Weed do well to learn the lessons of history

LEP Columnist Barry Freeman

Monochrome axe-wielding men amid stacks of soon to be staved-in barrels, their contraband contents spilled upon stony ground...

We've all seen such snaps, likely as part of a montage sequence in Bryan De Palma's The Untouchables.

The bizarre saga of Prohibition-era America has long loomed large in our culture, thanks mostly - in my own case - to Messrs Laurel and Hardy (Them Thar Hills et al).

A mad interlude of pious tyranny which saw a slender majority (in government) declare war on booze and, as a consequence, create the largest organised crime syndicate the world had at that time ever seen.

Demand refused to go away, you see. And demand is, at root, no more than money waiting to be picked up. Supply will always follow money. Big money. Tax free money.

Years from now, probably fewer than you think, we will look upon today's ubiquitous ‘cannabis farm' raid photographs as we do now that aforementioned snap.

For black and white G-Men see modern police officers, sea of green foliage rather than barrels, you're there. Agents of the law separated by decades, both scratching at the surface of a vast, covert industry.

That those striving to maintain - at ruinous public expense - the UK's prohibition of cannabis are on a fool's errand is now, surely, a matter beyond rational debate. Fuzzy assumed moral authority is all they bring to the table.

This, and scientific studies which suggest consumption at too young an age is a cause of mental health issues in adulthood. A body of research frequently laid as a plank in their argument when, in reality, it is proof that statutory control of the drug - managed legalisation - is urgently required before more such damage can be done.

Unless, of course, you think that if we ask those currently in control of the market - organised crime gangs - really really nicely they will consent to stop serving kids.

Good luck with that. Meanwhile, those bitten by Prohibition 90 years ago, are trying a different approach.

Washington and Colorado - both having voted to legalise cannabis production and use, recreational and medicinal - can be seen as pilot schemes for the Western world. What happens in these large - a combined population of more than 12m - modern economies, societies just like our own, will determine policy across the hemisphere.

Our homegrown prohibitionists are history.

http://www.lep.co.uk/columnists/weed-do-well-to-learn-the-lessons-of-history-1-6827853 08/09/2014