Marijuana Use and Tertiary Concerns
Is the use of marijuana, even in a legal market, ethical?
Some US states have fledgling marijuana markets. However, most marijuana in the US still comes from cartels in Mexico, Central and South America. The organizations responsible for bringing marijuana into the United States are largely the same organizations that traffic in cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, etc and engage in mass murder, rape, extortion, and human trafficking. Doesn't this make the use of marijuana from these sources unethical?
The first objection I see is that drugs should be legalized to allow a legal path for these drugs to be produced. However, any legal market for drugs in the US would be regulated. Regulation increases the end production cost. Cartels, who already have the trafficking routes into the US would not be subject to these regulations. Only a few unscrupulous farms or wholesalers would be necessary to blend the trafficked drugs with legal domestic drugs.
Noting that even in a legal market some portion of marijuana would be from criminal cartels that practice violence, is it ethical to use marijuana?
Some US states have fledgling marijuana markets. However, most marijuana in the US still comes from cartels in Mexico, Central and South America. The organizations responsible for bringing marijuana into the United States are largely the same organizations that traffic in cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, etc and engage in mass murder, rape, extortion, and human trafficking. Doesn't this make the use of marijuana from these sources unethical?
The first objection I see is that drugs should be legalized to allow a legal path for these drugs to be produced. However, any legal market for drugs in the US would be regulated. Regulation increases the end production cost. Cartels, who already have the trafficking routes into the US would not be subject to these regulations. Only a few unscrupulous farms or wholesalers would be necessary to blend the trafficked drugs with legal domestic drugs.
Noting that even in a legal market some portion of marijuana would be from criminal cartels that practice violence, is it ethical to use marijuana?
Comments (22)
I'm not sure if what you're saying is factually correct. The majority of marijuana in legalized states is produced locally, as far as I know. The marijuana grown in Mexico or South America is of poor quality.
Quoting Jude Joanis
Well, this doesn't follow if the cartels aren't profiting from it, yes?
I think your question is muddled. You arent asking about the ethics of legal marijuana, you are asking about whether it is ethical to use marijuana if that marijuana is produced through bloodshed and horror.
Is that you Tim Wood?
Most legal marijuana is grown locally, as someone pointed out you have your facts wrong. No legal weed is cartel weed. Do you think that legal pot distributors are getting their weed from cartels? No. It is tightly regulated, and where the pot comes from is traceable and must be a legal, government approved source (depending on where you are talking about, Im talking about here in Canada where it is legal across the country.)
Illicit drug users who comprise the market draw to our shores suppliers who are much less benign than the Jolly Green Giant. Drug pushers help create the market in the first place.
Most pharmaceutical drugs are controlled because their unregulated use would either result in negative consequences for the person taking them improperly or would result in their loss of effectiveness, as when antibiotics are not used properly.
How many people buy moonshine now? That's about the same percentage that would buy illegal weed if it were legalized.
There's no demand for moonshine because alcohol is legal.
The same would be the case for weed.
Not legally, no. Obviously. As to use of illegal pot, not all illegal weed is from cartels, someone concerned about the ethics would have to be discerning.
Great.. It is so rare that anyone ever says anything like this - when originally they had a different opinion - it's a little discussion treasure.
Cannabis does have negative effects on some people in some circumstances, but I'm not about to make a sweeping generalization about it based on that fact. In that sense your statment seems a bit irrational. Also, I don't understand what the problem is with people who like to get high. Please don't make another sweeping generalization, or I won't take you seriously.
I cultivate Cannabis and I make tinctures for various people, including a biology professor whose anxiety is markedly decreased and a few clients with ADHD whose focus is much better with Cannabis than with ritalin, and without the latter's side effects.
You agree, but then accuse me of making a sweeping statement that is irrational. My previous post is not theory, it is made from experience, which should be the basis of any worthwhile philosophy. As for condescending to take me seriously in the future, don't bother yourself. I am not interested in your pompous approval.
Your philosophical contributions so far are in line with the letters page of a local paper. You don't sound like a teacher of 66 but one of the well-known campaigners.
What I heartily recommend by contrast is pork, cheese and tea.
As for growing things, lettuce is a narcotic and when airborne, doesn't poison passers-by.
Well, we rarely know exactly where a product comes from and even those we feel safe about may have a murky source unknown to us. In the world of business and money making, it’s a safe bet to assume that few procedures are 100 percent clean. Should we therefore doubt everything and stop buying or should we only abstain from the obvious cases?
I would say that this is not the responsibility of the individual consumer. A single consumer would not make a difference anyway. The common objection is of course that if everyone follows your example such campaigns may be successful. It’s just that there’s not the slightest reason to believe that your private boycott would have any effect on other people’s behavior. Unless you are a celebrity no one cares what you do. You would just be fighting windmills, and in the process you would be making it uncomfortable for yourself.
By all means, if you have a direct choice between a quantum of marijuana (or any other product) that is ethically produced and one that isn’t, choose the “ethical” one, otherwise, don’t strain yourself.