{"id":9682,"date":"2023-06-03T00:13:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-03T00:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cannabis.net\/blog\/opinion\/the-dark-side-of-legalization-vs.-the-dark-side-of-prohibition-an-indepth-riskbenefits-analysis"},"modified":"2023-06-03T00:13:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-03T00:13:00","slug":"the-dark-side-of-legalization-vs-the-dark-side-of-prohibition-an-in-depth-risk-benefits-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/the-dark-side-of-legalization-vs-the-dark-side-of-prohibition-an-in-depth-risk-benefits-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Side of Legalization vs. the Dark Side of Prohibition &#8211; An In-Depth Risk\/Benefits Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/the-dark-side-of-legalization-vs-the-dark-side-of-prohibition-an-in-depth-risk-benefits-analysis\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/the-dark-side-of-legalization-vs-the-dark-side-of-prohibition-an-in-depth-risk-benefits-analysis.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"cost benefits cannabis \" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/the-dark-side-of-legalization-vs-the-dark-side-of-prohibition-an-in-depth-risk-benefits-analysis-1.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Dark side Vs Darkside &#8211; An in depth Risk\/Benefit Analysis<\/p>\n<p>Pitting the \u201cDark Side\u201d of Legalization vs the \u201cDark Side\u201d of Prohibition<\/p>\n<p>As I got ready to do my research for my next batch of articles, I stumbled upon a cannabis opinion that spoke about the \u201cdark side of legalization\u201d. According to the author, the experimentation of legalization has failed on all fronts and argued that despite the general support for cannabis legalization &#8211; it\u2019s a bad idea.<\/p>\n<p>As one would expect, there has been a lot of pushback on this article trying to disprove some of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/05\/17\/opinion\/marijuana-legalization-disaster.html\">wild claims in the article.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In fact, I\u2019m going to use it and compare it to the <a href=\"https:\/\/cannabis.net\/blog\/opinion\/why-marijuana-prohibitionists-are-like-virgins-talking-about-sex\">\u201cDark side\u201d of prohibition<\/a>. While the author might think that he\u2019s \u201ccheck mated\u201d everyone, I\u2019m going to show him that even if cannabis isn\u2019t living up to the expectations &#8211; it\u2019s infinitely better than the prohibition alternative.<\/p>\n<p>This article is going to be a masterclass in dismantling Prohibitionist rhetoric and a staunch reminded that \u201cprohibition= death\u201d &#8211; in the hundreds of thousands.<\/p>\n<p>As always, I\u2019ll be quoting the Times Article and responding to each claim.<\/p>\n<p>Here we go!<\/p>\n<h3>Of all the ways to win a culture war, the smoothest is to just make the other side seem hopelessly uncool. So it\u2019s been with the march of marijuana legalization: There have been moral arguments about the excesses of the drug war and medical arguments about the potential benefits of pot, but the vibe of the whole debate has pitted the chill against the uptight, the cool against the square, the relaxed future against the Principal Skinners of the past. &#8211; Ross Douthat<\/h3>\n<p>While it\u2019s true the uptightness of prohibitionists is evident &#8211; the debate surrounding cannabis legalization has never been about \u201ccool vs uncool\u201d. I\u2019ve been writing on cannabis culture, events, etc for over 15-years and throughout this time have I never used this rhetoric to win arguments.<\/p>\n<p>While Douthat wants to pit prohibitionists as just \u201cold timey folk\u201d who simply aren\u2019t \u201ccool enough\u201d to understand legalization &#8211; the truth of the matter is that if you\u2019re going to want to be a prohibitionist, you can\u2019t just eat around the fecal matter in the middle of the \u201cshit sandwich\u201d that is prohibition.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not about cool or uncool, it\u2019s always been about power, control, human rights, and human health. It\u2019s about policies that take non-crimes and turn them into crimes. It\u2019s about police resources being wasted on prosecuting non-violent crimes. It\u2019s about wasting taxpayer money. It\u2019s about bodily autonomy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCool\u201d and \u201cUncool\u201d is at the bottom of a very long list of other actually legitimate things that Douthat simply doesn\u2019t want to look at &#8211; so while he is presenting his Darkside, I\u2019ll present my own version of it &#8211; but reflecting the Darkside of prohibition.