A couple of nights ago the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program covered the legal use of cannabis for medical purposes in California and how, given the huge financial hole the state is in, this could be expanded to provide a useful cash crop if the state grasped the nettle (or weed, as it were) and simply repealed the prohibition on adults smoking it. A few years ago I saw an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! that also dealt with drug prohibition, which if I recall claimed that there were only a handful of people in the whole US who were allowed to smoke cannabis for medical reasons. Judging by Tuesday night's Foreign Correspondent things have moved on a bit since then. The program, appropriately titled 'High Finance', is worth a look and is on the ABC's iViewer here, though I have no idea if that thing will work for anyone outside Australia or if, like Auntie Beeb's iPlayer, will show you the electronic door. If it doesn't work or you don't want to watch a half hour TV program the next best thing is the transcript, which is available here.
Interesting stuff.
Is it not strange how prohibition is switching from drugs to tobacco and alchohol.
ReplyDeleteYet prohibition of anything always fails miserably.
Yet they still do it.
How stupid is that ?
Nope, don't work outside Australia, there again, nor does the BBC's iplayer work ourside the UK. Never mind though, got the drift from your excellent blog. :)
ReplyDelete"Yet they still do it.
ReplyDeleteHow stupid is that ?"
Not stupid at all, if you cotton on to the fact that the end result ISN'T 'population doesn't smoke/drink/snort X'.
It's control.. It always has been.
Oh, BigYin, you say such kind things. :-)
ReplyDeleteStill, now I know that it's just the same as the Beeb's I'll bear that in mind for next time. Funnily enough next weeks FC looks interesting too.
JuliaM, yep. The history of bans prohibition, whether it's drugs, booze or baccy, is mostly about bossing other people about and small groups imposing their will on everybody.
ReplyDelete