Artificial Intelligence & Cannabis Prohibition

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We live in a time where Artificial Intelligence can teach people about cannabis prohibition and it’s absolutely fascinating! 

Last night I was killing time on TikTok (don’t judge me) and I came across a post on copy.ai, which is an artificial intelligence content generator.  So, I thought it would be interesting to put it to the test with a cannabis-related subject.

I’ve been listening to a book about prohibition titled Chasing the Scream.  It primarily focuses on drugs but it dives into alcohol as well.  Did you know that Harry Anslinger was involved with alcohol prohibition before cannabis?  The book does an amazing job at uncovering how corrupt and disgusting of a human being Harry was.  Seriously, disturbing.

Since this has been fresh on my mind, I decided to see what the AI program had to say about prohibition.  But instead of following a normal blog format, I wanted you to see the entire process.

 

Step 1:  Blog Title

The first thing it has you do is create a blog title.

 

Step 2: Keywords

I thought of the most basic keywords as if I was doing a simple search to populate information on prohibition.  I also selected to write the copy in a friendly tone, because I’m friendly?

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Step 3: Generate Outline:

How cool is this?  I chose the last one because the others made it seem like the phrase “War on Drugs” was the beginning of prohibition when in all actuality prohibition of cannabis and other drugs started in the early 1900s.

 

Step 4: Generate Talking Points

I kept hitting generate more until there were enough topics to create a somewhat lengthy blog.  A little SEO tip – blogs with less than 1,500-2,000 words aren’t very effective.

So far, these talking points… are on point.

 

Step 5: Conclusion

Pretty self-explanatory.  I thought it was kind of interesting that my Grammarly extension is correcting the AI!

Step 6: Duh!

Ok, so evidently each of the content options expands to write the entire blog.  I thought it was going to elaborate on the one that I selected and connect it to the conclusion.  So, now that I know the ropes.  Here is the full outline without any edits.

 

Step 9, or maybe 17? Create Blog Post

Glitter? Confetti?  Hell yeah!  

Anyway, here’s an AI-generated blog on prohibition.  No edits were made at all.  The only thing I did was write the title and keywords, select the tone, and generate additional talking points.  Nothing written was fact-checked because no references were provided, which I think is a problem that could most likely be resolved.  The information generated by this AI program doesn’t necessarily represent the opinions of myself or Trichome Institute.

I can’t believe it wrote this!!!  Definitely my favorite part.

Enjoy

Brandon

 

 


 

The History of Alcohol and Cannabis Prohibition

 

Introduction

If you found yourself thinking that the prohibition of alcohol and cannabis is a completely new phenomenon, think again. In fact, alcohol was prohibited for over 13 years just 90 years ago in the United States. A similar thing happened to cannabis; it was made illegal under the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. While those prohibitions were eventually lifted, the war on drugs has had significant financial and social implications. Today, I’ll be covering everything from the history of these prohibitions to how we got here today with cannabis prohibition and legalization efforts around the country.

By 1971, President Nixon claimed that drug abuse was “public enemy number one,” — that’s when the war on drugs began.

In 1971, President Nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one.” This declaration was prompted by the increasing popularity of cannabis and the growing perception among Americans that it was a national problem. At the time, there were no other major drugs besides alcohol and tobacco in public view; cannabis had not yet been criminalized at such levels.

Even though Prohibition had ended less than three decades earlier and alcohol consumption was still prevalent throughout American culture, Nixon recognized that drug abuse posed a greater threat to society than alcohol did at that point. He felt that if he could create programs to combat drug abuse—particularly marijuana—his political legacy would be cemented as an effective leader who cared about his country’s future generations by helping them avoid addiction.

After alcohol was prohibited for 13 years in the U.S., it was eventually made legal again, in 1933.

After alcohol was prohibited for 13 years in the U.S., it was eventually made legal again, in 1933. As you can see from this timeline, prohibition failed miserably to accomplish its goals: it didn’t stop people from drinking and actually increased crime while providing organized crime with a lucrative new market.

Alcohol prohibition set a precedent that was followed by other drugs like cannabis and cocaine, but there’s one major difference between these prohibitions: cannabis has never been legal anywhere on Earth at any point in history; cocaine has only ever been illegal in some places at some times (but never entirely). As we’ll see later on this page, this is because the federal government only gets involved with drugs when they’re used recreationally—not when they’re necessary for medical purposes or industrial uses like hemp fiber production.

In 1932, a tax against cannabis was placed on marijuana and by 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act made cannabis illegal.

