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I once held the perspective that I needn't be concerned about marijuana prohibition because I was not interested in using marijuana in the first place. This is as flawed a system of thinking as ignoring global warming because one doesn't like winter anyway. Marijuana rights are critical to the public good for two reasons. First, the issue serves as a representative example of basic civil liberties removed without cause, which citizens have a responsibility to protest. Second, the body of scientific research surrounding cannabis is staggering. Despite the tired politicians' cry that we always 'need more research,' the medical and scientific communities have already amassed a quantity of research that should be brought into the spotlight rather than swept under the rug.

Have you ever wondered why cigarettes, around which there exists absolutely no debate on any sort of health benefit, remain legal while cannabis users are punished with prison time? At least with cannabis there exists some rationale that the substance might actually be helpful. At least there is a debate. Shouldn't that be worth something to America's lawmakers? Many politicians claim marijuana is dangerous and that it is their duty to protect Americans from themselves, yet they implement this foolish strategy by outlawing the least harmful substance in lieu of banning alcohol and cigarettes. If only the cannabis lobby had pockets as deep as the alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical cronies who coerce Congress to maintain this sad status quo.

Governor Mitt Romney said recently that he did not support marijuana for any purpose. Then again, he believes Jesus hung out with the Indians in North America. Yet his uneducated, dogmatic comment underscores the core problem in 21st-century American political thought. Science is ignored in favor of fear-based rhetoric. The marijuana issue is one of many instances in which science is ignored during the creation and review of public policy. Why aren't we listening to the scientists and the doctors and the academics when it comes to our laws? Instead, we listen to morons who have never taken an objective look at half of the issues but who take a position which appeals to their constituents.
When are Americans going to realize that being a victim of terrorism does not make you an expert on terrorism? But they don't get it. They say "New York is still standing. Giuliani was mayor at the time of the attacks. He must be great at fighting terror." Except that defeating terrorism is a little more complicated than just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. It requires reading, and listening to scholars and thinking critically-the same criteria we find absent surrounding any political discussion of marijuana. It is for this reason that the marijuana issue truly is a compass for the sanity of would-be elected officials.

Its validity has been exhaustively supported by the experts. Look at it this way: would you want a president who gets nervous about a plant trying to find Bin Laden and Al Qaeda? We're talking about a plant: one that makes people giggle and eat ice cream and decide to stay home and watch a movie instead of getting wasted at a bar. It eases the pain of glaucoma and the abdominal cramping of Crohn's disease. It gives chemotherapy patients an appetite when they desperately need the nourishment of food. Could there be a bigger waste of time than persecuting a plant? There's terrorism and global warming and natural disasters and poverty and corruption and murder. But we spend millions annually to keep people from chilling out. Because if you're relaxed and peaceful, you probably wouldn't make a very good soldier: a realization that uncovers America's true priorities.

Learn more about this author, Seth Kinnett.
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