Medical cannabis and adult-use recreational cannabis are mainstream news these days. We have been watching the federal government pretend to care about positive cannabis reform laws for several years. Still, as of current, the United States federal government clings to the draconian marijuana prohibition of the past.
The people have wanted marijuana prohibition, as the federal government calls it, to end for over eight decades. In 1942, the LaGuardia committee reports on marijuana commissioned by the New York Academy of Medicine determined the gateway theory associated with marijuana to be false. The claims being made by anti-cannabis supporters were nothing more than ill-informed opinions that would be dubbed Reefer Madness.
Again in 1972, the Shafer Commission determined that marijuana prohibition should end. This was not what the President of the time, Richard Nixon wanted to hear. People have hoped for cannabis legalization from presidents such as Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and even as promised by current US president Joe Biden during his presidential campaign.
People have grown tired of watching the federal government continue its path of destruction and its ill-informed War on drugs that is more an attempted eradication of cannabis. They have grown so tired of it that states have taken cannabis reform into their own hands. Cannabis is still 100% illegal on a federal level across the nation, with the exception of industrial hemp and products derived from it. However, cannabis is legal in many states.
Currently, 37 states in America have legalized medical cannabis including Oklahoma, New York, Ohio, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Missouri to name a few. Our nation’s capital, Washington DC, along with 18 states, have also legalized recreational cannabis. Cannabis laws vary from state to state. Some states honor out-of-state medical cannabis cards or MMJ cards. Some states do not honor out-of-state medical marijuana cards but instead allow you to receive a temporary medical cannabis card by obtaining a medical marijuana recommendation in that state specifically.
In states with legal access to recreational cannabis, all you need is a valid state-issued identification showing you are 21 years of age or older. Military, police officers, and firefighters must ALL refrain from cannabis use, whether it is medical or recreational, because of current federal law. These broken, outdated laws leave a very grey area regarding cannabis legalization in our nation.
Medical professionals, heavy equipment operators, and other professions like truck drivers fall into this gray hole all too often. The cost of living is skyrocketing. Food costs are rising weekly, it seems. There are shortages of all kinds of commodities. Supply chains have been interrupted. Transportation costs associated with moving commodities is approaching all-time highs. Gas is averaging $4 a gallon across the nation for the first time in history. Diesel in many places is over $5 a gallon. With supply chain interruptions, inflation, and other issues, you think the last thing America would want is a shortage of truck drivers.
Cannabis Violations Are Hurting the Supply Chain
Truck drivers aren’t out there, just trucking back and forth interstates and highways for the fun of it. They’re out there making sure supplies make it to businesses. They are the backbone of our nation, delivering food and other commodities that many people have come to rely on. When there is a shortage of truck drivers, we have a problem.
Supply chains have already been interrupted because of COVID-19. To make matters worse, the trucking industry is experiencing an all-time high in driver shortages. The American Trucking Association says the shortage is estimated to be around 80,000 drivers. The United States Department of Transportation has a zero-tolerance policy for illegal substances. According to Federal law, cannabis is an illegal substance. It doesn’t matter whether it is a hemp-derived product such as CBD or THC-derived products from medical or recreational cannabis.
This archaic form of thinking has resulted in thousands of violations and over 10,000 commercial drivers testing positive for cannabis. This means more than 10,000 truck drivers have been taken off the job during a driver shortage brought on by a global pandemic. Even during one of the worst times in global history due to a virus outbreak, the United States federal government still won’t make positive cannabis reform a reality.
Apparently, they’re going to wait and build it up for the next big election! Over 10,000 truck drivers off the road because of cannabis violations is ridiculous. Cannabis stays in your system much longer than other substances. On average, you can expect cannabis to be able to be detected in your system by a urine test anywhere from two weeks to a month after the last time you consumed it.
Drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, meth, crack, and other drugs have a much shorter time in which they remain detectable in your system. Many of these drugs are out of the body’s system in three to five days. Of course, the only drugs the federal government wants truck drivers to take are pharmaceutical prescription drugs prescribed to them by doctors. Coincidentally, the pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest supporters of political campaigning.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, long-haul truck drivers are at a higher risk of developing health-related problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, hypertension, sleep disorders, and more. According to the United States federal government, cannabis is a schedule 1 drug with no currently accepted medical value and a high risk for addiction. According to the majority of the globe, cannabis is an amazing plant that helps people control a wide variety of symptoms related to medical conditions like the ones mentioned above.
Zero Tolerance Should Apply to Crooked, Lying Politicians Too
Removing 10,000 truck drivers from the job over archaic cannabis laws is a very unintelligent decision. Continuing to support outdated cannabis policies in America is also a very unintelligent decision. If the elected representatives of our nation are truly represented by the will of their constituents, then it is time for the federal government to end marijuana prohibition. Cannabis is a widely misunderstood plant. Nobody has misunderstood that plant more than the elected representatives of our nation.
The citizens of the United States of America are the ones educating lawmakers and elected representatives about the truths and facts about cannabis. Trying to break decades of Reefer Madness will not happen overnight. However, there is only so long that elected representatives, lawmakers, and medical professionals can continue to say more research is needed. It’s beyond obvious that more research is needed. The real question is, who do we have to pay to get the ball rolling? At a time when the cost of living, food, and virtually every other aspect of life is skyrocketing to all-time highs, it’s time for the federal government to end its draconian stance against cannabis.
A nation doped up on pharmaceuticals is okay, yet a nation consuming cannabis and yearning to work is forbidden. That just doesn’t seem like freedom to me. Truck drivers are leaving their jobs and often not returning because of cannabis violations. Wages are dropping, and working conditions are becoming worse. What happens when there are no more truckers trucking around the supplies you rely on? Do you think truck drivers should lose their jobs because of recreational or medical cannabis? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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