By Anthony Evans,<\/p>\n
To what end?<\/p>\n
When it comes to radical shifts in public policy, this is the single most important question that must be asked, because actions don’t take place in a vacuum.\u00a0 Instead, they take place in a society that consists of all of us, from the very young to the very old.\u00a0 We’re all inextricably linked in a gigantic causal chain, and as Americans our fates are interconnected.<\/p>\n
So when contemplating radical shifts to American drug laws \u2013 specifically, the legalization of marijuana: To what end?<\/p>\n
The unfortunate truth of the human condition is that most of the time, we can’t foresee all the consequences of our actions.\u00a0 Not everything can be anticipated.\u00a0 This lack of foreseeability is why people, businesses and yes, even governments often make decisions that aren’t in their own best interest.\u00a0 Businesses fail, governments collapse and societies disintegrate because hindsight alone is 20-20.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, it’s the unintended consequences that carry the most weight.<\/p>\n
What we do know is large, far-reaching decisions have more unknown variables than smaller ones.\u00a0 Large decisions are the most unpredictable.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t get much larger than radicalizing our drug laws.<\/p>\n
To be fair, a number of Americans would personally benefit if marijuana was legalized.\u00a0 First and foremost for drug users, it would allow them to continue to enjoy drugs without the threat of arrest.\u00a0 Clearly, this is a key incentive; in countless interviews, the pro-legalization demonstrators have been very candid about being motivated by personal self-interest. Various economic benefits have also been touted by marijuana proponents, although it should be noted that the annual state and federal tax revenue for alcohol is $15.3 billion \u2013 yet alcohol costs $237.8 billion in health care, treatments, lost productivity and criminal justice.<\/p>\n
But what are the other consequences?<\/p>\n
Nicotine and Alcohol: The two most heavily abused recreational drugs in America are nicotine and alcohol \u2013 and what nicotine and alcohol have in common is that they’re both legal.\u00a0 That’s probably not coincidental: Shortly after Los Angeles legalized marijuana under the guise of “medical marijuana,” there were suddenly more licensed marijuana dispensaries in the city than Starbucks!\u00a0 The Obama Administration has stated: “It is therefore fair to suggest that decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana might not reduce the drug’s burden to our justice and public health system with respect to arrests, but might increase these costs by making the drug more readily available, leading to increase use, and ultimately to more arrests for violations of laws controlling its manufacture, sale and use.”<\/p>\n
Genetically-Strengthened THC:We know that marijuana plants have been genetically engineered to produce higher levels of THC, the plant’s inebriating agent.\u00a0 By some estimates, today’s marijuana has between 600 percent and 1,300 percent higher levels of THC than plants from the mid-1970s.\u00a0 What this ultimately means is unclear, but it<\/p>\n
does suggest that Baby Boomers who are basing the legalization argument on their past experiences might be underestimating today’s societal impact.<\/p>\n
Violent Crimes and Hospital Visits: Roughly 500,000 people are arrested for violent crimes each year in America \u2013 and 98,000 people are arrested for marijuana-related crimes not including simple, nonviolent possession.\u00a0 Furthermore, a study of shock-trauma patients reported 15 percent of those injured while driving a car or a motorcycle had been smoking marijuana; another 17 percent tested positive for both THC and alcohol in their blood.\u00a0 And if this wasn’t enough, 450,000 annual visits to the hospital emergency room involve marijuana.\u00a0 If marijuana is legalized and its availability increases, it seems reasonable to assume that these numbers will rise. \u2013 as will the respective costs to society<\/p>\n
There is an undeniable statistical link between marijuana usage and violent crimes, although we don’t fully understand the causal relationship.\u00a0 But it’s worth noting that there was more gun violence at Denver’s recent “4\/20” pro-marijuana rally than at any Tea Party rally \u2013 ever.\u00a0 In fact, there’s actually been more gun violence at pro-marijuana rallies than at pro-Second Amendment rallies!<\/p>\n
So again we ask: To what end?<\/p>\n
Source: www. sun-sentinel.com\/2013-07-16<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Anthony Evans, To what end? When it comes to radical shifts in public policy, this is the single most important question that must be asked, because actions don’t take place in a vacuum.\u00a0 Instead, they take place in a society that consists of all of us, from the very young to the very old.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-sector"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}