The nonsense and non-science is hurting more people every day, not helping.
Normally, A sin tax is an excise tax which has been placed on socially harmful items, such as alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, and pornography. Cannabis is nothing like these categories as it is healthful and not harmful, except when the policies and police enforcement are involved.
To restore the injustice that brought us here today, we must first acknowledge that the stories used to make Cannabis illegal were simply lies. Then we must recognize that the word “legal” means some sort of control and manipulation; it is not the Freedom many people talk about or envision in their mind.
To gain the Freedom OUR country is founded upon, we must continue to take action using science and social pressures to rid ourselves of the cognitive dissonance that we struggle with every minute of every day. Cannabis has been used for food, medicinal purposes, and materials for thousands of years, like the air we breathe, it must be welcomed back into our lives as it was only one hundred years ago.
The objective must be to normalize Cannabis back into our culture for everyone, not to create the next Drug War 2.0 and definitely not to give up and let the corporations, manipulation of the government, nor the ones who have weak morals to take it for their personal profits and use.
For the benefit of all, we must make sure that “legalization” actually eliminates the residual damage of the Drug War and the damage done by the pharmaceutical, petroleum, timber, and media industries. This includes the release of all people originally charged with a legal penalty for marijuana in any way, including those who took a plea for another crime. We must serve the patients who need the plant to heal with quality products at an affordable cost to all and yes, this can be achieved. The plant is core to the optimal functioning of our Endocannabinoid System and must be brought back into our food system at the resistance of so few.
But, we still see problems.
The arbitrary definition of hemp must be based on real science, not a false opinion of a single scientist in Canada. The 9th Circuit Court has already ruled that the government (specifically the D.E.A.) has no jurisdiction over THC in hemp; therefore, there is no way they can create a definition of hemp. If the courts already ruled on this, how can the “hemp bill” formulate a definition of hemp? Why are free Americans choosing to limit our own freedom? That is just pure insanity!
In addition, the reason that a so-called “black market” exists is that there is money to be made. In the case of buying some Cannabis products, such as flower, it is still cheaper to buy it off the streets, even in the current “legal” States. To eliminate the market, eliminate the competition by minimizing the cost to consumers. A sin tax is doing the opposite. So is the mix of States that are over-regulating or still treating Cannabis as illegal.
Decriminalizing, taking the full step to eliminate the words, marijuana, Cannabis, hemp and THC from all law, would eliminate the black market, expensive products, encourage quality development of available products, and encourage safety.
Legislation must reflect the intent of WE THE PEOPLE and our demands. We are the government!
Sadly, the data also shows we are going deeper into the mud. It shows a very disturbing truth, that marijuana arrests are rising in the U.S., even as more states “legalize” Cannabis. This is being driven by enforcement against people for merely possessing the plant. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR), used to provide a graphic of a table which used to show the percentage of arrests accounted for by marijuana possession, but it was not in the recent publication, making it harder to find the actual FBI arrest data.
Many people are being deceived
When science and transparency of research is used Cannabis exhibits traits that are tremendously beneficial to the health of all animals, which includes humans.
It appears that many people are willing to give up almost all of the American values, like freedom, to gain a little more income.
Cannabis represents health, nutrition, and independence, but we have let the police continue policing, politicians to promulgate fear, and non-science to give pharmaceutical companies control.
People hold many different cognitions about their world, e.g. about their environment and their personalities. In an event wherein some of these cognitions clashes, an unsettled state of tension occurs and this is called cognitive dissonance.
To continue through our daily routines, we have to ignore the conflict of the huge contrast in the scientific reality of Cannabis versus the political paradox otherwise, we would go nuts. So we create an artificial acceptance of a reality that has to be artificially created. But to thrive this clash of reality must be destroyed to bring our lives closer to happiness, safety, and clarity.
Imagine what it was like to live without any laws controlling Cannabis before the myths and stereotypes were created by the media and manipulation of government. Our breakfast cereals, porridge, and mush, our bread, were made of locally grown plants and Cannabis were in many people’s yards, even in the cities of New york.
A large barrier to the change needed is in the mind and the Conformity Experiment by Solomon Asch demonstrates this. This experiment shows how the views of an individual are influenced by the “group think” of the collective.
A substantial part of the solution is to require full transparency of all companies, for the safety of the products, allegiance to the host country so as to prevent hostel and tyrannical manipulation of political structure with large amounts of money, and require a socially responsible engagement with the local communities. Remove the corporate definition of a person in law. We must know who the owners are of the private companies to avert the possibility of Domestic Terrorism.
“Cannabis is our essential food”
The rise in Cancer, epilepsy and many other ailments happens to correlate with allowing Cannabis to be taken from We The People in 1937, using lies to fool America and resulting in unimaginable deaths and suffering over the decades of untruth.
Excise tax artificially increases the retail price for consumers and contributes to the creation of a black market. Currently, the black market for Cannabis thrives, arrest statistics have gone up and the people who this all started to help, are being left in the dust and their lives are affected.
The excise taxes pay for some of society’s costs of a damaging substance, but what costs does Cannabis have on society when actual science is presented? If WE DEMAND to remove all references to marijuana and Cannabis in the (unconstitutional) laws, then there are no costs for policing, drug tests, eradication, rehab, etc.
Some have argued that excise tax on cigarettes has reduced consumption, but few recognize that those who can no longer afford it may start using other dangerous substances which are cheaper. The other missing data is how many smokers who have been priced out now use vaporizers, of which we do see many dangers with.
E-cigarette use has also increased among people. Between 2012 and 2013, 2.4 percent of adults aged 25 to 44 and 2 percent of adults aged 45 to 64 used e-cigarettes. By 2016, those rates increased to 4.2 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively. High School students have increased use by over 10.2% in the last 8 years. Middle school students went up from 0.6% in 2011 to over 3.3% today. There has been a shift, not a decrease in nicotine use.
Gold medal winners, inventors, scientists, writers, musicians, and every other walk of life have used Cannabis. It is clearly the time to end all the manipulation once and for all. Write a simple letter to your representative and mail it once, twice or 7 times a week. The most powerful step is to be a body in a crowd of protesters standing for the same thing, freedom, democracy and your Right to thrive.
Facts are better than models.
Politics and law must follow real science. Science must never follow politics or law. Unfortunately, this is what happens when we let paid shills, lobbyists, politicians, and public servants interfere with science and logic for money and power.
When we compile and try to comprehend the information about all the people killed, the families destroyed, the amount of money taken, jobs lost, and many other sufferings that the myths and false premise for law has caused in the United States of America, we see that it affects people across all walks of life and obviously prejudiced in directions to manipulate social constructs. Now is the time to face the TRUTH, stop the propagation of only more laws built on the old lies and correct the damage. Subsidies are in order and reparations are necessary to begin the healing needed to support the healing of all people with the potentials of the Cannabis Sativa L. plant.
