The decades-long War on Drugs —like all wars — is fought with a variety of weapons, including government-sponsored propaganda. From D.A.R.E. to Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” to Jeff Sessions’ “Good people don’t smoke marijuana,” the American public have heard it all.
Sometimes, a piece of information appears at the right time. This video episode from the YouTube channel “Kurzgesagt — In a Nutshell” examines the three primary arguments why marijuana should stay illegal. The viral video was published on June 14 and is already approaching 2.5 million views
According to the YouTube account’s administrators:
The idea of this video is to specifically reach people who are against decriminalization and to take them seriously. There is an abundance of pro arguments and content on the internet – and while they are correct, they tend to marginalize the negative effects of smoking weed.
So we wanted to show that even if you think that nobody should ever smoke, you still can support a public policy approach that protects more people, than by keeping cannabis illegal.
Sometimes it is annoying to hear things that don’t match what we already think. Researching our videos in depth often does the same thing to us. In this case, we decided that was more important to reach people, who would not have watched another video that is obviously pro-liberalization.
The creators of the video provided an exhaustive list of studies and reports used to support the arguments made in the 9 minute, 40 second video. No matter what side of the aisle you are on, you should find this video worth the time.
