Pretty dope

Since this is the 20th of April, I decided to play upon the usual 4:20 double-entendre. On Wednesday at the Tea Party gathering I couldn’t help but notice a small group of young ragtag protesters with signs that didn’t seem to have anything to do with taxes or the economy. Their signs read “Legalize it” with drawings of hemp leaves. Whenever there is a protest of any kind there always seems to be somebody protesting the criminalization of marijuana. I’ve even heard a stand-up comic make a joke about it once. However, even though these guys appeared to be at the wrong protest, I still agree with their position.

The last three Presidents of the United States have at one point or another partook in illegal drugs. Barack Obama openly admitted to smoking marijuana in his youth, George W. Bush (although he refused to discuss it) was evidently a fan of nose candy before becoming “born again”, and nobody believed that “I didn’t inhale” bullshit from Bill Clinton back in 1992. These Presidents span the last 16 years of White House policies and yet the U.S. drug policy hasn’t changed significantly since the Nixon administration.

So, what’s the deal? These three guys at some point had control over the DEA and national drug policy. Each of these guys appointed a drug czar for their cabinet. And each of these guys had a some history of using illegal drugs. President Obama even said “I did inhale. That was the point.” So why is it that President Obama who freely admitted to smoking marijuana, still keeps it listed as a Schedule 1 narcotic? Bill Clinton could almost get away with this kind of hypocrisy by saying he didn’t inhale, and George W. Bush could always fall back on the whole being “born again” thing. Barack on the other hand, doesn’t have the same sanctimonious bunker to hide behind. So why the hypocrisy?

There can be any number of reasons for the stagnation in drug policy, but it all really boils down to politics. Decriminalizing marijuana would be a bold, principled move. It would cut the Federal and State budgets significantly, reduce prison populations by over one third, and dramatically reduce the violent crime rates nationwide. Unfortunately, it would be a move that would anger the hundreds of congress critters and senators who used the drug warrior image to enhance their individual political careers. If this happened they would promptly withdraw their support for the new President. He wouldn’t get re-elected in 2012. The DNC might not even nominate him. He’d be a pariah within most of his own party and his revised drug policy would be ammunition for the so-called “culture warriors” within the Republican Party. So President Obama must continue his own hypocrisy to cover for the hypocrisy of others within his own support structure. This was probably also the case with his pot-smoking, coke-snorting predecessors.

Considering this fact of American politics, the “legalize marijuana” crowd at the Tea Party protest was there for the same general reason we all were. They are just as fed up with the corruption and hypocrisy within the Federal Government as we are. The axe they grind may be different, but they’re grinding it for the same reasons that we grind ours. All we want is less government intrusion, and more freedom. It makes no difference if that freedom takes the shape of lower taxes and smaller government or the shape of a thick spliff filled with the stickiest of the icky. It’s all part of the same thing.

photo credit: aforero

So in all the chaos and confusion going on, people are starting to talk crazy.  I don’t mean the usual crazy, self-gratifying circle jerk that is the news.  I mean really crazy–as in legalizing pot.  If you happen to be a sane, rational person who thinks for yourself and disregards the horribly written and factually incorrect “Above the Influence” ads our government was so kind to pay for with our tax money, you couldn’t care less.  When the average person thinks about the drug war, they think of Colombian drug cartels, crack heads, and the cluster fuck that is Mexico right now.  When it comes to some guy smoking pot in his living room while playing rock band, or Rush Limbaugh popping pills, I seriously doubt people support SWAT raids and life sentences.

Quite frankly, if it was just about easier access to pot, 99% of pot smokers wouldn’t care either.  Lets face it; it’s not hard to get.   It’s a plant that grows quickly and easily, it doesn’t require any equipment to process when it’s ready, and most people could grow a plant or two in their backyard without anyone noticing.  Few people will ostracize you if you ask around about it, and most likely there’s a connection you can acquire it through within your circle of friends.  Marijuana is not something that causes people to rob liquor stores and perform sex acts in alleys to get money to buy more.  Right now it’s cheap, usually good quality, and easily found.  So why in the world would these people want to bring it out in the open?

Well for one, they are every day people leading every day lives, and they smoke to deal with stress.  They aren’t just college students and hippies.  They are professionals, business owners, entertainers, and athletes.  All types from all walks of life.  The added cost of taxation would be cheap compared to stress over the local police looking to pad their pockets.  A lot of people smoke and there’s a lot of it around, so it’s easy for cops to find.  They kick down someone’s door and find a couple of plants, then start seizing cash and property.  Now they have a bigger budget.  No, I don’t think most law enforcement officers consciously make this decision, and if you ask any of them they’d probably rather be busting real criminals.   However, when politicians want to say they are responsible for a drop in crime they put pressure on the police, and if there aren’t too many crack heads around some crime needs to be created.

The reason this is coming up now is mostly because of the economy, and many people are making the comparison to FDR ending the prohibition on alcohol.  Ending prohibition was great, because it taxed something that people were doing anyway.  Plus it had the added bonus of taking revenue away from organized crime.  If people are out of work everywhere and the only ones making money are the gangs, where do you think people are going to look for work?  Prohibition helped make crime a growth industry, and by legalizing it they took that industry and injected it into the economy.  Of course, the depression dragged on long after people got their drink.  However, there are many differences between marijuana and alcohol–beyond how they make you feel–and those differences are important.

