Democrats seem hellbent on reforming the marijuana industry. Yet their changes could have devastating long-term consequences. They seem determined to turn the United States into Amsterdam. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act last month. It’s the latest political maneuver to legalize marijuana in the country.
“For far too long, the federal prohibition on cannabis and the war on drugs has been a war on people, and particularly people of color,” Schumer said, except efforts to keep drugs off the street and ensure the safety of people were never a “war on people.” Democrats used similar rhetoric to push criminal justice reforms, and we have all witnessed the record-breaking crime resulting from those policies.
“The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act will be a catalyst for change by removing cannabis from the federal list of controlled substances, protecting public health and safety, and expunging the criminal records of those with low-level cannabis offenses, providing millions with a new lease on life,” Schumer said. “A majority of Americans now support legalizing cannabis, and Congress must act by working to end decades of over-criminalization. It is time to end the federal prohibition on cannabis.”
Once again, Democrats try to rationalize and legitimize criminal behavior by prioritizing criminals under the guise of social equality. Instead of holding lawbreakers accountable, they’re concerned about giving them a “new lease on life” despite repeated offenses that harm our communities’ public health and safety.
“The CAOA would deschedule marijuana, allow states to legalize it, and help ‘individuals adversely impacted by the war on drugs,'” said Connor Kubeisy, a communications and policy associate at Smart Approaches to Marijuana. “The bill lacks several key public health provisions, such as a potency cap, which would limit the THC concentration of marijuana.”
One of the main concerns is addiction. While Democrats frequently like to portray marijuana as harmless, akin to enjoying a pharmaceutical nirvana of relaxation listening to Jimmy Buffett or Snoop Dogg, nothing could be further from the truth.
“Users of high-potency marijuana are four times as likely to become addicted to it, and daily users of high-potency marijuana are nearly five times as likely to develop psychosis,” Kubeisy said.
“Others dismiss concerns about the increases in potency that follow commercialization by claiming users will adjust their consumption between high- and low-THC products. However, surveys indicate that nearly 1-in-3 users are unaware of what their marijuana’s potency is,” Kubeisy said. “The legalization of marijuana shifts the brunt of the issue from the criminal justice system onto the public health system.”
Support for the legalization of marijuana has little to do with any scientific health research and more to do with its recent normalization. Athletes, actors, and singers enjoy the drug recreationally and have propagandized its use to decrease the stigma around it. Yet these efforts don’t address the valid concerns of marijuana use, just the hedonistic pursuits of its recreational use.
Kubeisy is also concerned about the implications of CAOA. Now that the propaganda has evolved from its use among the affluent elite to bills in Congress, it makes sense that higher percentages of people approve of its use.
“It should be no surprise that as more youth are exposed to favorable depictions of marijuana, their rates of use will subsequently increase,” Kubeisy said.
Additionally, as Kubeisy told me, the CAOA “lacks provisions that would mandate labeling requirements and protect the mental health of users.” All Democrats seem to care about with CAOA is legalizing marijuana, no matter the risks it poses to communities — especially communities of people of color, as Democrats like to say.
“While there’s growing support for turning the page on the war on drugs, especially amid unprecedented overdose rates, debates remain on how society should view substance use and address misuse,” Kubeisy said. “We don’t want to be encouraging drug use, which can cause irreversible harm.”
Yet not all is doom and gloom on the marijuana front. There is a bipartisan House-passed bill that would provide a more thorough analysis of the health effects of marijuana, Kubeisy told me.
“This research bill will help answer some of the questions about marijuana’s risks and potential benefits,” he said. “Marijuana Moment reported this legislation would be ‘the first stand-alone cannabis reform proposal to ever reach the president’s desk.'”
Until that bill is passed, the rush to legalize the drug should stop. Numerous studies show the dangerous risks associated with marijuana use. Consider a recent study by Fiona Clement, a health policy researcher at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine.
The study involved an analysis of “the findings of 68 reviews of cannabis research.” Of the 68, over 91% revealed links “between the drug and various adverse outcomes, including impaired driving, increased risk of stroke and testicular cancer, brain changes that could affect learning and memory, and a particularly consistent link between cannabis use and mental illnesses involving psychosis.”
“The calls to liberalize marijuana laws have grown louder and become a more central piece of the Democratic agenda. However, they leave much to be desired and threaten the well-being of countless Americans,” Kubeisy said. “Amid looming crises, including an overdose epidemic, helping more Americans get high should be the last thing our policymakers are focused on.”
