Submitted by CannaBil

Entitlement’s scourge on Human Rights

If only the greedy would GO AWAY, things would be so much easier in Cannabis. 

However, since certain entities would rather try to hold false sway over Cannabis Policy than go away, we have no choice but to highlight, vociferously and compassionately, that Human Rights belong in Cannabis Policy. 

Cannabis is used by humans, ergo, Human Rights are an integral, inseparable part of Cannabis. 

We have countless individuals and communities waiting for Cannabis to be unleashed. They are losing hope that they may partake in the Plant or participate in whichever industry is most relevant to their skills. 

Currently, the existing markets from the old prohibition days are left in the limbo created by this new prohibition era whereby proponents big and small are still criminalised for the benefit of the greedy. 

In short, those unable to meet excessive barriers to entry still face direct challenges on their Human Rights. These Human Rights are equally exploited by those attempting to exert legal influence of some kind  to benefit their own market. 

These nefarious actors will use any means at their disposal that they may best exploit whichever industry they have chosen for themselves, oftentimes with little regard for the livelihoods and lives they are impacting irreparably. 

The misinformed and wilfully ignorant notion that only a small group should decide how and why their certain sub-section of Cannabis matters above the needs of the many means that we are going to face many Human Rights issues yet. This is true for cultural, traditional, spiritual, or individual interactions  as well as for participants of one or more industries within the evolving sector. 

If bad behaviour of this sort continues unchecked, the Cannabis Sector will remain stunted for purely selfish reasons! 

Determining that one system of compliance – developed on a flawed and only mildly plausible free market interpretation of an otherwise enabling framework – should operate above all others, is discriminatory. 

Overly complex systems do not prove self-regulation; they develop the means for regulatory overreach to take hold. This further institutes criminalisation of Cannabis proponents. 

While some are definitely more impacted than others, the effects of regulatory overreach will be felt by anyone that wants to create a bureaucratically complicated bartering system involving Cannabis. 

Over-regulation invites undue persecution and ultimately arrests, if not some kind of prosecution – as seen in The Haze Club Case. 

Without a Human Rights approach that upholds our Constitution in how we develop Cannabis Policy, law enforcement gets to remain ubiquitous in the general interactions and enterprises surrounding those parts of Cannabis not insulated by ridiculous parameters of participation. 

There is no reason for law enforcement to be near Cannabis, unless there is another typically violent crime attached. Cannabis should at worst be part of the context not the pretext for arrest. 

Without separating Cannabis from law enforcement, there is an active denial of various Human Rights – freedom of association, freedom of expression, freedom to choose, freedom to be.  

Fundamentally, if allowed to continue unchecked, the kind of thinking that elevates a self-proclaimed “Cannabis Pioneer” over a legacy of Cannabis interactions will undermine any attempt to ensure a Human Rights-centred and evidence-based approach is taken at any level. This will of course impede developing a robustly inclusive, equitable, and sustainable Cannabis Policy by which to develop the Sector and honour the Culture. 

Ultimately, franchised Cannabis cults have no place in disciplining figures of authority on how to govern Cannabis. They have even less of a place telling figures of authority how they have overstepped non-existent regulations. There is no reason to undermine an entire nation’s relationship with the Plant in a get rich quick scheme that is bound to fail simply because it denies what Cannabis truly is – a Teacher Plant! 

You have lessons to learn, little boys. Best you pay attention to what our Mother is teaching you.  

If we do not collaborate and elaborate on what we know, there will be only bloody victories to celebrate. Let’s not be so bold as to assume our entitlement to business trumps the Human Rights of ALL to freely partake and participate in Cannabis. 

It really is time that a certain, corporately driven, exclusive, and exclusionary mindset really just does Go Away!