<\/p>\n<h3>But Lehman explains in detail why the second-order effects of marijuana legalization have mostly vindicated the pessimists and skeptics. First, on the criminal justice front, the expectation that legalizing pot would help reduce America\u2019s prison population by clearing out nonviolent offenders was always overdrawn, since marijuana convictions made up a small share of the incarceration rate even at its height. But Lehman argues that there is also no good evidence so far that legalization reduces racially discriminatory patterns of policing and arrests. In his view, cops often use marijuana as a pretext to search someone they suspect of a more serious crime, and they simply substitute some other pretext when the law changes, leaving arrest rates basically unchanged.<\/h3>\n<p>In this section, Douthat simply echoes the sentiments of another \u201clibertarian turned prohibitionist\u201d. In this case, he argues that \u201clegalizing would help reduce the prison population\u201d and while there is a case for this &#8211; the impact of legalization would be better judged in \u201carrest rates\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Many people who get busted for pot &#8211; especially these days &#8211; get cited for misdemeanors because there is already a great \u201cdecriminalization effect\u201d in many places. Very few places will actually send you to prison for an ounce.<\/p>\n<p>However, \u201carrests\u201d and similar actions are far more common. In fact, cannabis was a \u201ccarte blanche\u201d for law enforcement to arrest or search anyone they like. It would be a weapon in their hands to get people to cooperate, and it was used by Nixon to silence war protestors.<\/p>\n<p>Cannabis was never meant to be on the Control Substance Act, according to Nixon\u2019s own commission and, by the admission of one of his staffers &#8211; was purely motivated by political reasons to disrupt anti war protests.<\/p>\n<p>Now, let\u2019s start talking economics. How much does a marijuan arrest (NOT Imprisonment) cost the US tax payer?<\/p>\n<p><em>The ACLU claims that every weed arrest costs the American taxpayer $750, and states spend more than $500 million per annum to arrest people for cannabis possession.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>More importantly, every arrest occupies the time of a law enforcement officer. It jams up the criminal justice system and reduces law enforcement\u2019s ability to focus on actual crimes.<\/p>\n<p>This has always been the core argument for cannabis legalization. Federally speaking, \u201csimple possession\u201d is almost never present but most people get charged with \u201cintent to distribute\u201d. This is a key difference.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to quantity it matters because you get charged for different crimes. If you have a pound, you\u2019ll not get charged as a person who consumes a lot of weed &#8211; you\u2019ll be charged as a dealer.<\/p>\n<p>To overlook this fact within the argument of arrests\/imprisonment is negligible. Which is why the argument that legalization had zero impact on incarceration rates is false.<\/p>\n<p>The Dark Side of prohibition shows us that by keeping cannabis illegal, you give the police unprecedented power to seize your property and your person based on a non-lethal, non-violent act and can increase your jail time based on quantity.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"REEFER MADNESS WASHINGTON EXAMINER\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/the-dark-side-of-legalization-vs-the-dark-side-of-prohibition-an-in-depth-risk-benefits-analysis-2.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>So legalization isn\u2019t necessarily striking a great blow against mass incarceration or for racial justice. Nor is it doing great things for public health. There was hope, and some early evidence, that legal pot might substitute for opioid use, but some of the more recent data cuts the other way: A new paper published in The Journal of Health Economics found that \u201clegal medical marijuana, particularly when available through retail dispensaries, is associated with higher opioid mortality.\u201d There are therapeutic benefits to cannabis that justify its availability for prescription, but the evidence of its risks keeps increasing: This month brought a new paper strengthening the link between heavy pot use and the onset of schizophrenia in young men.<\/h3>\n<p>Firstly, when checking out study he cited claiming that marijuana had a higher opioid mortality within the abstract they have this sentence, \u201c<em>A likely mechanism for these effects is the emergence of illicit fentanyl\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Meaning that, \u201cillegally produced fentanyl\u201d is likely to blame for the increased deaths. Furthermore, medical cannabis legalization and cannabis legalization in general has shown to decrease the use of opioids.<\/p>\n<p>A recent study published in <a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamanetworkopen\/fullarticle\/2800813?resultClick=1\">The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)<\/a> found that patients having access to medical marijuana for a longer duration led to a decrease in prescription opioid use for chronic pain. Other studies have also linked legalization of medical marijuana to a decrease in opioid prescriptions. In states that have legalized medical marijuana, opioid prescriptions decreased by 2.11 million daily doses a year, which increased to 3.7 million when dispensaries opened up. Another study by the University of Kentucky found that states that had legalized medical marijuana saw a 5.9% drop in opioid prescriptions.