Put that Stash in the Trash…?

Wanna get high? Let´s get stoned. These words would have shocked someone a few decades
ago, when the recreational use of drugs was not only illegal in most countries, but also a
taboo. Psychoactive-drugs-related topics are becoming part of our day to day conversations,
as they have progressively been legalized in different countries from all around the world
since 2013. However, not everyone can shout victory at unison with talking unicorns because
several countries such as Colombia have gone against the tide by taking a step backwards
and criminalizing its recreational use. Such decisions have caused huge controversy due to
the expanding trend of worldwide decriminalization of such drugs. The actions taken by the
different governments are not random; they come with a large background of statistics and
studies than certainly allow me to say that the legalization of recreational marijuana in
Colombia can bring benefits, not only to society, but also to the internal economy.

“Keep off the grass!” And “Put that stash in the trash” (Best Slogans, s.f.) are some
of the slogans used lately to condemn the use of cannabis for recreational purposes. Although
they are catchy, they are the reflection of an outdated concept that goes against the course of
actual society. Marijuana has been catalogued by certain people as dangerous and life
destroying, but those descriptions have been shown to be not true at all, thanks to certain
studies about cannabis´s real effects and consequences on the human body, and its
interactions with others. Prestigious institutions, such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse
(NIDA) allows us to know that what studies show is that about “9 percent of people who use
marijuana will become dependent on it.” (National Institute on Drug Abuse , 2018).
Impressively, alcohol actually has a higher dependency rate of 15%. Furthermore, alcohol is
in certain ways much more dangerous; “Alcohol is contributing to the deaths of about 88,000
people each year in the form of heart and liver problems, car crashes, and so on” (Family
Council, 2015). It is well known that “Alcohol is the most consumed psychoactive beverage
not only in Colombia, but also, in all the world” (TED Talk- Alcoholism, 2019), so why is it
that it does not have a bad image in society, but marihuana does? The misconceptions towards
the characteristics of such drug haven’t changed in quite a long time, and as they are still
shown as something more dangerous than anything else never seen before, there is a huge
rejection done by an uninformed society. Marijuana isn’t as bad as it has been shown. But
this sort of lies are more usual than we can tell. In the movie Erin Brockovich, such character
investigated the case of a corporation (PG&E) that paid citizens of a small town in California
for their medical bills, and also wanted to buy their homes. She discovered that there was a
substance this company generated (Hexavalent chromium), which was found in the waters
of their homes, and was harmful, generating several diseases such as cancer. The company
didn’t say anything about such dangers. Bringing such case to our actual topic, Colombian
society and companies would, in this case, represent the corporation, and the hexavalent
chromium would be alcohol; although there are lots of dangers, no one really speaks about
them or does anything at all, while knowing all of its repercussions, while blaming other
substances such as marijuana for all the problems such as premature death and violence.

Colombia is mourning with great grief; it will have been suffering the penalization of
drugs for a whole year by October 2019. President Ivan Duque has created his own version
of the movie Erin Brockovich by becoming PG&E, hiding much of Colombia´s problems
behind different drugs, such as marijuana. He said that he had penalized the carriage of drugs
to chase the drug dealers, but that isn’t the most logical way to end the problem. He has
labelled both drug consumers and drug dealers as the same thing, and therefore, affected
innocent consumers. The problem with the laws prior to the criminalization of drugs was that
they were illegal to sell, but you could consume them, meaning that if you could magically
find some grams of marihuana without buying them, you could smoke them. Such laws where
incoherent and jeopardized consumer´s health because the problem in Colombia isn’t
consuming, but rather not knowing what you consume. One study done in 2018 showed that
in Colombia, people had their marijuana bought by someone else, instead of buying it by
themselves. This made such drug much more dangerous, because many expenders would use
cannabis with higher addictive components, raising the possibility to develop dependence to
the substance. If the government had analysed the possibilities better, they wouldn’t have
criminalized the use of marijuana, but would have rather searched for a better way to fight
back on drug dealers instead of affecting consumers.

Amsterdam is known as the City of Drugs and Sex. Nevertheless, such title doesn’t
take away its prestige. Allowing coffee shops to sell recreational marijuana since 1976, such
market has become a great part of the city´s economic income, allowing the Netherlands to
gain around 600 million dollars in taxes from its 760 legal stores, which generate an annual
gross revenue of around 3.2 billion dollars. This is not the only place to have a great economic
benefit generated by cannabis; different states of the US legalized its recreational use in the
early 2018, and states such as California, for example, had total sales that went up to 2.75
billion dollars in just one year. Colombia makes part of the medicinal marijuana business,
and it has one of the largest production rates in all of Latin America. It is estimated that
Colombia could achieve one of the first places worldwide in such market, generating a huge
revenue. Nevertheless, this income could become even higher by legalizing its recreational
use, and making citizens pay its respective taxes.

