Surgeon General Says Stop Jailing for Pot

Surgeon General Says Stop Locking People Up For Marijuana
Surgeon General Says Stop Locking People Up For Marijuana

The nation’s top doctor said on Sunday that it’s time to stop incarcerating people for marijuana use.

“When it comes to decriminalization, I don’t think that there is value to individuals or to society to lock people up for marijuana use,” Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said in a CNN appearance. “I don’t think that serves anybody well.”

Murthy was answering a question about a new draft federal marijuana legalization bill that was circulated last week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and other top senators.

While the surgeon general stopped short of endorsing full-scale commercial cannabis legalization, his comments do indicate support for an approach that would at least decriminalize low-level possession.

President Joe Biden, who opposes broad legalization, campaigned on a platform of incremental decriminalization and expunging past records, but has taken no steps to follow through on those promises since taking office.

“When it comes to marijuana, I think we have to let science guide us,” Murthy said in the CNN interview. “And we know that the science tells us that there are some benefits to marijuana from a medical perspective but there are also some harms that we have to consider—and we have to put those together as we think about the right policy.”

Murthy, who previously served as surgeon general under the Obama administration, said he is concerned about the effort to change cannabis laws getting ahead of the science.

“In terms of our approach to marijuana, I worry when we don’t let science guide our process and policymaking,” he said in the latest comments. “And as surgeon general that’s my role, is to work with policymakers who work with members in the community and the general public to help people understand what science tells us and where you gaps, to help fill those gaps with research and with honest inquiry.”

Previously, in 2015, Murthy said there is “preliminary data showing that for certain medical conditions and symptoms, that marijuana can be helpful.” (Snipped )


Granny

 

"I mean we all know the stakes of messing with large quantities of pot n shit while it was illegal...." FYI, unless you are in Canada, or Uruguay (or Mexico where it's been recently decriminalized) the recreational use of cannabis is still illegal! The government can arrest you at any time it wants if you use cannabis!

And if the government decides it "wants to get you", it doesn't have to be "large quantities"! How about 20 years for 2 "roaches"? It has happened- see "legal troubles" Timothy Leary - Wikipedia Leary is just an easily-found case.

Also, most of the extreme violence connected with cannabis is due to the artificially high price, not mental illness! Greed is the common theme to much of the violence related to cannabis.

Think on this- Cannabis and tomatoes take much the same care and climate- so how much did your last gram of tomatoes cost you? Logically, their prices should be in the same ballpark!

But until the government fully legalizes cannabis, and we can buy cannabis seeds from Burpee's Seeds and grow it like we do tomatoes, the price of cannabis will remain artificially high!