Everything Related to Policy in the US Is Always All About the Money

Policy in the US is often terrible because the policymakers are owned by rich people who make large donations.  So we get crazy renewable energy mandates and subsidies.  And we get really dumb drug policy, like legalizing marijuana with no thought to the consequences to young people.  Cannibis today is manipulated to be super-potent.  This isn’t the weed or pot from the 60s.  The active ingredient in marijuana is dangerous, very dangerous, it modifies brain chemistry, it is addictive and it causes other health issues. The potency causes serious illness and even death to young children who accidently imbibe it from edibles.   Study after study shows it causes pyschosis and other mental illness, with a particularly high risk to adolescents and their evolving brains.  An article in the Wall Street Journal tallies up the growing toll.  (WSJ Story)

Minnesota’s legislators ignored warnings from doctors about this in their rush to legalization last year.  Why?  Because Walz and others got big bucks from the marijuana industry.  They don’t give a damn about kids or adolescents, the campaign contributions are way more important.  Nothing was done to limit the risk or even study it.  And the same thing is happening nationally.  As if our children don’t face enough problems, we pile on even more.  We have to get money out of politics, we need to ban contributions of more than a few dollars and we need to ban in-person lobbying by anyone other than an individual acting on their own behalf.  Then we might get policies that actually make things better for children.