PERSONA OF MARIJUANA DISTORTED IN AMERICA

Last night while flipping through the channels, searching hopelessly for
quality entertainment, I stumbled across a government subsidized
anti-marijuana commercial.

A knot formed in my stomach and I was instantly sickened as I realized the
creators of the commercial were equating using marijuana with supporting
terrorism.

I quickly flipped the channel back to CNN and caught the end of an Ari
Fleischer press conference. The administration's spokesman was being
questioned about North Korea's weapons proliferation program.

But images of the previous commercial continued to reverberate in my mind.
All I could think about was America's ignorance proliferation program. The
administration's war against drugs is a politically correct label for a
psychological war being conducted on America's youth.

In reality, prohibition of marijuana causes more problems than it solves,
ruining thousands more lives than it saves, while restricting tax-paying
citizens from enjoying the benefits of this plant.

I respect the constitutional rights of each citizen to choose whether or
not to use marijuana.

The responsible use of marijuana by adults yields no societal affects that
render a need for local, state or federal government to restrict the
possession, use and cultivation of cannabis sativa L.

But public persona has been distorted in America, shielding the personal,
medicinal and industrial benefits of this plant. In the rest of the world,
public persona has shifted.

The legalization movement that has swept through Canada, most of Europe,
and several states in America, started initially by changing public
persona. In the world, there are two superpowers: the United States and
public opinion.

In the United States, public opinion has been transformed gradually over
the latter half of the twentieth century, culminating in the buy-a-sack and
support bin Laden attitude today.

Ironically, despite America's bureaucratic halt on hemp cultivation, a
domestic industry still exists and continues to grow. The European Union,
the United Nations, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade recognize industrial hemp as a commercial
crop. In America we are sending a mixed message to our farmers: we'll
import it, but you can't grow it.

Until public persona changes in the United States, as it has in more than
30 nations, the atrocities will continue. Point in fact: America is a close
second to only Russia in our rate of incarceration per 100,000. Each year,
nearly 750,000 people are incarcerated in America for marijuana-related
offenses alone, ruining thousands of innocent lives.

This overwhelming influx into our prison system could be easily remedied by
legalizing marijuana. And, the widespread use of treatment alternatives to
jail sentences for convicted drug addicts would be the first victorious
battle in a war against drugs that up until now, only exists in the minds
of freedom-lovers worldwide.