Now that medical marijuana has allowed the weak legs that cannabis prohibition has been standing on to lose its structural integrity (which is the only integrity it had to begin with) we in the medical marijuana movement must be the leaders helping those who still oppose us to see us all as good Ambassadors.
This will help end prohibition beyond the states that have it on the ballot, especially since we have the outstanding efforts of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) and FireDogLake.com, two groups behind the “Just Say Now” campaign, which aim to educate the public at large about the very real, very dangerous, and very expensive affects of marijuana prohibition. It is also a good play on words of the very famous “Just Say No” slogan that was made famous during our first hurls into our War On Drugs, which is now in its last gasp.
From “Just Say No” came the DARE Program and has been criticized as being inaccurate by many Republicans and Democrats, galvanizing bi-partisan support for “Just Say Now”.
Having a platform to re-educate the public on many marijuana myths has overlapped with SAFER, another group that aims to redefine DARE and is doing a very good job in attracting a large group of followers on both sides of the political landscape.
A majority of the public is exposed to this debate and know the therapeutic benefits of medical cannabis are wide-spread, which include a popular psychoactive side-effect that has helped the recreational use of it, but is also medicinal in nature. There are those who may be depressed, for example, and prefer not to take a toxic pill prescribed by their physician, but an herb that comes recommended by their physician.
The aim of SAFER is to redefine the language we choose to educate our youth, and with their slogan “Dare to admit marijuana is safer than alcohol” and they have also garnered the endorsements of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), not to mention physician and nursing organizations around the country, including the American Medical Association, have urged the Federal Government to re-schedule marijuana.
Now that we have the attention we’ve been trying to get for so long, let’s not mess up our message by acting as irrational as our opposition. We owe it to those who have paved the way, some who are no longer around to see it. There are those who are in States who don’t have Compassionate Use Acts yet and they are waiting to be in a better the state of mind, health and body.
All they want, all we all want, is the opportunity for a better quality of life. Don’t let age-old divide and conquer tactics get in the way of a movement that has been lent the slogan “One Love”. Let us all be good CannaAmbassadors. We’re already leading by example, so let that example be a good one.