As far as law goes, there was never a constitutional amendment to ban drugs as there was with alcohol, so it’s a lot easier to legalize.  It is harder on a Federal level though, given the staggering amount that has been and continues to be spent convincing everyone that weed is evil.  Not just the Above the Influence commercials that make stoners laugh so much.  The US has not only tried to get rid of marijuana here, but in other countries as well.  Our government has used billions of dollars to help other countries stamp out drugs, as well as significant political pressure on anyone that looks like they might be straying from our War on Drugs.  Boy, would their faces be red.

There is a silver lining to the massive amount we have spent on the War on Drugs.  We can stop paying to lockup pot smokers.  This is bigger than most people think.  Right now we pay local and federal law enforcement to hunt down, prosecute, and incarcerate pot smokers and growers.  This includes everyone, from the confidential informant who gets to make accusations without having to face the accused to the court stenographer.  Don’t worry about these people losing their jobs, because there is plenty of work for them to do.  Without all the non-violent drug offenders in the system maybe people can actually get efficient and effective justice.  No more public defenders dealing with fifty cases a week.  No more rape victims having to wait a year before they even get to testify at trial.  When given the choice between having the police investigate the break in they had at their house or investigate the cancer patient growing a couple of pot plants, it’s not hard to guess how people would choose.

Then we get to the bonus marijuana legalization offers everyone.  Right now people are just talking about the added revenue from the sales tax, but it’s a different world than when alcohol prohibition ended.  Look at the alcohol industry today compared to then.  We are talking about a major industry that employs a lot more than beer brewers and bartenders.  You have everyone from the people that grow hops, to the factory workers, brew masters, tasters, shipping managers, IT staff, accountants, facilities managers, facilities maintenance, bar staff, marketing, sales, and so on.  You get all this by legalizing pot.   Everything from the new business owner who starts a new Amsterdam style coffee shop to the botanist working on a new strain.  All paying taxes on the income they make by being a part of the marijuana industry.

Another big difference between the legalization of alcohol and the legalization of marijuana: no doctor I know of has ever prescribed alcohol to a patient.  It’s been proven that pot has medicinal benefit and is safer than alcohol.  In an economic cluster fuck, when one of the people’s main concerns is the cost of health care, wouldn’t a safe and cheap alternative to expensive pain medication be good for everyone?  Weed’s ability to be used as medicine will also impact the market.  It would create everything from research grants to scientists studying its effects to, again, jobs for botanists creating new strains.

It would also clear up the laws regarding hemp, and allow farmers to grow it without wondering if they are within the law or if the DEA will be raiding their house. Farmers would love the flexibility of a crop that can be used make paper, clothes, food, and all the other shit that hippies claim it can do. That, along with how easily and quickly it grows, makes it perfect for farmers in financially unsure times.  If a farmer is suffering and needs quick cash to keep going, throwing some hemp in the ground and being able to harvest a couple of months later would be a huge boon.  The fact that it has multiple uses allows the farmer to sell it to the textile company or the paper mill.

People work in those textiles factories and paper mills.  Engineers maintain the equipment and create new machines to process hemp more efficiently.  Companies build and sell that equipment.  Salesmen market and sell that equipment.  Factory workers use that equipment.  Communities service those workers.   Shipping companies move those raw materials to companies that work it into items for consumers.  Clothing makers, graphic designers, clothing designers, silk screeners, and all the other people that take that paper or cloth and make something out of it.  We are talking about rebuilding America with manufacturers again, and not just being consumers.   What better way to do that than with a brand new (very old) commodity?

As far as stimulus goes, this would be much more efficient then giving several million construction workers temporary jobs with money created out of thin air. They could even take all the tax revenue from weed and hemp, then set it permanently aside as revenue only to be used on infrastructure creation and maintenance. That way those people would be permanently employed, rather than worrying about when the stimulus bill is going to run out.  We could also have an infrastructure that’s constantly maintained instead of ignored till it’s politically convenient.

In the end it’ll be a race to see which state defies the federal government first.  Whoever does will get a jump on the rest in building the infrastructure necessary (some already have that).  Then it will pretty much be a landslide as everyone notices people flocking to a state so they can freely smoke.  This will boost that state’s economy from tourism, and from professionals moving.  The multitude of people looking to start a business in a new market with easy entrance will actually put the power to get ahead back into the hands of people, which is probably the thing this country needs most right now.  If you look around, you can see there are fewer and fewer places where an individual can step up to the market and throw a hat in the ring without a billion dollar’s worth of investors.

I could go on about the many benefits, like getting paper from a plant that grows over several months, as opposed to trees which take years. Or point out the absurdity of spending money outlawing a plant instead of using that plant as a resource, but in the end the argument is much simpler than that.  Do your average Americans mind someone smoking marijuana in the privacy of his own home so much that they will refuse whatever jobs that it creates?  Is the substance that has been proven less harmful than alcohol or cigarettes such a threat that they will watch as people’s lives are ruined and the economy burns around them?  Does their insistence on telling someone else what to do with their own body supersede being able to use the infrastructure that tax revenue will create?  In the end, it’s not up to the pot smokers. Legalization isn’t necessary for them to continue enjoying pot.  It’s up to all the other Americans out there to realize that it’s just a plant.  A plant that will, if not save our economy, at least definitely help it.