If you can’t stop it…

Where the United States goes, we often follow. So Pinoy potheads are celebrating the legalization of marijuana not just for medical but also recreational use in Colorado.

On the first day of 2014, Colorado became the first US state to start selling pot to the general public, with lines reportedly forming outside retail outlets before they opened and a lot of jokes about Rocky Mountain High. Washington state, which has also approved a similar measure, will implement it a few months later.

California was the first state to approve the use of medical marijuana, way back in 1996. Although cannabis has no scientifically established medical uses, its users swear by its ability to kill pain and induce calm, which is useful for those suffering from chronic pain, cancer and epilepsy. Today medical cannabis is legal in over 20 US states while possession has been decriminalized in about 14 as well as in Philadelphia, Detroit and Ann Arbor.

This is in fact a global trend. While marijuana is classified in most countries including the US as a “schedule 1” or “class 1” substance in the same league as heroin and cocaine, penalties for possession, cultivation, retailing and trafficking have been relaxed in several countries.

Laws vary depending on minimum amounts that will qualify as personal use. The Dutch allow the sale of pot in coffee shops. Some countries allow only the use of the active ingredient extracted from the plant as a component in other products. Cannabis elements are found in Asian Ayurvedic medicine, for example.

Other countries have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. Four cantons in Switzerland including Geneva allow the cultivation of up to four marijuana plants per person. Spain also allows private cultivation for personal consumption. Even the United Arab Emirates allows possession below 8 grams. Lawmen look the other way when Indian bhang, ganja and pot cousin hashish are used in certain religious rituals.

In Colombia, which fought a long battle against the cocaine cartels, possession of up to 22 grams of marijuana has been decriminalized.

Uruguay beat everyone by being the first country to legalize the marijuana trade, ignoring protests from the United States.

Several other South American countries are likely to follow Uruguay’s experiment. Their argument is that drug trafficking is a US problem – America is the biggest consumer of its southern neighbors’ prohibited drugs. If the US can’t stop the demand, the Latin Americans will just fight the cartels through legalization. They are tired of the deadly violence and corruption that have marked their battle against drug cartels.

The argument is that if you can’t stop the popular demand for a product, tax and regulate it. It’s the principle underpinning the end of Prohibition in the US and other moves to legalize so-called sin products in the past.

This is also the argument of those proposing to legalize jueteng, among them typhoon rehab czar Panfilo Lacson. In his days as a cop, Lacson learned of the corrupting power of gambling money.

These days legalization proponents are saying that instead of collecting a hefty 12 percent value added tax on fuel and electricity generation and consumption, think of the billions the government can collect from the jueteng lords. Those who refuse to cooperate can be slapped with charges of tax evasion and money laundering, in the absence of laws against racketeering.

And think of the taxes that can be raised from legal marijuana trading. Proponents argue that legalization will kill one of the biggest sources of rebel funds in the Cordilleras, and cut off a big source of protection money for crooked cops and public officials.

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Cannabis is banned for its health risks and supposedly addictive properties. Potheads have argued that the health risks have not been established while the benefits in terms of deadening pain and producing a mild high have given marijuana an enduring appeal.

In my high school days we were warned that smoking pot destroyed chromosomes (bad for those who want to have babies), fried your brains, turned you into a sex fiend and, like sniffing rugby, ruined your lungs and gave you bad breath.

Smoking anything never agreed with me so pot wasn’t my problem, but I didn’t see all those vile after-effects (not sure about the bad breath though) on people I knew who were big marijuana users.

They were not only users but also traffickers, buying direct from growers in the Cordilleras and then rolling the stuff in the alleys of the city of Manila. The top grades were laced with seeds and were extra thick.

The traffickers were just kids, many of them not even 18. They used pot merely to enhance the effects of other prohibited drugs. Martial law did not end their activities; drug abuse did. I knew at least three who died of drug overdose or deadly mixtures of drugs and alcohol before they were 30. Drug abuse is nasty business.

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So there’s also a case for the prohibition on psychotropic substances, which cannabis is supposed to be, however mild it may be and (I thought) associated with senior citizens suffering from arrested development.

That’s the biggest concern in ongoing moves to legalize or decriminalize marijuana use. The fear is that there are enough wackos out there committing rape, homicide and other crimes without having marijuana to embolden them to go on crime sprees.

Southeast Asia has some of the toughest laws against marijuana possession, use and trafficking. The penalty is death in Laos; it’s also death in Malaysia for trafficking of at least 200 grams. Singapore has similar tough laws. In Saudi Arabia, possession and trafficking of large amounts can also warrant capital punishment.

Pot users are closely watching the impact of Colorado’s legalization on society. If the move is directly linked to a rise in public safety or health issues, as opponents have warned, it is likely to roll back the liberalization trend.

Filipinos are also watching the experiments in Colorado and Uruguay, and later in Washington state. At this point, Pinoy potheads have a long wait ahead for legalization.

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SERMON OF THE TIMES: A parish priest delivering his homily at the New Year’s Eve mass in one of the bigger churches in Metro Manila told his flock to stop believing in superstition, such as driving evil spirits away with firecrackers. He went on to remind the flock that after celebrating 2013 as the Year of the Faith, 2014 would be the Year of the… what? – he asked the congregation.

The quick answer from the faithful: “Year of the Horse!”

(For clueless heretics like you and me, 2014 in the Catholic calendar is the Year of the Laity.)