Who are the Prohibitionists?

If you are scared of cannabis, then you still have plenty of company. Mostly old timers, as it turns out:


This chart was found on a recent posting on the NORML web site.

I wonder how much those who are 65+ really know about cannabis. Do they base their opinion upon government propaganda? The government is concerned with political expediency and is not a reliable source on this particular subject.

Cannabis has been a taboo topic for a long time. Some people feared being called a pothead if they dared to speak out in favor of legalization. But the times, they are a-changing. I see the discussion of cannabis moving from the sidelines into the mainstream, where it belongs. People who never use it nevertheless recognize that cannabis poses less danger to society than the Powers-That-Be would have us believe. Prohibition of cannabis has even less scientific basis than the Prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s. Cannabis is safer. Later generations will look back upon the Prohibition years as collective hysteria.

The disparity in opinion between liberals and conservatives is not surprising. Modern-day conservatives seem to relish the idea of inflicting severe punishment for other people's peccadillos. Some favor making prison a nasty and brutish trauma as well. This draconian policy is not without costs. Conservatives have been in power for so long in the United States that today our prison system has over two million people. Such a huge amount of incarceration has consequences for the economy and the well-being of poor families. The cost is a long-term drain upon the national resources. If Americans were presented with a bill detailing the cost of Prohibition over the last century, the total would surely eclipse the budget deficit. Meanwhile, Holland gets by just fine with a liberal policy toward cannabis.