Marijuana - Harmful or Not?
One of the main arguments used by marijuana prohibitionists (people who want it to be illegal) is that marijuana is a dangerous and harmful drug. However whether or not marijuana is harmful is a moot point when it comes to legalization of this wonderful plant.
There are thousands of things in our daily lives that are far more harmful on both an individual and social scale than marijuana could ever be. Tobacco and alcohol are two that are often thrown around. However, they are only slightly significant - people just like to use them as examples because they are also seen as ‘bad’, even though they are legal.
Peanut butter kills more people each month than have ever been directly linked to marijuana use. So too do bicycles, sex, dog attacks, and police officers. Then we have the pollution from cars causing asthma, acid rain and tons of other social and environmental harms.
Of course the prohibition of pot causes far more harm than the plant itself does as well. Gangs and street crime surrounding the illegal trade in marijuana cause injury and damage to property and individuals.
So what does it mean to be ‘harmless’, and is it even relevant to any discussion of marijuana prohibition? Clearly you can see that NOTHING is 100% harmless, so ‘harm’ is an irrelevant concept in discussions of prohibition. This article from Salon.com provides another really interesting explanation of the idea.
Eric