We get letters: keep pot illegal…?

We get all sorts of emails here at NORML.  Many are from supporters and people who have found themselves in a marijuana bust.  Every so often we get letters from the prohibitionists and cannabiphobes who want to eradicate the plant from nature.

But you might be surprised that there is a small subset of pro-marijuana people who are very anti-legalization.  This recent email gives you an idea:

Don’t be a fool, marijuana is America’s largest cash crop. Why do you think they LET YOU use it for “medicinal” (any bullshit reason you can think of) purposes? Keep it illegal. Keep America out of marijuana’s bottom line because through out the past, they have been treating us users like needle junkies. And you want to let them in on what marijuana and what us believers have worked so hard to create? I’m 22 years old I’ve been smoking since 14 years old and selling since 15. I would never pay tax to some asshole organization that tried their hardest to keep me oppressed. You can rally as much as you please, but it is useless. I am not supporting 420 because of what that number originated from. Don’t fall for America’s lies. Everyday is “420″, keep it illegal and keep the money it brings on the streets, among the people. Those bastard fat cat politicians are already bleeding us dry with oil, war, alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, and whatever else we might need that will make them a buck. Please don’t bring so much attention to marijuana. It is all that some people have.

All I can think of is that 22-year-old young person serving time after the seven years of not-getting-caught-selling luck runs out.  This is the attitude of “I gots mine”; the writer has all the weed he needs and has never been busted, so why should the writer care whether 830,000 others got arrested or 70,000 others are serving time for pot.

One of the saddest consequences of this War on Marijuana is to create an entire generation (or two, or three) so hostile to law enforcement and good government.  Make no mistake, statistically speaking marijuana is a young person’s drug; most tokers quit voluntarily at about age thirty.

There exists a huge underground market in marijuana, no doubt about it.  And for many of our young people, facing an economy where the choices are “minimum wage service job” or “mountains of student loan debt”, the prospect of eeking out a decent living by selling weed is very enticing.  What occupation will pay the bills of your current “weed guy” once you are legally able to get it at the liquor store?  What would the actual unemployment figures be, especially in our urban centers, if everyone currently surviving on pot prohibition profits had to apply for assistance?

But the writer identifies the wrong villain here.  It’s not the politicians, it’s the prohibition.  The writer steadfastly refuses to pay a tax to an oppressor, so the solution is to allow the oppressor to keep the tool of oppression?  If the writer thinks greedy government will make a buck off of marijuana taxes, what does the writer think of the greedy government and asset forfeiture, cheap prison slave labor, and bloated drug war budgets, or the drug testing, drug rehab, and prison industries whose bottom line depends on a steady stream of marijuana arrests?

No, this writer just wants to be left alone to deal weed, tax free, regulation free.  Admittedly this is most businessman’s dream scenario.  But if you think prohibition keeps the money “on the streets”, you’re wrong, unless you think $300-$450/ounce is a reasonable price for a dried weed.  Every dollar of pot prohibition profit represents a gardener serving hard prison time, a mom losing her kids, a student losing a loan, a kid losing a dad, an employee losing a job, a professional losing a license, a poor person losing a home, and a good citizen losing their reputation.