Why is cannabis so expensive? Afterall it's just a weed that when let alone grows ubiquitiously in nature. In essence it should be free - but gram for gram today it's one of the most expensive commodities on the planet. Why? Who benefits from this and what would change if it was made legal?
Firstly, let's cut through all the bullshit propoganda put out there by the UK government in relation to the supposedly harmful effects of Cannabis. Pharmacologically, the principal psychoactive constituent of Cannabis is Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Interestingly, in the UK you can buy a drug called Sativex manufactured by Bayer Schering Pharma that is made from THC extracted from Cannabis plants! You need a perscription from your doctor and it costs about £125 for a pack. If you take it daily this works out at about £11 a day. In the US a synthetic (man made) form of THC is used in another drug called Marinol manufactured by another big pharmaceutical company Abbott Products. Nice scam! If Cannabis was legal people could grow it themselves and it would cost nothing - big Pharma don't like that though, hence why they continue to lobby hard for it to remain illegal.
Organised crime also don't want to see Cannabis become legal. The mark up they currently get on the product is absolutely massive. Make it legal and overnight their profit margins evaporate. As Cannabis is the most widely used of illegal substances, this would instantly effect all aspects of their operations. So they also lobby government hard behind the scenes for its continued prohibition.
Last year an estimated £3bn of UK tax payers money was spent on the so called 'War on Drugs'. This at a time when serious cut backs to public spending are being made across Whitehall. So what did the £3bn achieve? Well it continued to act as a subsidy to certain pharma companies and to organised crime propping up their market for Cannabis. A market that would be far less lucrative (if it existed at all) without prohibition. The £3bn in UK tax payers money that was spent did absolutely nothing to reduce consumption, more people consume Cannabis today than ever before. It did nothing to reduce supply, Cannabis is widely available throughout the UK. I did, however, needless criminalise many young people casting them to the margins of society. It also continued to make the law in general and those who are tasked to enforce it appear ludicrous, thus undermining public respect in our system of law and justice and creating comtempt for the police.
As we enter 2014 it really is time for the people of the UK to wake up and demand an end to this completely wasteful use of our tax money! The war on drugs is actually a 'War on Consciousness'! A war primarily aganist a crop (Cannabis) that has been of medicinal use to mankind and used in religious ceremonies to induce higher states of consciousness in many different cultures for thousands of years. A war against a substance that has not had one death directly attributed to its use ever! A war that needless criminalises our young people, when we should be doing everything we can as a society to embrace them. A war that lines the pockets of big Pharma and organised crime and makes our system of law and justice a laughing stock in the process. As a nation we simply cannot afford it any more. It's time for every citizen to write to their MP's and demand to know their stance on the legalisation of Cannabis. It's time for citizens to march in the streets and demand that no more of our tax money gets wasted in this way. It's time as a society we demand an end to the needless criminalisation of your young people. This madness has got to be brought to an end - we all need to speak out! Give us our freedoms now, end prohibition, end the war on consciousness, legalise Cannabis now!
Take action today - write to your local MP and ask them for their response to the study below published in September 2013 by the Institute of Social and Economic Research looking at the cost benefit analysis of Cannabis legalisation in the UK.
https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/2013/09/15/a-cost-benefit-analysis-of-cannabis-legalisation
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