Calderon’s Argument Against Marijuana is Based on Fallacy

By Ron Crumpton

President Felipe Calderon of Mexico has criticized the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 as an encouragement to smoke marijuana and said that it would only compound the efforts to control drug violence in Mexico.

He went as far as to condemn the medical marijuana community as being a sham, and to state that he was disappointed in the federal government’s refusal to openly oppose proposition 19.

President Felipe Calderon of Mexico

"Drugs kill in production. Drugs kill in distribution, as is the case in the violence in Mexico, and drugs kill in consumption," Calderon said. It is his belief that loosening American drug laws would cause "serious consequences for American and Mexican society."

It is good to see that the stupidity of the prohibitionists is not only limited to those serving in the U.S. government. Apparently, their brethren south of the border are just as ignorant and uninformed as they are.

Anyone capable of rational thought can tell you that if you want to end the violence in the war against marijuana, the quickest and easiest way would be to eliminate the reason for the violence. The reason for the violence is prohibition, not the common marijuana smoker.

Legal marijuana will do that in California. If Prop 19 passes, it will eliminate the need for an illegitimate source of marijuana.

With the rest of the country still suffering from prohibition, there will still be illegal marijuana crossing the border from Mexico and into California, but that amount will drop with a legal and safe market for marijuana.

Actually, the end of prohibition in the United States would allow Mexico to end their prohibition and with a legal market in both countries the need for the illegal trade would end, but the Mexican farmer, who is desperate for a viable cash crop, would be able to find a place in that market as a legal producer of not only marijuana, but it would also allow them to produce industrial hemp that could be sold for use in American factories.

The president’s insinuation that marijuana kills in the production, distribution and consumption is completely erroneous. The only deaths in marijuana are caused by its prohibition and the way the government enforces that prohibition. No one has ever died from the consumption of marijuana, the other dangers associated with the production and distribution would cease to exist with a legal market.

His denial of marijuana as a medicine, in the face of overwhelming evidence, only goes to show that he does not have the mentality needed to lead his people during this crisis. It shows that he does not have the right plan to solve his countries problem and his ignorance of the truth and inability to formulate and effective solution, leads one to ask if he has the intelligence to lead his people during this crisis.

If you first base the cause of a problem on a fallacy, it all but eliminates your ability to find a credible solution to the problem.

In his interview with The Los Angeles Times, President Calderon said, "I think they (Americans) have very little moral authority to condemn a Mexican farmer who for hunger is planting marijuana to sustain the insatiable North American market for drugs.”

Well, President Calderon, Where do you get the moral authority to condemn Americans for creating a market for what is one of the most useful substances on the planet. The blame for this falls at your feet and the feet of all leaders, of all countries who continue to breed hate based on lies and misrepresentations. 

When leaders do not have the courage, intelligence or wisdom to see the real enemy, their people will suffer from the violence and depravity that they continue to propagate.