Staff Reports
In the latest twist of irony that only gets better with age, it appears that Mike Tyson and a fellow group of sports celebrities have taken to the stage to urge former President Trump for a significant reevaluation of federal cannabis policies. Now, this is the same Tyson known for infamous boxing matches and the occasional ear nibble, diving into the political ring with a fiery passion for changing the classification of cannabis. According to him, putting cannabis in the same bracket as heroin is beyond ridiculous, and he argues it’s more medicine than a dangerous drug. He must know something that scientists have been grappling with since the dawn of time, or maybe it’s just good business sense bottled up as a plea for public health.
This call for rescheduling cannabis from a high-risk substance to a less dangerous category is not winning over everyone in the debate’s corner. Skeptics like author and journalist Alex Berenson take a harder swing at this argument, suggesting that cannabis might not deserve the heavy punches heroin gets, but it’s not exactly ice cream and sunshine either. He emphasizes that smoking anything’s not usually labeled “medical advice,” pointing out that even something as seemingly harmless as cannabis can lead to a disastrous result. Try as they might to sway people’s minds with tales of injustice in marijuana sentencing, it’s hard to ignore the increasing pile of statistics highlighting the dangers of cannabis use, from heart attacks to psychosis.
For those in favor of reevaluating cannabis policies, they’d love everyone to believe jails are brimming with harmless individuals simply selling cannabis on the corner. However, this notion gets a knockout punch with Alex’s reality check: these toon-travelers seem to overlook that the folks doing time are not college kids caught with a joint but significant traffickers. The well-worn line of cannabis possession leading to long prison sentences isn’t quite as true to life as they’d like us to think.
The looming cannabis industry, seemingly medicine’s knight in shining armor, hopes to sway sentiment with the argument of clemency for non-violent offenders. But make no mistake, in the grand arena of politics, this is more about greenbacks than greenery. Tyson and his gang might be feeling the strain of an industry struggling to stay legal and viable, but let’s not dupe ourselves that this advocacy for federal ease is a purely altruistic endeavor.
Sure, walking around getting baked doesn’t seem worse than carrying an open beer until you factor in the increase in accidents following its legalization in states like Colorado. The sobering reality is that it’s not all fun and cannabis-infused games. As the saga unfolds, folks would do well to decipher through the smoke and mirrors — cannabis, just like any other substance, has its complex ups and downs, well beyond the realm of a thirty-minute celebrity endorsement. Who knows, maybe Tyson the fighter will land a few more hits on this longstanding debate, or maybe it’s time for a solid time-out.
