Gauntlet Thrown, Prohibitionists

Patrick Kennedy

The same stale (mostly inaccurate) counter-cannabis arguments have been tossed at us for decades from prohibitionists:

• It’s a gateway drug
• It’s highly addictive
• It supports drug cartels
• Smoke is smoke and cannabis is just as bad as tobacco

The litany goes on for miles and miles of imaginary road.

The new challenge I put to the prohibition peddlers is this: Prove it.

Taking current, proven, authoritative and scientifically sound data, show us all why cannabis should still be illegal. Before you wall yourself up in a fortress of circular logic and skewed facts, I further extend the challenge to couch your arguments in truly equitable language–language that rightly takes the currently and longtime legal alcohol and cigarettes into account.

After all, even our President agrees that cannabis is, at the very least, not more dangerous than alcohol. So, now it’s on you, Kevin Sabet, Gil Kerlikowski, Patrick Kennedy, and [insert random Prohibitionist mouthpiece] to prove your claims. Oh, just to save you guys the trouble of doing any tiring and undue research, here’s the definition of the word ‘prove’ to give you a head start:  to show the existence, truth, or correctness of (something) by using evidence, logic, etc. I wanted to give you the actual definition because I’m pretty sure the one you guys have been operating with is: to show the existence, truth, or correctness of (something) by using buzzwords, propaganda, and crocodile tears.

So there it is. We all know you guys can pour untold emotion and passion into your crusade, but unless you can start to bring some facts to the table and stilt your claims, I fear you will go the way of  Crystal Pepsi. And that would be a great tragedy. Where else am I going to get such awesomely researched data like this:

Saying no one's died from marijuana is like saying no one's died from cigarettes. Lung cancer kills. So do car crashes/ suicide related 2 MJ

— Kevin Sabet (@KevinSabet) February 4, 2014

Rook to Pawn 4. Your move.