Cannabis: From Hell to Heaven

Advocates of marijuana use, backed by shady investors, are slowly but surely gaining ground in the United States so that marijuana can be prescribed by a doctor, which would unnoticeably open the door to recreational legalization.

We cannot ignore the medicinal value of this herb. Marijuana has been used for generations to treat different illnesses. Grandmothers would use it to alleviate pains; they would add several leaves in a bottle of alcohol, and after it had settled for several days, they would put it on the infected area.

What is happening nowadays, however, is a trick that is making an impression on politicians, who see this business as profitable rather than as a health benefit. For some years, private, almost secret investors have been financing costly lobbies, which work in the corridors of state congresses and the offices of politicians, to convince them of the economic importance of approving the use of marijuana, especially a considerable rise in taxes.

I would not like to be regarded as a defector, but I have always thought that legalizing the drug would become the best defense against the death and destruction caused by organized crime. Illegality itself allows cartels to keep high income. They are responsible for restricting the amount of drugs in the streets in order to raise prices, and they sometimes deliver low-quality cargoes to the police to drive up costs in the black market.

I repeat what I have said in other articles: This is not about legalizing drug traffickers, but legalizing the production and consumption of psychotropic drugs, with the help of a one-time state policy and some prevention and health plans.

What strikes me the most is that in the United States, where controls are presumed to be extreme and medical prescriptions are under strict surveillance by the authorities, it is actually quite complex to maintain power over these prescriptions. Thousands of patients claim to be suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, stress or aches that are difficult to confirm. For instance, pain clinics, where doctors prescribe opiates such as codeine, Vicodin or oxycontin, are proliferating in Florida. The FBI is constantly hunting down traffickers who buy pills from patients to resell on the black market.

Based on this I wonder: How will Latin American countries manage to prevent mafias from appropriating the prescription market?

Last December, an unprecedented law was passed in Uruguay to regulate the production, distribution and sale of marijuana, which has increased tourism in that country. Nonetheless, social and medical consequences have yet to be established.

Recently in Colombia, President Juan Manuel Santos changed his mind on prohibition by making way for the possibility of approving the use of marijuana for medical and therapeutic purposes. Little by little, the power of hidden investors has allowed cannabis to reach the heaven of capitalism and bury its demonization.