The recent overturning of marijuana use convictions by President Biden was a very wise move. While I do not encourage marijuana use, and have no interest in it myself, it has never made sense to me that alcohol and cigarettes are perfectly legal while marijuana gets one thrown in jail.
The difference is that cigarettes and alcoholic drinks tend to be manufactured by big companies, with money and political power, while marijuana is something that can be grown in one's backyard. What I have long believed is that alcohol and tobacco companies used their political power to remove marijuana as a competitor by getting it made illegal. We saw this in the compound posting, "Investigations", December 2018, section 30) MARIJUANA.
How many lives have been ruined by a prison sentence for marijuana use while cigarettes and alcohol, which are just as bad, are perfectly legal? An arrest can really start a person's life on a downward spiral. This is one of the greatest injustices in the world and I have long been sure that it is the result of major companies using their political power to eliminate marijuana as a competitor by getting it made illegal.
Marijuana is not good, and I am certainly not endorsing it. But it shouldn't be illegal if alcohol and cigarettes are legal.
The same can be said of recent legislation against vaping. Why wasn't there matching legislation against cigarettes? Is it just to eliminate vaping as a competitor?
The way I see it there is a difference between being "wrong" and being "illegal". The purpose of the law is to facilitate the orderly operation of society. But it is completely unrealistic to expect the judicial system to deal with everything that is "wrong". Neither healthy behavior or sainthood can be legislated. What this means is that something being "wrong" does not necessarily mean that it should be illegal.
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