the current state of our ecomony and unemployment rate, and how a drug could fix it
this is jersey. if you are new to the blog, WELCOME! this happens to be my first post on the blog. ellen is usually the one making the posts.
I KNOW, RIGHT?
The war on drugs (mostly marijuana) is a complete and utter failure. Let’s go ahead and get that out of the way. The ultra-high demand for this drug while it is still illegal is fueling violence within our borders between drug cartels and law enforcement. However, I am not here to talk about why cannabis should be legalized. Not about its nearly infinite medicinal possibilities, not about the fact that it is physically impossible to overdose on cannabis or the fact that studies have shown that it is safer than alcohol and tobacco, two completely legal drugs. No, I am here to talk about jobs.
Our nation is in a slump. With an unemployment rate of 10.2% as of October, with that number closer to 15% if you count the citizens that have given up actively seeking employment or forced to compromise by taking part-time jobs to make ends meet. Predictions by the press say that it will get worse in the coming months.
Our country has been caught in a situation like this some time ago. In the 1933, the unemployment rate in this country was 24.9%. A quarter of our country was jobless. And, just like current time, it seemed it was only going to get worse. The escalating violence in Chicago, Florida, and other regions of the country at the hands of bootlegging gangsters such as Al Capone and Bugs Malone, the “drug cartels” of their generation, was becoming a serious issue. Again, it seemed as if it was only going to get worse as time went on.
And then, something historical happened. A bold move by President Franklin Roosevelt: the official repeal of alcohol prohibition in 1933. This did a number of things. It took an illegal, unregulated substance, alcohol, and legalized and regulated it. It then took millions of dollars being made from booze cartels and put it into the hands of the government. This also created jobs across the board. It created large scale brewery and distillery operations across the country, As well as smaller microbreweries and distilleries. It brought money and jobs into the farming industry by creating vineyards as well as growers of barley and hops, the primary ingredients in beer. It also created small businesses in the way of mom and pop-owned liquor stores as well as independently-owned bars and wineries.
And what happened to all of the violence and chaos at the hands of the booze cartels after repealing prohibition? It sharply declined. It brought the demand away from the black market. Without demand, there’s no money to be made.
All of this economic growth and solution to violence was brought on by legalized a then illegal drug. This, drug, I may add has little or no medical value. It is used primarily for recreational purposes. We could do the same thing by legalizing, taxing and regulating a less harmful drug, Cannabis. It could do the same thing that repealing alcohol prohibition did. But it could do so much more than that. Enter industrial hemp.
The hemp plant is not pot. It is comparable to non alcoholic beer. You would die from smoke inhalation before you get high from this stuff.
The possibilities of the hemp plant are almost limitless. Paper, clothing, healthier food additives, soap and beauty products just to name a few. To bring up another economic issue, we have a nearly bankrupt American automotive industry. The hemp plant can be used to make a stronger form of fiber mat. Fiber mat that can be used to make a stronger form of fiberglass, which is what a large amount of automotive body panels are made out of. Like I said, limitless. But another subject to bring up when talking about industrial hemp is environmental impact. Our forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, due to our dependence on lumber. Lumber and hemp have many similarities. They can make many of the same products. In some instances, hemp can make them better. The big difference is growth and maturity. Hemp is essentially a weed. It grows wild and matures quickly, while trees can decades to mature and be useful for the lumber industry. What does this mean? Well, hemp could be used as a tool to combat climate change.
It should be basic knowledge that plants produce oxygen. So, if we were to decrease the amount of large trees that we were cutting down and using hemp as an alternative to lumber, wouldn’t that mean more clean air for us to breathe?
I guess what I’m really getting at here is that cannabis and hemp could not only save our failing economy as well as the job market and escalating violence at the hand of drug cartels, it could save the world.
I KNOW, RIGHT?
-PRS, 2009
thanks for reading. any constructive criticism is always welcomed. especially on ways to revise the essay. im not an english major if you couldn’t tell.
until next time,
peter
