Feb 5
Defending Your Marijuana Views: The Politically Correct Way
(9 votes, average: 4.89 out of 5)
Loading ...All too often, the case in defense of marijuana is tainted by prejudice, stupidity, and incoherence. In the spirit of political jargon, here’s how to defend your beliefs with more sophisticated wordplay.
Lesson 1 - Deflecting the issue
Q: You think marijuana should be legal? What are you, some kind of pothead?
A: I’ll tell you what I am. I am a firm believer in the philosophical notions of liberty and truth (this might throw off your opponent beyond recovery already). I therefore reject the continuation of a policy that stands in firm contradiction to those notions.
Lesson 2 - Give a little, Take a lot
Q: The truth is that marijuana is a dangerous substance. It causes respiratory illness, psychosis, memory loss, and other problems. How can you possibly call yourself a believer in the truth and deny these facts?
A: I’ll pretend for a moment, that your ‘facts’ are not grossly over-exaggerated and that the scientific support is unquestionable. The truth is that most of these claims are much different than the original reasons for criminalizing marijuana. The lies that it is toxic, creates murderers & heroine addicts, and that it causes permanent psychosis for all users - have long been proven false. If the original reasons for criminalizing it have proven false, there is no longer reason for it to remain criminal.1 234
Lesson 3 - Flipping the Issue; Go on the attack
A: These NEW claims you speak of, pale in comparison to the originals. Should we really ban anything that might increase the risk of common ailments? Should you be put in jail for eating cholesterol?
Lesson 4 - Hardcore logic for weak associations
Q: But marijuana use leads to harder drugs and profits go towards organized crime. How can you possibly support such results?
A: Profits go to organized crime because well, its a crime. If it weren’t a crime, its profits would go elsewhere. Similarly, heroine is a crime. Those people that get heavily involved in marijuana are more likely to get involved with heroine because, the same organized criminals are distributing it. Therefore, marijuana criminalization causes heroine use, not marijuana itself.
Lesson 5 - When all else fails, lie…well
Q: My daughter got into marijuana when she was 16. Today, she’s a crack addict prostituting herself for spare change. Its people like you that allow such things to continue. How do you live with yourself?
A: My grandfather was in the military. He smoked marijuana on a daily basis in order to cope with the stress and trauma, as did many of his fellow soldiers. Without marijuana, the allies would have struggled to defeat the German’s in World War II. I think a world where your daughter is a crack addicted prostitute is more pleasant than a world where each of us is in a slave camp, mutated by genetic experimentation. Don’t you?
- You can also suggest that marijuana has medical applications. Here’s some references to get you started: [↩]
- “We conclude that this CBM [cannabis-based medicine] may represent a useful new agent for treatment of the symptomatic relief of spasticity in MS.” -Christine Collin, MD, et al. “Randomized Controlled Trial of Cannabis-Based Medicine in Spasticity Caused by Multiple Sclerosis”. European Journal of Neurology. Vol. 14, No. 3, Page 290. Mar. 2007. [↩]
- ”Smoked cannabis was well tolerated and effectively relieved chronic neuropathic pain from HIV-associated sensory neuropathy The findings are comparable to oral drugs used for chronic neuropathic pain.” -Donald I. Abrams, MD et al. “Cannabis in Painful HIV-Associated Sensory Neuropathy: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial”. Neurology. Vol. 68, Pages 515-521. Feb. 2007. [↩]
- “Treatment with cannabinoids had been shown to reduce the invasiveness of cancer cells, but the cellular mechanisms underlying this effect were unclear.” -Burkhard Hinz, PhD, et. al. “Inhibition of Cancer Cell Invasion by Cannabinoids via Increased Expression of Tissue Inhibitor of Matrix Metalloproteinases-1″. Journal of the National Cancer Institute Vol. 100, Number 1, Page 51. Dec. 25, 2007. [↩]
10 Comments so far
Leave a comment
Hey Paul, I’m not trying to confront you on anything, I was just wondering where the scientific examples are. It seems hard to find any info on the benifits of pot without a strong-sounding argument against it. Or maybe I’m not looking in the right direction?
No problem Sean. I sometimes run away with things so its always good to be checked or confronted; beneficial for everyone. I’m not necessarily suggesting marijuana is beneficial for all people, but rather that the grounds for its criminalization are bogus. However, there is research to suggest its medicinal benefits for individuals with certain ailments.
Here’s a few recent studies to get you started:
1) “We conclude that this CBM [cannabis-based medicine] may represent a useful new agent for treatment of the symptomatic relief of spasticity in MS.”
