Have you ever wondered why some drugs are legal and some are not? Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable illness and death; alcohol directly causes eighty-eight thousand deaths each year and is linked to liver disease, heart attacks and cancer.
Yet they are all easily accessible once you reach a certain age. Have you ever noticed that medicines such as Ritalin and Adderall contain methamphetamine and most potent painkillers such as Percocet and Oxycontin are very similar in effect as heroin?
Both are synthesized from the opium poppy. Yet pills are not stigmatized like heroin and meth are; in fact, they are viewed favorably and pushed steadfastly by doctors for nearly every ailment possible. More and more children are being diagnosed with disorders such as ADD and bipolar disorder, without allowing them time to grow out of their habits or seeking alternative options such as meditation.
Pills are responsible for more deaths per year than car accidents, and drug fatalities have more than doubled among teenagers between 2000 and 2012, and more than tripled between the elderly ages fifty to sixty-nine. Drugs that are criminalized have historically been linked to minority groups and racist politicians and elites.
Marijuana was associated with Mexican immigrants and jazz musicians during the Great Depression, crack cocaine with inner-city African American youth and psychedelics with lazy hippies during the 60s. They were criminalized n order to maintain control and make these groups of people appear deviant to avoid scrutiny of other shady events that are going on. Drugs have always been a scapegoat for society's problems, yet legal ones are widely accepted and available because they make a profit.
It is all a numbers game; if you think the government is attempting to keep you safe by arresting you for marijuana, just go to your local doctor and try to get a Xanax or Ritalin prescription. You will be shocked at how easy it is. We must look out for ourselves and our own interests, because we cannot count on anyone else to.
Holistic methods and medicinal marijuana are not widely recognized as legitimate alternative medicines, even though there is a myriad of research to prove their effectiveness, without the harsh side effects on the mind and body and risk of addiction.
This shows that the war on drugs is ineffective and directed at the wrong enemy. If the government cared about keeping people safe from drugs, they would be focused on eradicating the problem without criminalization, as they did with tobacco. Alcohol would be considered just as dangerous, caffeine would be regulated, and sugar as well.
All of these products are addictive, yet they do not have the social stigma that illegal drugs do, despite the fact that they kill more people a year than all illegal drugs combined. It's time to re-think our interests and war on drugs; open your eyes to the real enemies.
