The “Respectable” People Continue to Make War on the Rest of Us: Newsroom: The Independent Institute

Excellent commentary that you should click and read:

The “Respectable” People Continue to Make War on the Rest of Us: Newsroom: The Independent Institute
Scarcely any critical commentator on the “war on drugs” has failed to remark on the striking inconsistencies that permeate the current prohibitionist stance. Contemporary crusaders for social purity ardently seek to outlaw X (e.g., marijuana), yet they cheerfully abide Y (e.g., Chardonnay), whose consumption is at least as harmful and in some cases is manifestly more so. How are we to make sense of such blatant contradictions?

We can see a pattern in the apparent incoherence of the prohibitionists’ position if we recall that the war on drugs, like all the preceding prohibitionist crusades in American history (some of them still continuing), amounts to a defense of bourgeois WASP conventions against persons and classes deemed less respectable. So, SSRIs, yes, ecstasy, no; Benzodiazepines, yes, heroin, no; a pleasant cocktail party, yes, reefer madness, no; and so forth. Everything turns on the sort of people who tend to consume the substance.

That’s why I call it the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs.  Marijuana’s not illegal because it gets you high, it’s illegal because its leaf symbolizes introspection, harmony with nature, disdain for authority, questioning of the status quo, people over profits, free love, long hair, and that rock’n'roll boogie-woogie music!

Think about it.  I see TV shows and videos where the marijuana leaf is digitally obscured.  They do that for things like Pepsi logos and exposed nipples, because of promotional and obscenity concerns.  And I could even see the logic in blurring out a joint or a bong, being that you don’t want to “encourage the kiddies”.  I wouldn’t agree with the logic, but at least it would be internally consistent.

But banning the image of a leaf – isn’t that just incredible?  Declaring Mother Nature herself to be obscene (or if you prefer, God’s Creation).  The leaf itself in most cases is barely psychotropic enough to get you high and could just as easily be a non-psychoactive hemp leaf.

Wait a minute!  I’ve got it!  Hemp leaves are Mother Nature’s nipples!  That’s why they must be blurred!  (Well, it makes as much sense as any other explanation…)