Legalize real marijuana and nobody will have to smoke the fake stuff.
Yeah, drug policy provides endless examples of how when government tries to solve social probles, unintended consequences result.
The opioid epidemic -- it was one thing for the government to allow drug companies to promote heroin-based pain killers. But then, after allowing that market to be created, the government all of a sudden instituted rules making it very difficult for doctors to prescribe opioids.
So all the people who were addicted (as well as a good many who legitimately needed help with pain) simply turned to the black market, which led them to heroin and fentanyl -- not good.
The history of marijuana is another series of unintended consequences.
50 years ago the chief illegal drug was marijuana -- a low-powered leaf grown in Mexico. Then came Nixon and his anti-hippie crusade. The DEA started spraying marijuana fields with herbicides, and enlisted the Mexican government in trying to eliminate drug trafficking. This resulted in the rise of cartels, which introduced cocaine which was more profitable and easier to smuggle than bulky marijuan.
Meanwhile, marijuana growing moved to northern California where it joined up with expert plant breeders who developed more and more powerful strains. When the DEA started using planes in Humboldt County, the growers developed indoor techniques with only female plants which flowered like crazy (modern marijuana today is flowers, not leaves).
So today, in a space the size of a bathtub, people can grow as much of the active ingredient of pot as used to require a whole acre of land in Mexico.
A side benefit of this for non-potheads -- LED plant lights which were developed largely for the indoor pot industry are now making possible inexpensive indoor growing of herbs, berries and tomatoes.
So...thank you, DEA. The war on drugs hasn't been the least bit successful at stopping illegal drugs, but at least we will get better fruits and vegetables in the winter.
