My body, my choice!

The classic feminist phrase, originally used as a calling card of solidarity regarding reproductive rights, applies to other areas of a person’s individual sovereignty; in other words, I have the right to ingest whatever substance I choose, regardless of the harm I inflict on myself.

Last Thursday was April 20th—4/20, the stoner’s national counterculture holiday. The day where marijuana enthusiasts smoke it up and enjoy the mind-altering effects the plant produces.

I am not a drug user, and I did not partake in blazing hash. I spent 4/20 like I would any other day: writing, catching up on homework, and interacting on social media and the internet like every other cyborg-like human living with a computer in 2017.

I support individual liberty and self-ownership, which makes me a natural ally with those who wish to see the brutal and criminal so-called “War on Drugs” abolished—effective immediately.

A Data Analysis

Since President Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs in 1971, the policy has not only failed but has left a devastating trail of misery in its wake. Since 1996, a staggering 15,014,510 have been arrested for marijuana possession—over 4 million more arrested than all violent criminal offenders for the same period. The number of total incarcerations has quadrupled from 50,000 in 1980 to 210,200 in 2015.

Economic data has shown that the price of marijuana in the United States has fallen since 1990, stimulating demand for the drug, and this price decline has correlated with a nearly tripled potency increase.

If waging war on an inanimate plant is possible, surely the plant is winning. Great job, police!

Why does the War on Drugs continue despite decades of failure? Follow the money. The federal government profits immensely from perpetuating the War on Drugs.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Department of Justice (DOJ) use a legal concept called civil asset forfeiture—coordinated theft of a person’s belongings—to seize drugs, drug money, and other assets from the "criminals" who use/sell drugs.

The DEA stole $27 million from pot smokers alone in 2014, and the DOJ stole $3.9 billion the same year.

It’s not hard to see who the true criminals are.

Colorado's Weed-inspired Boom

Concerning state-wide legalization, Colorado, which legalized weed in 2014, has added 18,005 jobs to its economy and raked in $2.39 billion in profits due to the measure. Additionally, for those concerned about the children, youth marijuana consumption remained stable in most states after legalization; in fact, some small decreases were observed.

Perhaps the most striking data involve excise taxes.

The #1 product, cigarettes, had a one-year excise tax revenue growth of 1.7% from 2014 to 2015. Marijuana's rate was 91.1%. While cigarette sales are expected to decline 18% by 2020, marijuana sales are expected to increase 23.4% and surpass cigarette revenue by 2020.

The graphs below outline this data.

The Big Picture

To smoke or not to smoke, that is the question. It is a question for the individual to decide what to do or not do with his own body, and the federal government needs to respect our bodily autonomy.

End the War on Drugs—the War on People. The War on Choice. The War on Liberty.

The federal government, by brutalizing its citizens making choices with their own bodies, sends a clear message which must be rebuked at every turn—

Your body is NOT yours to control. WE control YOUR body.

They own nothing.

Attitudes about legalization are liberalizing more every year, and one day, nationwide marijuana legalization will become a reality.

Until then, keep up the beautiful civil disobedience.

FIGHT for YOUR BODY.