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Reefer madness: The anti-marijuana messaging at the state Capitol is reminiscent of 1980 [1]
['More From Author', 'April', 'Matt Beckman']
Date: 2023-04-20
In the summer of 1985 Madonna dropped “Get into the Groove” and I was riding the boom on the front of a tractor spaying pink-colored Roundup herbicide on “ditch weed” and my friend’s shoes. My job was to eradicate ditch weed for the farmer, and I didn’t touch the stuff.
A few miles away in Wells were the remnants of the WWII hemp plant, which is still standing. We were told of the value of hemp to make rope, and the evils of marijuana, which would lead to depravity and crime.
A few years earlier, in fall 1980, I began my study of drugs, but not by taking them. I had just turned 11 and my fifth grade teacher dropped everything and spent two weeks of class time teaching us about drugs. They called it “Drug Unit.”
I still have the folder with anti-drug tracts and mimeographed lists of slang names for “street drugs.”
Drug Unit was an exploration of the dangers of smoking, alcohol, inhalants and “illicit street drugs,” including marijuana. The teacher was ahead of their time as this Drug Unit preceded Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign by nearly six years. In class we listened to audio tape re-enactments of a kid high on PCP getting run over by a semi-truck; learned of the dangers of heroin; and the evils of the main “gateway drug”: marijuana.
I came away from the Drug Unit scared of drugs and their nefarious potential.
I have reviewed all of the materials in my Drug Unit folder, and the most striking takeaway for me is that sitting here in 2023, nearly 43 years since Drug Unit, I am hearing identically hyperbolic, anti-drug propaganda in the news and in our state Legislature.
Sadly, several of the sources of this regressive, fear-based, anti-drug propaganda should be countering misinformation and providing up-to-date chemical health information to help educate the public.
We have also heard the anti-legalization side talk about how marijuana will interfere with adolescent and young adult brain development. There is abundant data showing that the human brain continues to develop into the 20s; neural pathways are not completely myelinated until the late 20s.
They have a point, yet we do not hear these same naysayers proposing to rewrite legislation related to individuals under 25 drinking alcohol, playing sports that result in head injuries, driving, joining the military, owning guns, etc.
The campaign against legalization is fundamentally about control and is focused on perpetuating fear-based stereotypes around marijuana use. The anti-legalization camp ignores one important fact — people under 25 are already using it and setting the age for legal purchase and consumption above 21 years will simply result in a black market for marijuana, thus undermining the beneficial aspects of legalization.
Legalization’s benefits include freedom of choice, economic development opportunities, positive chemical health messaging and help for those with substance use disorders who might otherwise avoid seeking treatment.
If the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party cannot legalize marijuana with the current leadership trifecta, it will be partly due to a lack of response by the DFL to the unchecked War on Drugs and misinformation campaign that has been advanced by various prominent entities that are literally stuck in 1980 with their rhetoric about marijuana as a “gateway drug.”
To be sure, the “gateway” concept has data to back it, but it isn’t particularly useful in crafting public policy, since many drugs that affect the brain can be a “gateway,” and both alcohol and tobacco are gateway drugs whose products are currently available to those under 25 in Minnesota.
Opponents’ insistence that a drug known to humans for millennia — currently in wide use even in Minnesota and legalized in 21 states — is going to unravel the fabric of our society and lead to widespread mayhem is unfounded.
The anti-legalization movement tells us “We aren’t ready yet,” but their supporters are often just re-hashing themes from the 1930s film “Reefer Madness” by embracing stereotypes of drug addicts and opposing harm reduction strategies like legalization. Let’s be clear, for many in the anti-legalization crowd, our state will never be ready to legalize marijuana.
Until leaders in our government and in the substance use disorder treatment industry move beyond the War on Drugs mentality and adopt legalization and harm reduction approaches, I am not confident people in Minnesota will be receiving the best representation or care for their chemical health and SUDs.
By encouraging our legislators to pass legalization, we will help Minnesota enter the 21st century. We can hope that the Legislature and Gov. Tim Walz will fully legalize all marijuana and hemp products, expunge all marijuana convictions, standardize dosing and dispensing, standardize allowable municipal regulation, tax it, treat the SUDs and then bud out.
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[1] Url:
https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/04/20/reefer-madness-the-anti-marijuana-messaging-at-the-state-capitol-is-reminiscent-of-1980/
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