Yesterday, the Arizona Supreme Court made a ruling regarding marijuana. Danny Ray Hardesty had wanted his conviction overturned on the grounds that he had a "religious freedom" right to possess and use marijuana. The court refused to overturn his conviction, and ruled that marijuana is not covered by Arizona's religious freedom statute.
Although I think marijuana should be legal, I'm not really too upset by that court's decision. What did irritate me though was an erroneous assumption that they based the decision on. They said the government had a compelling interest in restricting marijuana use because they had already "established" public safety and health concerns. That's just hogwash!
Just when and how did the government establish these health and safety concerns? They haven't, unless something can be established by decades of lies. In spite of the government lying about marijuana that has gone on since the 1930's, they have yet to prove that marijuana is harmful to anyone.
Marijuana has not been banned because it has been proven to be harmful, but because it is socially unacceptable to those in power (you'll notice they've kept their preferred drugs legal).
In fact, marijuana may be the least harmful drug known to man. Alcohol can get someone so high they cannot function and don't know what they're doing. Alcohol and tobacco both have harmful effects after long term use. Even aspirin can cause harm in an overdose.
Marijuana does not have these drawbacks. It has no proven harmful effect after long-term use. It is not addictive. It does not get a person so high they cannot function or don't know what they're doing. And you cannot overdose on it, because there is no lethal dose of marijuana.
Whatever you think of the Arizona Supreme Court's decision, it was not based on an established fact. It was based on an assumption, which itself was based on decades of government lies. Assumptions are not a very strong basis for legal opinions.
It's time the government stopped lying about marijuana and legalized it.
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