BBC 2's ! "America's
Stoned Kids" with addiction expert John Marsden was as disappointing as
his previous documentaries on cannabis - pretty one-sided, he focussed
more on one or two teenagers (called kids) and the risk that he put at
one in four would carry on using cannabis which he calls dependency.
After showing the availability of medicinal cannabis he twisted it to show how readily available cannabis is to teenagers (as it is in most places where there is no medical availabilty).
Marsden tried to use the scare-mongering idea that if cannabis is
avaialble legally to adults, more "kids" would become addicted and then
used that to oppose legalisation - he completely ignored the pain and
suffering cause by prohibition and unjust punishment.
How can
he try to justify punishing victimless and medicinal users, argue
against legal controlled commercial supply and cultivation of one's own
cannabis because "kids" risk their health and safety?
Because
the argument that adults should be punished or put at risk - forced to
deal with ciminal suppliers or break the law by cultivating the plant
because of what the kids do - if followed as a principle upon which to
base laws, then adults would be banned from doing anything that could
be harmful to young people. Drinking, driving, ....
It's obvious to me that both kids and aults are at greater risk if they are left at the mercy of less-than-scrupulous and criminal drug dealing profiteers than they would be at risk of a regulated supply system with quality control, credible point-of-sale advice, hygiene, age restrictions and tax on profits.
As for the closing sequence in which John Marsden shows cannabis cookies and sweets - an alternative was to smoking cannabis - and complains that they may be attractive to the kids so ought not be allowed - that sort of logic made nonsense of the whole show,
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