Michael E. Arth on Cannabis

Question: With new information about Cannabis, including anti-cancer properties exceedingly more effective than chemo-therapy (Pharmacology Journal, 6/2/10), what is your answer to the ruling that Cannabis is a Schedule 1 drug (meaning no medicinal value)? Answer: This is inane, and any politician who supports the status quo in this regard is either dangerously stupid or a sycophantic, pandering suck-up to the powers-that-be. Cannabis is derived from an immensely useful plant of low toxicity that has been used for thousands of years. Never in recorded history has there ever been a documented overdose death from cannabis. In the US alone there are 650000 deaths each year from alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs. Half of of the War on Drugs is over cannabis and this misguided policy has driven our incarceration rate up 7 times higher than the Netherlands, where drugs have been decriminalized for users. In the US those who profit from the drug war are the private prisons, law enforcement, the military-industrial complex, the textile and lumber industries, and Big Pharma, just to name a few. There are 800000 gang members in the US and they all sell drugs. Organized crime and contempt for the law is rampant because of the War on Drugs, which functions like a war on the poor. Cannabis and other drugs should be legalized, regulated and taxed. At the same time, public advertising for drug, alcohol and tobacco should be banned. Drug abuse should be treated as the health issue …
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