I can’t find the specific article now, but the news is fairly old: Portugal decriminalized most drugs a while back, and it’s been touted as a huge success
There was a wonderful quote somewhere out there about the numbers being “misleading”. The claim is that during the time since Portugal decriminalized, the U.S. had also seen a reduction in drug abuse and needle-sharing HIV infections. Taking this quote as a fact, why would the U.S. bother to tax and legalize marijuana?
Maybe because:
- We have 25% of the world’s prisoners, yet only 5% of the world population
- We spend billions a year supporting the DEA’s efforts to continue not cutting down on drug use and abuse
- Taxing marijuana would increase revenue no matter how you look at it
- Allowing hemp production would be beneficial in more ways than I can list (biofuel, food, environmentally-friendly paper, …)
- Spending money lying about the dangers of pot makes a lot less sense than spending money to help people legitimately addicted
- Last, and possibly the most obvious thing I’ve ever felt like I had to spell out: even if decriminalization wasn’t an amazing success, it clearly was not a failure! You can’t bash a system that didn’t make things worse, people!
And honestly, does nobody remember how bad the 20s were? The mafia during the alcohol prohibition in the 1920s made a great deal of money VIA BOOTLEGGING. Alcohol prohibition funded criminal activity. Why do people really think pot is any different in this regard?
Pot has a bad rap due to so many people who don’t have true medical issues abusing this law and getting cards so they can get high. Law enforcement should worry about the abusers of medical marijuana, not the patients like your son who could find relief from this terrible behavioral disorder called self injurious behavior in autism. My golly, I’ve read a lot about this and followed many cases of self injury in autism and there is no doubt it is time for officials to think outside the box and realize there is more hope in medical cannabis for this self abuse, than there is with other drugs that are, by research claims, not effective for self abuse. don’t give up, parents, it seems there are others who are in same battle you are. Try to get more help for your son and bring him home. You have every right to ask for in home care to help you. Others have fought and won this care. It’s cheaper than out of home placements. Get a good attorney pro bono who will take your case. You need help.
Please see “No justice for severely-autistic adult in california” to see what can happen to our autistic children when they get older, and we can no longer take care of them.