Cannabis prohibition is one of the greatest mistakes governments have made. It is an epic failure of anti-cannabis laws which is presently being challenged by all the pro-cannabis advocates, supporters, and patients all across the country. The war on cannabis is used as a tool of oppression, making it responsible for creating more fears, despairs, and deaths than it was promised to protect, especially in the communities of color.
History is proof that cannabis prohibition is nothing but a waste of resources, and thus creating more problems than it can prevent.
Reasons for Cannabis Law
These are the reasons why Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR), a UK lobby group, pushes sensible cannabis laws for the betterment of all.
- Cannabis prohibition did not work — the use of marijuana is global and is known in all parts of the world. However, there are instead a small number of people who had heard about marijuana since it was federally prohibited in 1937. Presently, government studies show that there are more than about 118 million Americans admitted to having tried cannabis, where last month, it was only roughly about 24 million American citizens. Monitoring the future also conducts a survey annually which states that 4 out of 5 of five high school seniors can obtain marijuana quickly.
- Cannabis prohibition is just a waste of public funds and resources, while cannabis can be taxed to bring additional revenue to the national treasury. The Congressional Research Service created a model that changed cannabis prohibition with cannabis taxation and regulation, and the cannabis industry could yield around $6.8 billion with just its excise taxes alone. In 2019 in Washington State, the taxes on only cannabis sales alone yielded around $440 million.
- Police cannot focus on arresting real crimes and jailing real criminals just because of detaining marijuana offenders. There are about more than 660,000 marijuana arrests and citations as reported by the FBI in 2018 alone, which is more than all the violent crimes combined. At the same time, the FBI reported that only about 14 percent of burglaries, 30 percent of robberies, 33 percent of rapes were cleared by the police making an arrest. Also, the data reported by the Police Quarterly shows that after the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, a higher percentage of other crimes were solved.
- Cannabis prohibition is used as a weapon to send a lot of Americans into the criminal justice system, ruining countless lives and destroying their future. Since 1995 of arresting cannabis offenders, the police have made more than 15 million marijuana arrests in the U.S. for those marijuana offenders who went through Supreme Court justice and were acquitted, they are having a hard time for securing a job, receiving a professional license, getting food assistance, student loans, housing, driver’s license, and firearms permit.,
- Cannabis prohibition is used to enforce current marijuana laws to the people unequally. African Americans are likely to be arrested more than 3.5 times than whites for marijuana possession, even with the same amounts all across the U.S.
- Changing cannabis prohibition into sensible laws does not increase the number of teens who use cannabis. According to a government survey, there is no increase in marijuana-using-teens in all the states that have legalized the use of cannabis.
- Cannabis prohibition produces violence. In the same case, with the alcohol prohibition, setting the cannabis market underground will just breed violence, especially with cases that cannot be solved lawfully in the court.
- Cannabis regulation can control the marijuana market. Illegal marijuana sellers don’t care to sell to minors and can sell anytime, anywhere, anyone, unlike your licensed businesses. Cannabis prohibition prevents us from testing every marijuana for potency and purity. Changing cannabis prohibition with regulation ensures we eliminate the risk of marijuana contamination with bacteria, molds, pesticides, and lacing.
- Prohibition can damage the environment. Illegal marijuana growers and cultivators use uncontrolled pesticides, changing the waterways, and leaving dangerous chemical waste in state and national parks. Regulation of cannabis cultivation can monitor each grower and cultivators to ensure they are following laws and complies with zoning regulations.
- Marijuana is safer than alcohol. Researchers and experts with studies say that cannabis is more reliable than alcohol consistently. Cannabis has less addiction potential and will not contribute to any severe medical ailments, unlike alcohol. A report made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that there are more than 30,000 deaths per year due to alcohol consumption. This includes more than 2,000 deaths due to excessive alcohol intake. Unlike marijuana, there have been zero reported cannabis-induced deaths in history,
To Push Sensible Medical Cannabis Laws
The aim of CLEAR is to reform existing cannabis prohibition with marijuana laws that encourage urgency and compassion to allow seriously ill patients to use medical cannabis with their physician’s recommendations. It is no wonder why patients find alternative ways to treat their illnesses. There is no sensible human being that will deny another way to get relief from pain and other symptoms and prevent the legalization of cannabis access for those people who need it the most.