The correct path to go through in the cannabis topic is often blurry and confusing,
due to the misconceptions and preconceived ideas people have about its consequences.
Nevertheless, legalization actually does bring benefits: by legalizing the use of recreational
marijuana, legal stores could be created and regulated. Such stores would have to pay taxes
for what they sell, bringing economic benefits to the country, and would bring social
benefits too, such as a regulated drug, well cultivated, that you can assure, has nothing
wrong inside it. Legal marihuana would be more expensive than those bought illegally, but
by being able to go to an actual store and buying a safer product for a higher price, people
with the economic capacity would not have to go to dangerous places to buy the substances.
The money gained from the taxes could be partially spent to help those with addiction to
cannabis, getting to help reduce the addiction rates in society. “We have to start changing
our bad image of the country” (TED Talk, 2019) and, to start changing the bad image we
have, we need to open our minds to new possibilities, and understand the need of constant
change through time.

Ivan Duque gave a huge disappointment to a large part of the Colombian population
when he criminalized the use of marijuana. Such a conservative and outdated decision
seemed shocking in a world that is constantly changing the way we understand life and
society. It often seems like the Colombian government enjoys destroying the hopes of its
citizens by acting in ways that reflect last century´s ideologies. Nonetheless, hope isn’t lost
yet, and the collective faith Colombians share of finally having a government that
understands the needs of real change hasn’t died. Dear cannabis legalization, you have not
been forgotten by Colombians. Just wait for it.

Bibliography
Alcohol.org. (s.f.). Obtained from Statistics & Information on Alcoholism & Addiction Treatment Help:
https://www.alcohol.org/statistics-information/

Best Slogans. (s.f.). Obtained from Marijuana Slogan Ideas: http://www.bestslogans.com/list-ideas-

taglines/marijuana-slogans/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (January, 2018). Obtained from Alcohol and Public Health:
https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.htm

EL ESPECTADOR. (s.f.). Obtained from Presidente Duque firmó decreto contra la dosis mínima:
https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/politica/presidente-duque-firmo-decreto-contra-la-dosis-
minima-articulo-815497

EL PAÍS. (s.f.). Obtained from La marihuana es menos adictiva que el alcohol o la nicotina:
https://elpais.com/elpais/2014/10/06/ciencia/1412618575_595889.html

Family Council. (March, 2015). Obtained from Number of Deaths Caused by Marijuana:
https://familycouncil.org/?p=11795

Forbes. (s.f.). Obtained from Here's How Much Money States Are Raking In From Legal Marijuana Sales:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewdepietro/2018/05/04/how-much-money-states-make-
cannabis-sales/#7404974af181

Government of Canada. (s.f.). Obtained from Information for Health Care Professionals: Cannabis
(marihuana, marijuana) and the cannabinoids: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-
canada/services/drugs-medication/cannabis/information-medical-practitioners/information-
health-care-professionals-cannabis-cannabinoids.html

National Institute on Drug Abuse . (June, 2018). Obtained from Marijuana:

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/marijuana-addictive

stopthedrugwar.org. (s.f.). Obtained from Europe: Dutch Marijuana Tax Revenues at $600 Million a Year,
Crop Is Country's Third Largest Export:
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2008/may/09/europe_dutch_marijuana_tax_reven

(2019). TED Talk. (V. Torres, Entrevistador)

(2019). TED Talk- Alcoholism. (S. Wallis, Entrevistador)

Twitter. (s.f.). Obtained from Iván Duque:

https://twitter.com/ivanduque/status/956637126384287747?lang=es

US National Library of Medicine . (s.f.). Obtained from Marijuana Dependence and Its Treatment:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2797098/
It is a genuine pleasure to express my deep sense of thanks and
gratitude to my mentor, teacher and friend Andrés Felipe Torres,
professor at the Berchmans School. His dedication and keen interest
above all his overwhelming attitude to help his students has been
solely and mainly responsible for completing my work.
I owe a deep sense of gratitude to my mother and father, which I
remembered while writing this essay. Those bleak and dim memories
from my early childhood, in which I was in the car with them and in
a sudden moment one of them would speak the words “It smells like
weed. Someone outside must be smoking” and I would simply
wonder why do they know what weed smells like.
I would like to, obnoxiously, thank profusely the weed smokers that
sit on the park in front of the conservatory, which allowed me to learn
progressively the unpleasant smell of marijuana, while day by day I
had to walk past them to print my music for orchestral rehearsals.
Finally, I would like to thank President Iván Duque, who lacked of
any kind of reasoning when he criminalized the use of recreational
marihuana. If it was not for him, half of my essay wouldn’t have been
possible.