Feed me

The little monster prohibition
forgot to starve.

Every dirty system sings the same song: Feed me.

Feed me fear.
Feed me silence.
Feed me bad law.
Feed me shame.
Feed me secrecy.
Feed me black-market profit.
Feed me patients without safe access.
Feed me growers without honest education.
Feed me products nobody tests.
Feed me politicians who do not know the plant but love the speech.

And the monster grows.

What the system feeds

Prohibition often believes it is starving the forbidden thing.
But many times, it feeds the system around it.

• It feeds the dealer who benefits from no label.
  It feeds the adulterator who benefits from no testing.
  It feeds the trafficker who benefits from fear.
  It feeds the corrupt official who benefits from secrecy.
  It feeds the fake expert who benefits from ignorance.
  It feeds the politician who benefits from panic.

The monster around the plant

The plant is not the monster.

The monster is the structure that grows around the plant when knowledge, medicine, quality control and honest adult conversation are removed.

That is the old joke from Little Shop of Horrors, made political:

Feed me.

What prohibition keeps alive

A small thing becomes huge because people keep giving it exactly what it needs.

Cannabis prohibition thought it was starving the plant.
Instead, it often fed the monster around it.