<\/p>\n<p>With a reduction of daily doses between 2.11 &#8211; 3.7 million post legalization, this indicates that there is a net positive in terms of public health. To claim otherwise is simply lazy.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to the \u201cDarkside\u201d of prohibition &#8211; people are forced to obtain unregulated product or choose a pharmaceutical option. Most cannabis patients opted out of pharmaceuticals due to the negative side effects.<\/p>\n<p>But of course, Douthat could give two shits about those who suffer. For him \u201cthe smell\u201d is annoying or \u201csome people with mental health disorders could be at risk\u201d. But how many more people are there with chronic illness, with PTSD, with anxiety disorders, with eating disorders &#8211; that utilize cannabis safely to treat their symptoms.<\/p>\n<p>Do they not matter? Do we only talk about the adverse effects and ignore all the positives?<\/p>\n<h3>And the broad downside risks of marijuana, beyond extreme dangers like schizophrenia, remain as evident as ever: a form of personal degradation, of lost attention and performance and motivation, that isn\u2019t mortally dangerous in the way of heroin but that can damage or derail an awful lot of human lives. Most casual pot smokers won\u2019t have this experience, but the legalization era has seen a sharp increase in the number of noncasual users. Occasional use has risen substantially since 2008, but daily or near-daily use is up much more, with around 1??6 million Americans, out of ?more than 50 million users, now suffering from what ??is termed marijuana use disorder.<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cPersonal degradation?\u201d I know countless long term cannabis users who have no \u201cpersonal degradation\u201d. They are focused, disciplined, and high achievers. As you can note, this is pure prohibitionist rhetoric &#8211; attacking the character of a \u201cstereotype\u201d while ignoring the performance of the individual.<\/p>\n<p>While the vast majority of the daily users aren\u2019t \u201cproblematic\u201d in their behavioral assessments according to the DSM-V &#8211; marijuana use disorder is incredibly subjective. Most people also tend to modulate their consumption over the years.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, these behavioral norms are often ignored to support particular narratives. Furthermore, alcohol also has the \u201cpotential to derail\u201d, so under Douthat\u2019s reasoning we should outlaw this as well?<\/p>\n<p>Video games? Social Media? Sports? Sex? All of these things has the potential to become problematic and if that is the metric to prohibit them &#8211; life is going to get boring quite quickly.<\/p>\n<h3>In practice, it hasn\u2019t worked that way. Because of all the years of prohibition, a mature and supple illegal marketplace already exists, ready to undercut whatever prices the legal market charges. So to make the legal marketplace successful and amenable to regulation, you would probably need much more enforcement against the illegal marketplace \u2014 which is difficult and expensive and, again, obviously uncool, in conflict with the good-vibrations spirit of the legalizers.<\/h3>\n<p>While this is somewhat true, the reasons why the black market continues to thrive are two fold. Partial legalization coupled with over-regulation. You can\u2019t simply legalize cannabis and tax the hell out of it to compete with the black market.<\/p>\n<p>I have written on this extensively and proposed a 2-Tier system which would effectively make the \u201cpublic tier\u201d compete with the black market and have the \u201cprivate tier\u201d be reserved for national\/international commerce which would require heavier regulation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cannabis.net\/blog\/opinion\/the-argument-for-cheaper-cannabis-licensing-and-lowcost-growing-access\">You can read about that here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While Douthat argues that you would need more regulation, the truth of the matter is that you need to decentralize cannabis production in such a way that the black market cannot compete\u00a0 with the public market, and the private sector aims at providing avenues of mass distribution.<\/p>\n<h3>I expect legalization to advance much further before either of these alternatives builds significant support. But eventually the culture will recognize that under the banner of personal choice, we\u2019re running a general experiment in exploitation \u2014 addicting our more vulnerable neighbors to myriad pleasant-seeming vices, handing our children over to the social media dopamine machine and spreading degradation wherever casinos spring up and weed shops flourish.