Got to Get You Out of Our Laws Don't let the potheads ruin freedom PI Editorial
Generally, there are two types of marijuana users. First is the most commonly stereotyped “stoner,” depicted in the media of movies (e.g. Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and television (e.g. Shaggy from Scooby Doo). These are the dead-end job, ambitionless abusers who ingest marijuana to escape their already dismal lives. They represent the image which is most often associated with marijuana use. Certainly, the average American high school is teeming with similar directionless pot-smoking losers, further cementing this public perception.
Neoprohibitionists seize on these abounding examples of squandered talent and vanishing ambition as proof that cannabis is nothing but a societal cancer that should be illegal on utilitarian grounds, if nothing else. They ask, Why should people even need to smoke pot? Why should we bother to make it legal for these people to destroy their lives?
The answer is that there is also a second type of cannabis user who is largely ignored in the media or thought non-existent by the public. These users utilize cannabis to enrich their already-fulfilling lives. Marijuana is not seen as an escape to these users, but rather a tool to aid relaxation, increase creativity, and magnify the awareness of the senses.
Despite the relative scarcity of the second group, their existence is well-known to all Americans. Any moderate fan of music, from any period, certainly should know this. The entire Beatles' album Rubber Soul, for example, was written under the influence of marijuana, and the song Got to Get You Into My Life is simply Paul McCartney's ode to pot. The list of artists who have similarly used pot to assist inspiration runs ad infinitum.
Cannabis, like nearly everything else, can be misused or used beneficially, depending on the user. It can accelerate the demise of those who are otherwise disposed to slothful underachievement, but also enhance the performance of those determined to create and innovate.
Most people choose not to smoke pot, and for good reason. Most people simply lack the ambitious self-discipline to harness the beneficial features of cannabis without weakly succumbing to its negative temptations.
But there are others, no matter how few, who can sustain both cannabis use and a productive lifestyle. America's public policy should not criminalize the harmless personal choices of its productive citizens, either on grounds of economics, ethics, utilitarianism, or natural law. No matter how few they are, their minority status shouldn't deny them freedom.
It is helpful to remember that legality is not social approval, and our laws recognize this. America's public policy constantly allows freedoms that the public may not find morally appetizing, including the rights of citizens to confront stress with a cigarette, sadness with alcohol, a pay cut with a lottery ticket, fatigue with caffeine, or boredom with salvia divinorum. The ability to smoke pot, an indulgence with equivalent risk, should be no different.
The above work is the opinion of The Prometheus Institute.
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