The dichotomy of wrong and right, or at least the theory of what is moral and immoral, has existed since the inception of man, and as we are born and raised to be adults, all humans grow with a set of ideals for what is good and evil. Whether we are biased in our opinions on such matters is somewhat irrelevant in today’s society, however, as we live in a culture, community and in many ways a world in which the social contract is adhered to greatly. For most things, we get to elect officials, vote for and against, and through this, essentially quantify the morality of everything that we come into contact with.

In the case of cannabis sativa, however, the United States has been morally up in arms against the prospect of such a plant, drug, or whatever else it could considered. While I, myself, find no moral obligation in stopping people from consuming cannabis in any form, I also find no intense pushing force to work actively for the item. The case can be made though, that persons who do feel such a way, I believe, are actually repelling the American society from decriminalizing “pot”.

This is where the problem arises. Rappers, singers, musicians, artists, people such as Drake, Rick Ross, and many alike, continuously partake in such activities as smoking “Mary Jane”. On the streets of San Fransisco and New York, activists holding signs that make little to no point as to why the plant should be decriminalized, cry for its “legalization”, calling it ‘weed’, ‘marijuana’, and a host of other names that has been branded to the plant since its original prohibition. Year after year, the votes come in through each county in the states, and year after year, bills are pushed back because people seem to dislike the idea of “legalizing a restricted drug”. Can you blame them? A certain stigma has been produced by the people who intend on keeping such items prohibited (for whatever reason is unnecessary) but it is not they who are holding the movement back. Signs screaming with green and yellow light up districts throughout the country while the activists who fight for the plant violently perpetuate the straw man that is the unemployed, burnout stoner.

Though some headway has been made in states like Washington and Colorado, the view of people who make it publicly aware that they ‘smoke weed’ kills any incentive for the general population to decriminalize the plant. That’s what this ultimately comes down to. Cannabis has been made criminal, and to fight for the ability to ingest, produce and consume it, the portion of society that want it, love it, and sometimes need it, must erase or otherwise separate itself from the history of ‘weed’ as a drug used in music videos, that is smoked at burning man festivals, and made itself famous for being an ‘edgy teen drug’. This is not my decision, and I can guarantee that if the social justice warriors who fight for this idea were to become more socially palatable to the masses, cannabis could soon become an industry of its own; but the first step starts with you.

Ultimately, cannabis must be represented by suits and ties, not leaves and blunts. It must be understood that the grand sum of the American mainstream culture is that it’s ‘hip to be square’, and to succeed, you truly must be. No matter what your opinion on the bureaucratic procedures that are ran by the government, both on the state level and the national front, the modern protester must be diplomatic, peaceful yet aggressive, and well educated. The war for cannabis will not be won on Facebook or through Occupy movements, but through paperwork and subsidies.