<\/h3>\n<h3>\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h3>With that realization, and only with that realization, will the squares get the hearing they deserve.<\/h3>\n<p>Once again, we\u2019re seeing the word \u201cdegradation\u201d being used. An assumption that the majority of cannabis users are \u201csuffering\u201d or \u201cstupid\u201d. Even within Douthat\u2019s own words &#8211; the majority of users won\u2019t suffer these consequences.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, because a minority \u201ccould be affected\u201d &#8211; he would rather opt in for harsher policies that strip the individual from their own faculties. They no longer become \u201cowners of their own bodies\u201d but rather need to follow the rules set forth by others.<\/p>\n<p>The word you\u2019re looking for is \u201cslavery\u201d. <a href=\"https:\/\/cannabis.net\/blog\/opinion\/how-the-controlled-substance-act-created-a-new-form-of-modern-slavery\">I wrote about that here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know what Douthat\u2019s views on life is, but by reading his other material one could assume that he\u2019s in favor of \u201cwomen\u2019s right to choose\u201d. You know, abortion rights and all that jazz.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, women only have rights when it comes to abortion. If a woman chooses to smoke weed or do any other drug &#8211; Douthat would much rather see her in jail as with anyone else.<\/p>\n<p>For someone who speaks of \u201cwokeness\u201d &#8211; it seems to me that he is in fact more aligned with his \u201cconservative counterparts\u201d than he claims to be.<\/p>\n<p>Society isn\u2019t exploiting anyone. Certain corporations are. Social Media, games, alcohol, entertainment\u2026hell, the very publication that he writes for utilizes their clout to sway political opinion. Running Op Eds that favor a particular political ideology.<\/p>\n<p>The point is, there is a disconnect between these alleged \u201cprogressives\u201d that talk about equity and rights, but then want Uncle Sam to violently rape the rights and liberties of those who don\u2019t align with their own internalized view of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Does cannabis legalization come with flaws? Yes! The way we are legalizing it is not the best. I wrote about the answer, and it\u2019s far simpler than one would think.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is \u201chow\u201d it\u2019s being done and understanding that government is interested in money over the rights of people &#8211; is why the problems of the black market persist.<\/p>\n<p>The fact of the matter is that there is a whole aspect of prohibition Douthat ignores which is the countless dead bodies that results from drug prohibition. You see, all the drugs being produced by illegal cartels and sold under prohibition makes them problematic.<\/p>\n<p>In Mexico, during 2006-2011, there were hundreds of thousands of dead bodies as a result of the drug war. In the 1980s, Colombia saw tens of thousands of dead bodies as a result of prohibition.<\/p>\n<p>HSBC and many other major banks were caught\u00a0 laundering money for cartels.Dirty drugs were sold for profits, people were ODing and left\u00a0 to die due to punitive drug laws. The police stole billions of dollars without convicting anyone for a crime &#8211; and the list goes on.<\/p>\n<p>Prohibition is far more sinister than legalization. In every metric, for every argument\u2026legalization simply is the better option. If you\u2019re worried about the negatives, work on creating policies of education &#8211; invest in empowering people, instead of trying to limit their freedom through draconian \u201cright leaning\u201d laws that was literally founded on deception and racism\u2026but hey Douthat the \u201cprogressive liberal\u201d seems to be totally okay with that.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>HEALTH BENEFITS AND SAVING LIVES, READ ON&#8230;<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cannabis.net\/blog\/medical\/47500-deaths-annually-can-be-prevented-by-cannabis-legalization-says-new-study\"><img alt=\"SAVING LIVES WITH LEGALIZATION\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/the-dark-side-of-legalization-vs-the-dark-side-of-prohibition-an-in-depth-risk-benefits-analysis-3.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cannabis.net\/blog\/medical\/47500-deaths-annually-can-be-prevented-by-cannabis-legalization-says-new-study\"><strong>47,000 LIVES A YEAR SAVED WITH CANNABIS LEGALIZATION?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dark side Vs Darkside &#8211; An in depth Risk\/Benefit Analysis Pitting the \u201cDark Side\u201d of Legalization vs the \u201cDark Side\u201d of Prohibition As I got ready to do my research for my next batch of articles, I stumbled upon a cannabis opinion that spoke about the \u201cdark side of legalization\u201d. According to the author, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}