| Although marijuana has been illegal for quite some time now, many people who are in powerful positions in the United States and Canada have admitted to using marijuana at some point. This YouTube video outlines the marijuana use of the last 3 presidents of the United States. He brings up some good points at the end about discrimination against marijuana users. At the end of the video he asks the question that if any of these 3 presidents had been caught doing so and were given criminal records, could they have still bounced back to become the president? Assuming no, why is marijuana still illegal? How can the people enforcing these laws break them themselves without seeing the underlying problem? It is not necessarily an argument that they are hypocrites, but that they know marijuana shouldn't be illegal, yet the law remains. Here is another list of United States politicians that have admitted to using marijuana. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_politicians_who_admit_to_cannabis_use So many influential, powerful, and intelligent people have used and do use marijuana. How does the stigma and discrimination against marijuana users continue, even in these times of greater intelligence and heightened social awareness? Although this is the case right now, I feel as though through the internet and social media, that the power is coming back to the people, information is being shared at a much faster pace than in the past. Reefer madness seems like an absolute joke to most now, but back when that was be propagated to the public it was seen as the truth, because the information from the government was the only source of information that was given to the general public. People didn't articles and scientific papers constantly being put in front of them like we do now through social media. I would say a large percentage of the things that I see posted on Facebook are articles and videos that shed light on social, health, and economic issues. Through the rapid spread of information across the world, via social media and the internet, I personally feel as though the marijuana laws, and the stigma and discrimination surrounding marijuana use, is moving in the right direction. |