Cannabis normalization is steadily sweeping across the much of the planet. However, one would never know this should they choose to visit a backward, unenlightened country known as the United States. A recent headline speaks for itself.
Canadian cannabis investor gets lifetime U.S. entry ban as conference goers face scrutiny at border
An investor in completely legal public companies was traveling to the United States to attend a public investment conference. He was not only denied entry to the U.S. but slapped with a lifetime travel ban. This is not merely absurdly punitive, it is completely irrational.
Once upon a time (back in the era of cannabis Prohibition) cannabis users in North America had to conceal any involvement with this “demon weed”, or face at least persecution, if not prosecution. But the persecution here has nothing to do with cannabis use.
The person subjected to this humiliating and heavy-handed treatment by U.S. customs authorities is not alleged to have been in possession of cannabis, or to even be a cannabis user. He was an investor traveling to a conference to facilitate his personal investing. Period.
The fact that antiquated (and simply silly) federal laws in the U.S. still equate cannabis with heroin has no relevance with respect to an investor traveling to attend a public investment conference to learn more about investing in legal public companies. This is not a case of someone who “should have known better”.
Even the vast majority of political dinosaurs in the American political system now acknowledge that full cannabis legalization in the United States is no longer a question of “if”, merely “when”. A majority of Americans on both sides of the political fence now support the full legalization of marijuana.
In advance of the normalization of antiquated law, enlightened regimes will introduce bridge legislation to prevent innocent people from being unnecessarily penalized or harassed simply because the government hasn’t (yet) overhauled/repealed an obviously obsolete statute. Only the most backward of “Third World nations” allow such legal traps to catch innocent/unwary tourists when they travel to these nations and contribute to their economies.
The Trump regime is already notorious for having issued a plethora of Executive Orders. One more, preventing the legal harassment of innocent tourists (who have some vague/tangential connection to “marijuana”), is the minimum amount of legal accommodation that one would expect from any responsible government.
But this is all about politics.
Informed Canadians now know that there was never the slightest rationality for cannabis Prohibition. It’s not “a dangerous drug”. Cannabis is non-toxic and non-addictive. In short, cannabis is infinitely more benign than either alcohol or tobacco. In terms of being a “recreational drug”, it is roughly equivalent with caffeine.
Western governments, however, are completely unwilling to acknowledge the truth: that nearly a century of cannabis Prohibition was totally unnecessary. Even more, these regimes are unwilling to acknowledge that virtually all of the previous anti-cannabis propaganda distributed to our populations to (supposedly) justify this Prohibition was nothing but a collection of pseudo-science and cynical lies.
Instead, to hide their own culpability, these governments – including the government of Canada – continue to demonize cannabis. A new generation of Canadian anti-cannabis propaganda is much more subtle but every bit as devious as the anti-cannabis fiction of decades past. Understanding this requires nothing more than examining the facts.
Cannabinoids, the active ingredients in the cannabis plant, are produced naturally in the human body (known as endocannabinoids). Mothers pass these cannabinoids naturally to infants, in mother’s milk, to help promote infant health.
Cannabinoids are being developed and used for thousands of different medical conditions. Cannabis-based medicines represent the single greatest avenue for the development of new and safe pharmaceutical products for a very important reason: the complete absence of harmful side effects. However, one would never know this from watching the devious anti-cannabis propaganda currently being distributed by Canada’s federal government.
“How do I minimize the health risks from cannabis use?” is the mock question, from an actor hired to participate in this charade, in federal government commercials splashed all over Canadian cable channels.
What health risks?
Canadians want a real answer to this question – not the usual anti-cannabis fiction manufactured by unscrupulous pseudo-scientists for hire. And if the federal government can’t supply a real answer to this question today (that can withstand bona fide scientific scrutiny), it needs to immediately discontinue these misleading commercials.
Naturally, the Corporate media cannot be let off the hook here either. In reporting on the outrageous harassment of Canadians traveling to a U.S. investment conference (above), why was there no condemnation by the Financial Post regarding this grossly heavy-handed behavior by U.S. Customs?
Even if the Financial Post chose to refrain from any editorializing, such condemnation can be provided through context: noting that these Canadian travelers were engaging in completely lawful behavior and were entirely innocent of any form of wrongdoing. Despite this, they were harassed/detained and subjected (in at least one instance) to formal legal sanctions.
Instead, by simply reciting the harassment to which these Canadian travelers were subjected, the Financial Post is implicitly legitimizing the unjustifiable behavior by U.S. Customs agents. It was also implicitly legitimizing ridiculously deficient U.S. laws on cannabis that currently trap tourists visiting that nation.
Among the obvious victims of this Next Generation of cannabis propaganda, demonization, and persecution are cannabis investors. In a recent Stockhouse Investor Pulse Poll asking readers about their cannabis investing, nearly 1/3rd of respondents selected “I don’t invest in cannabis stocks.”
Why not? Why wouldn’t investors be excited in investing in commercialization opportunities as the world’s most useful plant species is (gradually) legalized after nearly a century of politically-motivated Prohibition? The obvious answer to that question is residual prejudice – the stigma that remains after a hundred years of malicious cannabis propaganda.
When cannabis investors see the U.S. federal government go out of its way to harass investors, when they see the Corporate media legitimizing such behavior, when they see the Canadian federal government continuing to deceive Canadians about cannabis (even after adult-use cannabis is fully legal); all this contributes to undermine the now-legal cannabis sector.
The great irony here is that if the U.S. Farm Bill 2018 passes in its current form, hemp will be fully legal across the United States, opening up cannabis industry potential in the U.S. by at least an order of magnitude. But even if this legislation passes, don’t make any plans to travel to the U.S. to learn about such legal investments.
The only “evil” ever associated with cannabis Prohibition was the law itself – and the deeds of our governments. A hundred years later, completely unrepentant Western governments continue to perpetuate this evil.