Marijuana: Assassin of Youth — the Global Version

Uruguay has become the first country to legalize marijuana.  Hissyfits are already being thrown by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).  INCB president Raymond Yans said Uruguay's action would:

“...have the perverse effect of encouraging early experimentation" and “fails to consider its negative impacts on health since scientific studies confirm that cannabis is an addictive substance with serious consequences for people's health. Cannabis is not only addictive but may also affect some fundamental brain functions, IQ potential, and academic and job performance.”

He forgot to mention marijuana's other hazards:  Someone who smokes pot turns into a raving lunatic after just one puff from a deadly reefer.  And marijuana is a stepping stone to heroin.  Remember, 98% of all heroin addicts started off on marijuana.

Also, marijuana causes those embarrassing flashbacks.  You could be in the middle of a job interview and suddenly you're re-living that bad trip from three years ago when you took too much — oh sorry, wrong drug.

Yans also says Uruguay, along with most other countries, is bound by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.  1961?  1961?!?!?!?  Earth to Rip Van Winkle!

Oh and by the way, marijuana is NOT a narcotic.

America's “limited government” conservatives have always warned us that we “can't” legalize marijuana because of U.N. agencies and global treaties we've signed.  Rightwingers either can't or won't grasp that the United Nations and other global agencies are advisory only.

But the Far Right can fulfill two goals if they persuade enough people that the U.N. is a vicious global police force with absolute authority over the world.  In addition to pretending we can't legalize marijuana because “the U.N. won't let us,” the Right can get their useful idiots all fired up over Agenda 21 and other U.N.-based environmental goals.  Every environmental and sustainable-growth proposal is a U.N. plot to destroy America.  “U.N. thugs are gonna come parachuting into our backyards and steal our property rights!”

Let's hope Uruguay is the first of many countries to take a common sense approach to drug laws.  Or to paraphrase Ethan Nadelmann:  One country down, 198 to go.