From the 1920s to the 1930s, marijuana was made illegal because it was a tax. In 1932, a tax against cannabis was placed on marijuana and by 1937, the Marijuana Tax Act made cannabis illegal. The reasoning behind making marijuana illegal was that it could potentially be used for negative purposes such as getting high or committing crimes due to its psychoactive effects. This caused racism within law enforcement and led police officers to target minorities who had used marijuana as a recreational drug at parties and other events where they would use it openly without fear of punishment because they weren’t being seen doing anything wrong {citation needed}

After World War II ended in 1945, many veterans returned home from war with serious physical injuries including broken bones and missing limbs which left them unable to work so they turned towards alcohol instead since alcohol wasn’t taxed like other drugs such as tobacco & caffeine (which were also commonly consumed during this time period).

When states began legalizing medical marijuana, the DEA persisted in their efforts to discourage legalization and keep their source of funding intact.

When states began legalizing medical marijuana, the DEA persisted in their efforts to discourage legalization and keep their source of funding intact. According to a 2016 report by the Harm Reduction Coalition, “In 2014 alone, the DEA budget was $2.6 billion and 85% of it came from drug enforcement activities” (HRC). In other words, the DEA’s main function is to enforce prohibition laws that were created specifically to target marginalized communities while maintaining control over the drug market itself—and it all ties back into prohibition-era racism.

The Drug Enforcement Administration must be abolished because it has proven itself incapable of doing anything other than causing harm for decades on end with no end in sight.

It’s now been nearly 45 years since Nixon declared drug abuse public enemy number one — and the war on drugs continues.

It’s now been nearly 45 years since Nixon declared drug abuse public enemy number one — and the war on drugs continues.

The most recent estimates show that it costs $51 billion annually to enforce prohibition laws, while costing taxpayers an additional $17 billion in related costs to incarcerate and supervise convicted drug offenders. The United States has spent over $1 trillion fighting this war — not counting billions more invested by state and local governments — with an average of 50,000 arrests per year for marijuana offenses alone.

The war on drugs has had huge implications — both financially and socially.

Prohibition has had huge implications—both financially and socially. These include:

  • The cost of enforcing prohibition. For example, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spends an estimated $20 billion annually on interdiction efforts alone. In addition to the resources spent on enforcement and incarceration of drug offenders, more than $11 billion annually is spent on treatment programs for people with substance abuse disorders related to alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs. These expenses do not include lost productivity due to premature death or illness from alcohol use disorder; nor do they account for lost tax revenue from both legal sales and illicit sales of cannabis under prohibition.* The cost of incarceration for those convicted of violating laws against substances deemed illegal by governments around the world has been staggering.* The total number of people imprisoned in U.S. prisons as a result of drug-related convictions was over 80 percent higher than in 1980 (2 million versus 700K). Since 2000 alone nearly half a million Americans have been sentenced to prison terms because they possessed marijuana despite medical evidence showing it relieves pain from AIDS wasting syndrome

Prohibition hasn’t worked in the past, and it hasn’t worked now with cannabis.

  • Cannabis is not a gateway drug. Studies have shown it to be less addictive than alcohol, and many people use it to treat medical issues such as anxiety or PTSD that are related to the use of other drugs.

  • Alcohol is far more dangerous than cannabis—and it’s legal! It’s responsible for 88,000 deaths per year in the United States alone (more than all illicit drugs combined), while there has never been a fatal overdose from cannabis consumption.

  • The war on drugs has been a failure since its inception; however, prohibition laws disproportionately affect black communities and low-income individuals. Even though whites are more likely to use marijuana than blacks overall, African Americans are almost four times more likely than whites to be arrested for possession of marijuana (even though they use at similar rates). This disparity was exacerbated under President Reagan when mandatory minimum sentences were introduced by his administration; these laws imposed extreme penalties even for minor offenses committed by people who had previous convictions on their record.

  • In addition to being racist, prohibition also harms our economy—it costs taxpayers billions every year while creating criminal organizations that don’t want competition from regulated businesses like dispensaries or manufacturers of edibles.*

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve explored some of the history of alcohol and cannabis prohibition. We’ve discussed how alcohol was made illegal in the United States during Prohibition, what happened when it was repealed, and why that is relevant today with regards to cannabis legalization. Hopefully, you now have a better understanding about how our society can be influenced by changing laws and public perception.

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1 thought on “Artificial Intelligence & Cannabis Prohibition”

  1. Brandon –

    You were SO far ahead of your time with this blog post… You should repost it everywhere and get 10x the ROI since GPT etc has taken over the news cycles.

    Cheers and thanks as always for sharing such well-thought-out and compelling content.

    Cheers,
    Greg

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