The Great Marijuana Debate

Marijuana Economics

What’s behind the push for the legalization of marijuana?

I believe this question is being fueled ultimately by supply-side economics. There’s an astounding amount of money in the marijuana industry and there are a number of players going for the biggest market share.

The current trend for legalization is just like so much of what happens in the food supplement industry. I know many people in this industry who scour the planet for very cheap and relatively benign substances. When they find something that they can turn into a product, they buy all of it that they can, usually by the supertanker full.

Once they’ve secured all of the available supply, these people begin to prime the new age and alternative medical literature extolling the wonderful effects of their substance, usually binding it with a profit-opportunity for those who invest deeply. Then they fly under the radar of the FDA, but as close as they can without getting in trouble.

Years later, no one has really been helped by the magical substance, but a few people have made scads of money, and then it’s off to the next product. Pharmaceutical companies do exactly the same thing, but with substances that kill people.

Marijuana Falls Between

Marijuana falls between these two categories. It’s much more powerful than any OTC food supplement, and much less dangerous than nearly any pharmaceutical drug. This is one of the reasons why it’s so problematic as a substance. It’s so problematic, in fact, that we’ve even brought it up for democratic consideration for legal use in the United States of America. What other drug, food or food supplement have people voted on, for God’s sake?

Does it even make sense for people to decide on whether they can use a substance legally or not? Since when does the population at large have the education and the understanding to decide what’s the best medicine to use? After marijuana, will we be able to vote on all substances? All foods? That’s a lot of voting. And what’s really going to be guiding this voting? What ‘the people’ want? And what is going to be guiding that?

Should we have the freedom to choose something that is potentially harmful to us? If we don’t have that freedom, then what about the people who have a legitimate use for medical marijuana?

Freedom, Wisdom and Responsibility

We need freedom. We also need wisdom and responsibility. These are the issues around the great marijuana debate. Without all three and a mechanism that allows us to apply them in a just way to each individual, we will continue to have the dramatic mess that we have today.

For a very in-depth view of the pros and cons of medical marijuana and legalization, please read A Clear Light on the So-Called Debate Over Medical Marijuana.

This article was some of the original material that went on to become
Marijuana Syndromes
How to Balance and Optimize
the Effects of Cannabis
With Traditional Chinese Medicine


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