This article was originally published by Cultivated and is republished here with permission.
Legal cannabis may carry risks. But treating it like gambling or AI pornography flattens the debate and ignores the public health, economic and regulatory benefits legalization can create.
There seems to be an emerging consensus among mainstream media: Legal cannabis is a “sin” like sports betting/prediction markets, and AI pornography.
That’s evidenced by a recent Axios piece from Axios founders Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen. The authors (normally very good) assert that the spread of legal cannabis, alongside sports betting and pornography, is one of three key reasons why modern America is “addicted,” and “money-hungry.”
Or, consider the fact that former Wall Street Journal reporter Julie Wernau is now writing a book that portrays legal cannabis as an “industrialized, high-potency drug, shaped by commercial forces.”
Let’s put the core argument of the Axios piece aside, which feels a bit Reagan-era moral panic to me, and consider whether cannabis really belongs alongside the other two.
Legal cannabis does carry risk. Despite what some advocates say, it’s a drug that many people use purely for recreational purposes, that is, to get high. I’m in that category of user myself, though the sleep benefits are certainly worthwhile. People shouldn’t drive intoxicated, whether cannabis or any other drug, nor should minors use it outside of strictly defined medical purposes.
Cannabis legalization carries lots of positives
The difference, though, is that there are myriad positive aspects to cannabis legalization, and we’re only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of research.
There’s compelling evidence that cannabis can help people manage pain without opioids, help them sleep better, and that, on a socio-economic level, cannabis creates economic opportunity and jobs for the formerly disenfranchised. …
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Author: Jeremy Berke / High Times
