’s book. Aubry also said that those focus group teenagers found that the plant smokers were unaware of its adverse effects barring a few and why smoking it should be stopped.

As per the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s research, just 0.05% of Ontario’s health system costs were associated with cannabis. Besides, 2% of those were associated with other substances. Anyhow, alcohol contributed 28.40% to the costs, whereas tobacco 70% or so.

In June 2002, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s Patrick Smith said the following to the Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs. In the event the 3 drugs we found today were tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol, no Canada experts would recommend banning marijuana based on societal and individual damage.

Aubry also stated that participants usually thought that the lone exposure they got about issues handling marijuana was communication about its legalization or use for medical purposes.

In the event that was factual, it would be since the teenagers stopped listening to the Canadian cops’ opinion that marijuana produced unusual behavior. Canada had no dearth of prohibition propaganda. Health Canada lacked a monopoly.

As per a poll, around 30% of people aged between 15 and 17 years and about 50% of 18 to 19-year-old individuals from Canada used marijuana back in 2003.

While that still sounds considerably higher as compared to the Netherlands, nobody ever thought about it. The consideration did not happen despite the fact that the focus group teens attributed the following factors to easier marijuana access.

  • The age limit in place for cigarette smoking
  • The need to purchase cigarettes from conventional locations, like corner shops.

That means marijuana’s ban is a fraud that has the opposite effect of what one would desire.

Nonetheless, it panned out all right for the department Health Canada. As per its spokesperson, Health Canada was tracking the report’s suggestion to make separate messages about smoking marijuana and tobacco since teenagers perceived these as different experiences. The fact is that these are not all that different, especially from a legal standpoint. Anyhow, Health Canada is part of the same kind of business, so there is only so much they could do in it.