Venezuela’s AG Is Wrong To Criticize Cannabis Reform Efforts
Cannabis modernization efforts are spreading across the globe, and where adult-use policies are already in place cannabis legalization is succeeding by every measure. Humans will always consume cannabis, and regulating cannabis products is a superior approach to public policy compared to cannabis prohibition.
Unfortunately, not all elected officials see it that way. Many cannabis opponents who are in public office still cling to cannabis prohibition talking points, presumably to try to maintain the status quo and keep policy modernization efforts from succeeding.
One such official is Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab, who recently bashed lawmakers in other countries who are trying to modernize their nations’ cannabis policies. Per excerpts from World Nation News:
“Who will become a millionaire? Who gave the marijuana that was legalized? You are dividing the profit between a morally criminal group and a legitimately constituted Government,” said Saab during a forum held in Caracas on the prevention of use. on drugs in children and adolescents.
In his opinion, the global trend towards the decriminalization of marijuana consumption, in some cases only for therapeutic purposes, focuses on the legalization of other substances and the economic benefit of “world powers”, although he did not give details about it.
Tarek William Saab is not the only opponent of cannabis reform that is short on details. For decades all cannabis opponents had to do was toss around unfounded talking points that cannabis was bad and that was enough, as there was no counterbalance in the form of social media or elected officials favorable to cannabis reform.
Fortunately, those days are over. The truth about cannabis is now readily available via a number of platforms, peer-reviewed studies demonstrating cannabis’ wellness benefits are piling up, and regulated cannabis sales are generating revenue for public coffers and projects instead of funding criminal enterprises.