One of the main reasons marijuana is still illegal, despite the dozens of good arguments for legalizing it and the complete lack of a reasonable rationale for keeping it illegal, is that any time we make an argument for legalization, the anti-pot fanatics can just say “Eh, you just want it legalized because you’re a big stoner and you want to get stoned all the time.”
Despite not addressing most of the reasons for legalization at all, it’s a pretty effective argument because lots of marijuana advocates, like myself, really are. Big stoners, that is. Who want to get high all the time.
I like to think that even if I’d never smoked marijuana I’d be in favor of legalization, because the government has no business telling people what they can or can’t do in their private lives, but I must admit I’d probably be a lot less vocal about it.
For instance, I understand the libertarian objection to laws saying motorcyclists have to wear helmets and children in cars must be in special seats, but since I comply with those laws anyway (or would, if I rode a motorcycle), I’m not exactly out in the streets protesting those specific affronts.
But it’s not just about getting stoned any more. The evidence is mounting that it is a goddamned miracle drug. There is a ton of anecdotal evidence that marijuana cures cancer (yeah, you can criticize anecdotal evidence, but once you reach a critical mass of anecdotal evidence, it becomes statistical evidence, and if it’s not specifically contradicted by scientific experiment, well then…) and now it appears it may be a cure for epilepsy, too.
Of course, if we were to wait for the scientific research, the federal fact finding commissions, the clinical trials and the whole FDA approval process, it might never become legal or usable as a medicine.
But that’s not how things work in the age of the internet. Once there are a few stories out there (anecdotal evidence), then everybody who has epilepsy, or knows somebody who has epilepsy, wants to get their hands on some of that anti-epileptic strain of weed.
Legal or not, the market is driven.
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