Cannabis prohibition limits the studies and research that can be conducted on the marijuana plant. And because of that, only a handful of researches have been permitted to be able to conduct studies around the marijuana plant.
Many studies and research states that cannabinoids, the chemicals that can be found in the cannabis plant are similar to those of chemicals in our bodies that are responsible for memory, appetite movement, and pain.
Cannabis Benefits
Recent research on marijuana indicates that cannabis can:
- Reduce anxiety
- Kill cancer cells
- Relieve pain
- Reduce inflammation
- Relax tight muscles
- Control nausea and vomiting
- Reduce muscle pain
- Stimulate appetite
- Prevent tumor growth
Cannabis for medical conditions
Other studies also show that marijuana can reduce a treat number of different conditions, such as:
- Schizophrenia
- Multiple sclerosis
- Epilepsy
- Glaucoma
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Appetite loss
- Cancer
- Crohn’s disease
- Eating disorders
- Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Muscle spasms
- Wasting syndrome (cachexia)
Medical marijuana has been gaining attention due to its cannabinoids which can help, control, and prevent seizures. There is a lot of studies that show that seizure patients who have taken medical cannabis experience a drastic decrease with their seizure episodes.
Cultivation and Supply of Cannabis
CLEAR also aims to pass a system of regulation for cannabis cultivation and supply. It aims to introduce a humane system for regulating marijuana cultivation and supply based on facts and evidence that can yield significant amounts of revenue for other uses.
The Independent Drug Monitoring Unit authoritative research indicates that regulating and taxing cannabis in Britain could boost the UK economy with at least £6 billion annually. That is based on the fact that the cannabis tax of £1 per gram. This enables another stream of revenue not only that can save a large sum of funding on law enforcement, but as well as providing the funds for administering the system and providing additional resources for education and healthcare services.
All the research, studies, and proofs state that a responsibly regulated system for the marijuana sector can also reduce other crimes in all social and health.
All the evidence and experts agree that a responsibly regulated system would also reduce all health and social harms.
Legalization of Cannabis
To encourage the legalization of Industrial Hemp cultivation and usage.
Not only has cannabis prohibition caused us significant damage in our economy, society, and environment, but it has also prohibited the cultivation, production, and usage of industrial hemp. Although there are very low levels of cannabinoids in the industrial strain of the plant, the cannabis prohibition act has ruined the reputation and value of hemp as an agricultural crop. The cannabis prohibition act gives way to the loss of the most potent natural fiber, producer of better fabric than cotton, better paper than wood, large scale oxygen produce, and efficient biomass producer in the natural world.
Our reason for promoting cannabis prohibition act reform is to:
Promote Forest Cover and Biodiversity
As our forest around the world is in danger of deforestation for paper making, studies show that deforestation can be prevented using hemp as an alternative for making paper. Hemp can be recycled twice as many times, unlike wood pulp. Moreover, hemp can produce four times fiber per hectare than any wood in a typical forest and two times more than any pine plantation per hectare.
This advantages as said by the Principal Research Scientist, Dr. Ernest Small at the Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre in Ottawa, Canada, states that reliance on industrial hemp will reduce human dependence on natural forests, which is the main producer of the air we breathe and are the main responsible for absorbing carbon dioxide and home of the world’s biggest biodiversity. Planting new tr4ess after cutting them down cannot keep up with deforestation, but with hemp as an alternative, humans can fully stop depending on the forest for making paper products.
To give education and information about the uses and benefits of cannabis to the masses.
As they say, ignorance breeds prejudice, but in the case of marijuana, there is deliberate misinformation. It all started with the media, timber, and oil magnate Randolph Hearst in 1930 where it continues up today with dominant interest in Big Pharma, tobacco, alcohol, media, timber, and oil.
CLEAR aims to spread the truth about cannabis across the country in the face of ignorance and lies.
Equal Opportunities
The Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR) believes that social groups and people of all backgrounds must support our campaign. We strongly support the law of equal opportunity and reject all forms of inhumane laws that breed discrimination for communities of color, nationality, sex, age, national or ethnic origins, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, disability, or marital status.