-Christine Collin, MD, et al. “Randomized Controlled Trial of Cannabis-Based Medicine in Spasticity Caused by Multiple Sclerosis”. European Journal of Neurology. Vol. 14, No. 3, Page 290. Mar. 2007.
2) “Smoked cannabis was well tolerated and effectively relieved chronic neuropathic pain from HIV-associated sensory neuropathy The findings are comparable to oral drugs used for chronic neuropathic pain.”
-Donald I. Abrams, MD et al. “Cannabis in Painful HIV-Associated Sensory Neuropathy: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial”. Neurology. Vol. 68, Pages 515-521. Feb. 2007.
3) “Treatment with cannabinoids had been shown to reduce the invasiveness of cancer cells, but the cellular mechanisms underlying this effect were unclear.”
-Burkhard Hinz, PhD, et. al. “Inhibition of Cancer Cell Invasion by Cannabinoids via Increased Expression of Tissue Inhibitor of Matrix Metalloproteinases-1″. Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Vol. 100, Number 1, Page 51. Dec. 25, 2007.
prohibtion clearly never is going to work, so legalize, regulate, educate young and old and tell them the truth and not bullshit! provide treatment options for those who wish to get off their cutches they use to get through the day. END PROHIBITION NOW! STOP THE “WAR ON DRUGS” the people are suffering all over the world because of it.
Just out of curiosity Paul, if weed was legalized, to what degree would you like to see this realized? Would you want some kind of control, be it government or otherwise on how its distributed and used? The reason I ask is that although I think weed should be legal to an extent, I’m not sure I buy the agrument of individual responsibility as some may abuse the system to an untolerable extent. I know it’s an unfair comparison, but it reminds me of the reasoning American gun owners use.
Well, I’m quite flexible on this subject. I think government taxation similar to tobacco or alcohol would work wonders (we’re talking billions of dollars that could be infused into Health care as opposed to wasting millions). However, I also don’t see the abuse potential here. By abuse do you mean over-consumption?
I can see problems with intoxication working, driving, etc. Work intoxication should not be a legal bound though, the employer should take on this responsibility (with perhaps the exception of responsibilities such as surgeons, pilates, or anyone that may pose a danger to others). Also the standard age-limit should be implemented as well.
I don’t think that allowing people to grow their own should necessarily be restricted either. The thing about individual responsibility is that there is a big difference between freedoms that only affect yourself and freedoms that might harm others. So long as marijuana consumption does not pose a risk to others, why should there be any constraint?
To me, on a practical level, Complete legalization of weed would allow more opportunities for organized crime to benifit from smuggling across the border. Since those in power in the US believe that smoking pot will make their children become gay, athiest, secular-progressive, Darwinist, America-hating, unwed teenage mothers recieving more abortions and the subsequent takeover of Mexican illegal immigrants under the joint Communist leadership of Michael Moore and Osama.
In addition, anytime you introduce a product with possible negative qualities (irresponsible intoxication) on such a wide scale, there’s always an adverse effect. Not everyone will act responsibly as it’s unavoidable, but the degree to which people abuse it whether through general irresponibility or neglegent proliferation. While you do point out the ridiculous (and unfortunately popular) misconceptions, it is hard to tell whether or not unregulated use would have an overall benafical effect on society.
The first paragraph is missing a sentence at the end:
“Given this extremely popular belief in popular media (or at least on ‘Glen Beck’), it seems doubtful they’ll ever consider legalization and will probably crack down harder on the drug trade.”
Great Job! I love to see people working towards legalization.
From a practical level, yes, we’re looking at a political diarrhea of threats and bureaucratic bull. Practically speaking, its a big fucking challenge. That, however, has no bearing on whether it should or should be legalized. I’m not restricting legalization to one place or another. I think that the (near) global ban should be lifted. In that case, organized crime gets cut right out of the mix.
That said, I think that the overall benefit will far outweigh any possible ‘irresponsible intoxication’. In fact I would go even further to other drugs as well (but thats another subject). My guess is that the vast majority of organized crime is funded by illegal drugs, particularly marijuana in Canada. Add to that the benefits of more financial resources (from prison spending, taxation, and enforcement), the ability to use the police force more efficiently for violent crimes, and quite possibly a reduction in alcohol consumption (There is some research to suggest this possibility).
I find it very hard to buy the argument that the risk of irresponsible marijuana consumption somehow outweighs those benefits.
Fair enough.