My interest has been piqued by the squabbles going on in the
US over the
discrepancy between state and federal laws regarding the medicinal use of
marijuana. I assume there’s some truth in the widely held notion that America
is the pill-popping capital of the world, the place where people are most in
thrall to man made chemicals. And I gather it’s also true that most of those
chemicals have known side effects when taken in isolation, and largely unknown
ones when taken together. And yet marijuana, a natural substance with known
medical benefits, as well as some detrimental effects if taken excessively,
is banned by federal law as a prescription item and placed in the same category
as heroin. To my mind, this is truly bizarre. I wonder whether it has anything
to do with protecting the interests of the wealthy pharmaceuticals industry.
What is also a little odd is the law in the Netherlands
where, I’m reliably informed, it’s legal to smoke dope in a cannabis café, but
illegal to smoke tobacco. Stand outside the doors, and the law reverses its
position. It becomes legal to smoke tobacco, but illegal to use
cannabis/marijuana.
Isn’t it about time we grew up over the question of
marijuana? Isn’t it about time we started seeing it and its benefits
objectively, and cut out the ridiculous bigotry fuelled both historically and
currently by powerful and wealthy groups with pecuniary interests?
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