An oft-neglected aspect of the debate over whether to legalize marijuana is that cannabis is an entheogen, a special class of plant which alters perception and cognition in ways that go beyond the effects of naturally occurring stimulants or sedatives. For untold millennia, human beings have gathered not only plants with nutritional and medicinal uses, but entheogens--sacred plants that are known to induce a range of metanormal experiences. This continuum includes transformative insights, ego transcendence, a sense of ecstatic union with the world outside the self, and a greater impetus to question commonly held norms and assumptions (note that these are key features of nearly all contemplative traditions, which suggests that people can achieve them without ingesting anything).* Entheogens contain psychoactive alkaloids (such as THC) which interact with human physiology in a way that encourages people to question long-held notions about themselves, society, government, and even the meaning of life... and to a particular type of leader, these are very bad things for the rabble to be doing with their consciousness.
I would posit that a resistance to the very idea of transformative insight may actually be a significant factor in the so-called "war on drugs," which considers marijuana--a plant with hundreds of medicinal and industrial applications--in basically the same category as crack cocaine. Those involved may only be operating on unconscious taboos, but that makes it no less of a witch hunt. People who use drugs which induce mystical or otherwise mind-expanding states seem to be systematically ostracized and criminalized by governments that are closer to the autocratic end of the political spectrum *ahem* whereas more progressive nations recognize that non-"hard" drug use is generally a victimless crime. That is to say, the main risk of harm is to oneself, in the form of abuse, but that harm to no one is possible when used in moderation and with responsible planning.
In the U.S., the prisons are overflowing with people (overwhelmingly black teens and young adults) who were picked up for possession of relatively small amounts of marijuana. Our system exposes them to hardened criminals who have committed multiple assaults or killings, not unlike throwing hundreds of innocent people from Iraq and Afghanistan in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they learned to both hate the American government and network with actual terrorists. Given the vast segment of the American populace that sometimes consume marijuana, can anyone reasonably argue that this is sensible policy any more? The cost to taxpayer is enormous, and it takes otherwise decent kids and exposes them to things like learning to make a shiv, or getting HIV because you were raped by another inmate.
I'm only speaking to the use of marijuana as an entheogen, but there is also a strong argument for the decriminalization of industrial hemp, which would be an immense boon to U.S. GDP... but that's another rant for another blog.
Link(s):
http://www.naturalnews.com/035534_hemp_paper_clothing.html for more on that.
*Michael Murphy, The Future of the Body
