By Dr. Tom (MD)
(Editor: A retired military surgeon, Dr. Tom has interviewed California applicants for medical marijuana applicants for the past decades and some of his findings have been published in a peer reviewed, medical journal.)
The complex demographics of my applicant population reveal that the adolescents who eventually became part of the modern “marijuana” market (over 96% of 7100 applicants) began arriving with the “Baby Boom” in 1946. It’s a phenomenon so well delineated it has prompted me to divide the US Electorate into Pre and Post-boomers on the basis of their year of birth (YOB) and point out that the first boomers started gradually aging into Medicare by turning 65 in 2010.
What remains uncertain is how many Americans tried pot by getting “high” between 1946 and now. In that context it’s also important to note that there are several characteristics beyond mere age with their own voter implications: had they ever tried weed themselves? How might they vote on the separate issues of “Marijuana legalization” and the Drug War itself (never option in any US referendum)?
In addition, the uncertainty clouding all illegal drug markets is a consequence of the illegality imposed by the US government itself; something one would think would be a no-brainer, especially after the Repeal of alcohol prohibition, were it not for the disingenuous support of every American administration since Woodrow Wilson’s was assigned responsibility for the agencies descendant from the “drug unit” created by the Harrison Act in 1914, especially after Repeal did away with the “alcohol unit” created by the 18th Amendment.
In essence, the feds have been trying since 1970 to hide the failure of drug prohibition behind the euphemism of “Control” created out of whole cloth by Nixon’s CSA with the help of John Mitchell.
It’s also important to point out that in 1970, Richard Nixon’s Controlled Substances Act began to alter the global drug prohibition playing field in several critical ways that have yet to be acknowledged. Two gradual alterations affected the pre-existing markets created for heroin and cocaine by the Harrison Act of 1914. Both were international and thus severely curtaied by World War Two; yet they resumed with vigor after VJ day, as documented in the case of heroin by 3 “reality-based” movies shot between the mid-Sixties and 1981:The French Connection , Serpico, and Prince of the City.
Demonstrably, the heroin menace has not diminished, as confirmed by the most recent celebrity death, itself reminiscent of the earlier deaths of John Belushi and Janice Joplin. Cocaine’s market spurt became evident with an”epidemic” in the early Eighties largely traceable to Colombian cartels, first in Medellin, later in Cali. After the leaders of both cartels were killed by combined operations involving the DEA and their Colombian allies, the business was taken over by an insurgency that had already been in existence for decades and has since contrived to meet current demand by developing its own progressively sophisticated submarine navy.
The notion that our drug war is more effective than destructive is demonstrably absurd; yet it receives almost no serious scrutiny from the Press, which praises its own role in preserving freedom of speech. The issue of medical marijuana and its “legitimacy” has become a surrogate for people dissatisfied with a criminal drug policy in a “Democracy” increasingly run by money.
Yet I’ll watch Dr. Gupta’s CNN special on WEED in a few hours because it promises to be better informed and more honest than any precious mainstream drug war “documentary” to date.
How Pathetic that it’s taken 13 years since Prop 215 to get this far.
On the other hand, Jeff Bezos just bought the WaPost, one of the three compliant “major dailies” that greased the skids for Gary Webb. If Bezos is pot-friendly, a seems likely, an honest Washington Post could be a game changer. I don’t think the drug war could long survive “legalization” of pot.
Now, if someone could come up with a quick fix for climate change…
Doctor Tom
