Musician and well known cannabis consumer Willie Nelson is right on the nose with this recent quote. Though legalizing marijuana has undoubtedly increased access to it (and in a multitude of forms that aren’t just smokable flower), making marijuana illegal again in all states would not cause all consumers to stop dead in their tracks and quit utilizing weed. As the United States learned during the Prohibition Era with alcohol, and as we learned again during the decades-long ridiculous War on Drugs, limiting access to something doesn’t make it go away–it only forces consumers to purchase it illegally. Making cannabis illegal again in a currently cannabis-legal state would only cause consumers to start smoking unregulated cannabis, and also cause those states to cease reaping the economic benefits of being able to collect cannabis taxes.
And who would that prohibition benefit anyway? Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his hatred of weed and its proponents? Those who cannot seem to let go of the stigma attached to marijuana despite living in a country with overwhelming support for cannabis legalization in some form?
As Willie says, “they should have learned that” prohibition is the wrong idea. But have they?
