Don’t Mention The Drug War. We Must Decriminalize Being Black Because Black Freedom Matters

Chaos Theory” is the idea that very small events can have major consequences. It is often illustrated by what is called the “Butterfly Effect,” where the fluttering of tiny wings could set off a series of events leading to a major storm halfway around  the world. Of course, even though there are millions of butterflies, they don’t have cameras, so there is no way to monitor these events, but there are plenty of real world examples.

For instance, try to imagine that the cruel and incredibly stupid action of a policeman in a very liberal city would kill a suspect by keeping his knee on on the suspect’s throat until well after he was dead. And all of it was caught on a camera and immediately broadcast around the world. What could possibly go right?

But what if there had not been a camera? The victim’s family would still grieve. There might even have been some disciplinary action taken against the police. But if there is an injustice and it isn’t photographed, does it have any real world consequences?

In fact, even this death caught on camera would not have provoked a global reaction if there had not been literally countless examples of injustices burning in the collective consciousness of the African American community. This was not an “isolated event”, but rather all too familiar to all too many people w

Full here:

https://www.ibtimes.com/dont-mention-drug-war-we-must-decriminalize-being-black-because-black-freedom-matters-3006348

We Know Too Much About Marijuana for It To Be Illegal

I won’t try to be subtle about this. When I say that we know too much about marijuana for it to be illegal, I am trying to make two points.

First and foremost, I am astonished that people in democratic countries that proclaim their commitment to individual rights at every possible occasion, have — for decades — accepted the legal argument that citizens should be arrested for using a plant because it might not be “harmless.” 

Prohibitionist propaganda is often introduced with the statement that “marijuana isn’t harmless… like we all thought back in the Sixties.¨ Of course, if we all thought it was harmless then, why was it illegal?

Well, very simply, nothing is harmless for everyone, under all circumstances and at all doses, and, for many reasons, harmlessness is not a criterion for legalizing anything. Obviously, many things that everyone recognizes as potentially deadly… alcohol, tobacco, motorcycles, rock climbing, etc., are legal. Some people even say that guns are not harmless.  

Ironically, cannabis is one of the few substances which does not have a possible lethal dose. Too much aspirin can cause fatal internal bleeding and even too much water can be deadly by upsetting the body’s electrolyte balance.

Full article here: https://www.ibtimes.com/we-know-too-much-about-marijuana-it-be-illegal-3011078