Who Gains the Most Out of Marijuana Being Illegal?

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Believe it or not, there are people, organisations, and corporations out there who are greatly benefiting because cannabis is illegal. The “war on drugs” officially began in 1971 when president Richard Nixon declared drug abuse as “public enemy number one” and it’s been going on ever since. Marijuana was first classified as a schedule 1 drug in 1970, alongside the likes of heroin and its been struggling to rid itself of that reputation ever since. It’s crazy to think that marijuana has been classed in the same category as a drug that is truly deadly. In fact, heroin was at one time legalised for medicinal use which is something that weed can only hope it will one day achieve.

The reasoning behind the initial decisions to make cannabis illegal was to protect society against the threats of addiction, mayhem, murder, and full-scale collapse. Fast forward all these years later and it would seem as though the illegality of cannabis has caused many of the problems that it was intended to solve. This begs the question, who is benefiting from the prohibition of cannabis?

It’s a well-known fact that the war on drugs has been a complete and utter failure. Would you believe that while the government has focused all its attention on illicit narcotics, deadly opioids have managed to slip through the radar and claim tens of thousands of lives. Meanwhile, in 2015, over 574,000 people were arrested in the United States for possessing small amounts of weed. Amounts so small that it could only have been intended for personal use. In 2016, that number increased to 650,000 people who were arrested for possessing weed in the States. The good news is that since cannabis has been legalised for medicinal use in 29 states plus D.C and recreational use in 9 states, there is expected to be a drastic drop in the number of people who are arrested for possessing small amounts of weed.

Why is Marijuana Illegal Anyway?

This is a question that has had people scratching their heads for many years. Most of us assume that medical professionals somewhere around the world have sat down with scientific evidence and concluded that cannabis is more harmful to our health than other drugs we regularly use like cigarettes and alcohol. Because somebody would have figured it all out for our benefit, right?

That’s what we would like to think, but this is in fact very far from the truth. What they want you to believe is that weed is illegal because it is highly addictive and offers little to no medicinal value. For any of you who have read even a little bit about marijuana and its various medicinal benefits, you would know that this is not the case. Thousands of studies have been done, all of which prove marijuana is not addictive or a “gateway drug” (I mean come on- pretty much anything can be addictive and is a gateway drug to something more addictive if you have an addictive personality). On the contrary, ‘legal’ opioids can be highly addictive and kill almost 100 people every single day.

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The other reason used to justify the illegality of weed is to protect society from the threats of mayhem, murder, and looting which is what would apparently occur if marijuana was made legal on a federal level. Yes we know, it sounds absolutely ridiculous, but unfortunately, many people have fallen for this one in the past (and some misinformed people still do today). Reefer Madness has many people believing that smoking weed causes you to go insane and will send you on a murderous rampage. It’s hard to understand how people believe this sort of nonsense, but the truth is if you none the wiser, you are more susceptible to absorb information like this.

Marijuana has always been linked to “hardcore” drugs like heroin, and morphine and it’s a stigma that has proven very hard to shake off. Unfortunately, many people fail to educate themselves and are drawn in by bogus media coverage that only aids the level of ignorance. Typically speaking, drugs are classed into two categories by American’s, “normal” and “abnormal.” Normal being alcohol, cigarettes, opioids and caffeine and abnormal consisting of heroin, cocaine, weed, and methamphetamine. Weed is often referred to as the “gateway drug” to more dangerous drugs.

Sadly, there is even a racial element to the ban on cannabis. During the 1930s, a time when there was a great influx of Mexican-Americans, the anti-weed movement saw a big escalation. This is because America developed a strong anti-Chicano sentiment and marijuana was the Mexican-American drug of choice. Americans were against the emergence of a Mexican-American subculture and therefore decided it made sense that weed should be viewed in a negative light.

It’s also important to address the issue of inertia, especially when it comes to public policy. Just like if something remains unchanged for a long time, there’s the tendency to leave it that way, if something is banned for a long time, people assume that it is the right thing to do. Since cannabis has been banned for more than a century, the majority of people are completely fine with that and don’t want to do anything to change it.

So who is Benefitting from the Prohibition of Marijuana?

So now for the important stuff, who is really benefiting from this ban on cannabis? The idea that society as a whole is who benefits from this ban is a complete farce! While generally speaking, no average person is helped by the prohibition of marijuana, millions of people are in fact being hindered by it. There are people who could benefit from it various medicinal benefits while others could earn an honest living by cultivating it. The prohibition of marijuana won’t help anyone unless of course, you fall into one of these groups.

1. Big Pharma

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This one should not come as a big surprise. If cannabis were legalised, it would essentially ‘steal’ a lot of business from Big Pharma, since it has the potential to offer the same, if not better treatment for a variety of conditions and without the many severe side effects that accompany a lot of the Big Pharma drugs. The ban on weed makes it impossible to gain FDA approval because they are unable to conduct the necessary double-blind clinical trials. This means that Big Pharma can continue to mass produce various pills with very little research and minimal studies whereas marijuana remains illegal, even with thousands of studies on its side.

