I can clearly remember getting busted by my Uncle Ed while smoking a joint.
- It was the night after Thanksgiving and the whole extended family was gathered in my grandparents ranch house.
I had snuck into the backyard to smoke a little weed, not knowing Uncle Ed was out there smoking a cigar. He gave me a huge lecture about how dangerous and addictive pot was, all the while he was smoking tobacco and drinking liquor. Both of these substances are highly addictive, while medical cannabis is not… so why is medical cannabis even considered a harmful drug in the first place? The answer lies in capitalism, greed, and corruption. Medical cannabis and hemp were considered to be very dangerous to the tobacco industry. Medical cannabis was a cheaper crop to produce than tobacco, and offered a great many more benefits. The tobacco industry knew that medical cannabis might supplant tobacco as the cash crop for the South, so they bribed government officials and had it declared illegal. The entire history of medical cannabis has been through the lens of government corruption. Medical cannabis was never actually considered dangerous, this was a political move to help grow profits for the tobacco industry. Decades after the fact, many people just like my Uncle Ed still consider medical marijuana to be dangerous and addictive, all because of this government conspiracy. Even though medical cannabis is starting to be legalized across the country, I feel it is “too little, too late” because those medical cannabis laws have ruined the lives of millions of people.