Austria is not legalizing cannabis ... ever

Cannabis is illegal in Austria, and the political situation is not likely to change that soon. 60% of the population do not want it to be legalized. The three big parties in Austria (SPÖ, ÖVP and FPÖ) hold 85% and none of them are focused on this topic. Refugees, security, education, pension, health care or unemployment rates are dominating topics.

In times of crisis, creating legal jobs that did not exist before could solve some problems at once, but that is mostly my personal opinion. With legal stores the number of dealers would go down which could lead into a decrease of drug relates crimes and decrease the unemployment rate at the same time. Besides jobs within the logistics, sales and growing there is a big field of scientific reasearch, that could be a considerable factor.

When the prohibition of all kind of drugs started about 100 years ago, society made a bad decision out of the right reasons. We do have the chance to make the right decision due to the wrong and right reasons.

I did come up with 11 reasons for legalizing cannabis in Austria (I wrote the original in german and translated, I hope it is sufficient):

1. Someone you like consumes cannabis
   Roughly 24% of the inhabitants of Austria have consumed cannabis at least once. So it is for sure that someone you are related with or friends is a stoner. Your daughter? Grandson? Best friend? Your Mom? Your nephew? Your employee?
   
   It is true, someone out of that group consumes recreational or medical cannabis, since it is consumed in all society levels. All of those could be standing in front of court and even go to jail for it.
   
   In order to buy weed, you have to go to shady dealers. They sell their stuff without any quality control and you cannot be sure what is in it. Also, since hard drugs make them more money, they are happy to sell those as well.

2. Will you be a stoner when it is legal?
   One of the main reasons for the prohibition is, that more peope will develop an addiction. I would like to ask you 2 questions:

   • Did you ever smoke weed?
   • Would you start smoking weed when it is legal?
     
     If you answer both questions with "no", the whole argument does not affect you at all.
     Also, reports from the netherlands, clorado, portugal and czech republich show that the number of consumers is not increasing due to legalization or decriminalization.
     
     

3. Hemp has a long tradition
   Hemp grows almost anywhere in the world and besides the use for clothes it was used as medical plant by the egyptians 3500 bc. Cannabis was prohibited in the 1920ies, until then it was the most prescribed medication for pain. But since the dosage was very difficult, the pharma indurstry lobbied in favor of synthetic products like aspirin.
   
   In the 1980ies, the Endocannabinoid-system was discovered. It showed, that vertebrate have receptors for the contents of cannabis. The human body is built to absorb those cannabinoids.

4. Cannabis is addictive
   Although the potential for addiction is lower than the one of alcohol, nicotin and other medications, this is not to deny. There is a difference between phsyical and phsycological addiction - only the latter has been proven so far, which is similar to betting, gaming or so on. Austria has roughly 500k to 1.2 Million cannabis consumers. 2000 of those are in care due to addiction.

5. When aging, cannabis as alternative to medication?
   To reduce the number of medications and their side effects, cannabis is a possibility to reduce intake of pain killers, sleeiping pills or others. Eatables or cookies made of cannabis oil might be an option for the elderly

6. Does cannabis cause cancer?
   If you smoke weed as a joint (with/without) tobacco, it sure can cause cancer. Alternative intakes like eatables or vaporizer have no record of causing cancer.

7. Can cannabis cure cancer?
   In order to give you an answer, it is important to know what a cancer cell is. Because every cell has a specific life cycle where at the end it does self destruct. This mode is called apoptose and a normal cell can turn into a cancer cell, when it does not get into this stage of the life cycle. Cannabinoids can put mutated cells in apoptose without harming healthy cells.
   
   But, medicine does not talk about the possibility to cure cancer but cannabis being cancer retardant. A lot more research has to be done, which is not very lucrative for pharmaceutical companies. Universities have a hard time researching due to the legal situations.

8. Cannabis as medicine
   The plant is used as medicine for centuries. Its medical effects are proven for multiple sclerosis, nausea, vommiting, and cachexia. Furthermore is marihuana used in pain therapy, depression, cancer and autoimmune diseases due to its pharmaceutical potential, which is partly based on being anti-inflammatory. It is used to reduce side effects during chemotherapy.

9. Relieve justice system/Taxes instead of penalties
   Since it is penological prohibited, police has to file a report that creates cost for the justice system of the country. Police work to find dealers take up many hours. With a legalization the number of dealers would decrease and thus the police can shift ressources for other fields. With legal sales a nation could earn money with taxes and even increase the quality and diversity of the plant.

10. Youth protection
    Consumation of cannabis during puberty has negative effects and must be prevented. Same goes for nicotin and alcohol. In Austria children aged 12-15 have their first experiences with alcohol, nicotin and cannabis. A legalization has to come with a better protection of the youth.

11. Psychoses/Schizophrenia
    People who are prone to psychoses have to be vary that those can be triggered via consumation of cannabis (or alcohol, nicotin). Same goes for schizophrenia. Thus it is very important, that consumers are adults that are aware of the consecuences and know their limits. With better education those dangers can be reduced.

Let me know about your thoughts on this topic and what other solutions you'd prefer and for what reasons.