Big Pharma has been throwing money at the anti-weed campaign for many years. A company by the name of Insys Therapeutics donated over $500,000 to the anti-weed movement when the question of legalising weed was raised in Arizona. The reason? They needed to protect the investment of a synthetic cannabinoid compound that they had recently developed. Sadly, money talks and Insys got exactly what they paid for.

A retired police officer by the name of Harold Woodbridge is a staunch weed legalisation campaigner, and he believes that it would be in America's best interest to legalise weed. He has said that Big Pharma is second only to state Police Unions when it comes to the biggest opponents of weed legalisation. He is a strong believer that cannabis could replace everything from Advil to Vicodin. Yes, cannabis has the potential to put many pharmaceuticals companies out of business if legalised.

2. Criminals

The fact is, there is a huge illegal market out there for cannabis, meaning that criminals are making a ton of money dealing weed. In 2016, illegal cannabis sales were over $46 billion in the United States. As long as weed remains illegal in parts of America or anywhere else for that matter, criminals will have an interest in it. Sure, if it were legalised they would no doubt try to gain some traction in the market to establish some legitimacy. But more than likely, they would shift their focus to drugs like cocaine and heroin because let’s face it; there is more money and less paperwork in the illegal market. For as long as weed remains illegal, criminals can continue producing low-quality pot and selling it for extortionate amounts.

3. The Alcohol Industry

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This is another industry that has used money to fight against the legalisation of weed. The alcohol industry stands to lose a ton of business if cannabis were to become its legitimate rival. Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas casino owner, donated $2 million to the Nevada anti-weed legalization campaign a few years ago. Fortunately though for the cannabis industry, he ultimately lost this game because on 1 January 1997, weed was made legal for recreational use in the state of Nevada.

Ironically, studies have shown that the alcohol industry is wasting its time and money on its anti-weed campaigns. For example, despite the fact that marijuana became legal in Colorado for recreational use in 2014, tax records from the 2015 year have shown that the alcohol industry, in fact, saw some growth. In other words, they are in a fight against the legalisation of weed out of fear of losing business, but it would seem that it had the opposite effect.

4. Police Unions & Private Prisons

Did you know that police unions receive large federal drug war grants? It, of course, makes sense then why they would want to keep the fight against cannabis alive. If weed were to be made legal, they would lose out on a big fortune. In 2010, John Lovell, a police union lobbyist led the fight against Proposition 19, which was a weed legalisation measure in California. This was how he helped police departments get their hands on millions of dollars in federal weed eradication grants.

Furthermore, in 2009 and 2010, $7.5 million of federal money was needed by police associations in California to conduct an anti-marijuana program. Shockingly, a significant amount of this money went straight to police officer paychecks.

Private Prison corporations are another authority group who are strongly against the legalisation of cannabis. I mean prisons would be practically empty if it weren’t for weed. Not to mention the money that is being made on bail for minor weed offenses. In 2015, before weed was made legal for recreational use in California, there were more than 2,100 people who were jailed for cannabis offenses. Also, 4,400 people received prison terms for ‘marijuana plus’ offenses which are when minor weed crimes are part of the sentence.

Huge profits are being made by putting people in jail. If weed were legalised around the United States, no doubt they would find some other outrageous reason to lock people up behind bars.

Final Thoughts

It is somewhat disgusting to think that people are profiting from the prohibition and propaganda around a plant that holds such medical benefits. The next time someone tries to spin you some ridiculous story about why marijuana is illegal you can think back on these many reasons. Nobody can deny that huge profits are being made by billion dollar corporations everywhere because marijuana is illegal.

Weed has the potential to help so many people, but unfortunately, big corporations are more interested in looking after their profits than people. Big Pharma is looking to protect their investment in opioids, police unions are lining their pockets with extra cash, criminals are protecting their business and income while the alcohol industry sees cannabis as the enemy and are fighting off their so-called competition. Hopefully soon enough We can have an honest and realistic view on marijuana being presented to everyone instead of all the lies that have been pushed down society's throat for almost a hundred years now. Hope dies last as they say...

SOURCE

http://www.drugpolicy.org/issues/drug-war-statistics
https://www.thoughtco.com/why-is-marijuana-illegal-721155
http://republicreport.wpengine.com/2012/exclusive-why-cant-you-smoke-pot-because-lobbyists-are-getting-rich-off-of-the-war-on-drugs/
https://sensiseeds.com/en/blog/benefits-cannabis-prohibition/
http://uk.businessinsider.com/companies-funding-anti-marijuana-legalization-2016-11?r=US&IR=T
https://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/marijuana-sales-2016-50-billion.html

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Read more:

Marijuana Can Help Fight Back Against Opioid Abuse, Here’s How
The False Information Plaguing the Cannabis Industry
The History of Marijuana – How and Why a Medical Marvel Became an Illegal Substance