As Colorado begins a journey into weed...

Call it what you will: Dagga... Weed.. Marijuana.. Cannabis...

It has increasingly become the in thing in the U.S.A.

With legalisation there and elsewhere, and its popularity, you may be wondering why it is governments ban narcotics. You may think perhaps it is to protect drug addicts. That might be what your resident government says. When we did forensic medicine in law school, a different story was told.

Most crime could be eliminated if narcotics and drugs were not abused. Where drug use increases, so does the crime rate. This is why drugs were initially banned, and the real reason to keep drugs banned. Yes, cannabis also is known to cause schizophrenia among other side effects, but if we are honest... it is the links between intoxicants and unnatural deaths, both of addicts and of those they might commit harm against which causes prohibition of substances.

So... good luck to Colorado... science shows your crime rate is about to sky-rocket just a little bit more.

But it is legal now, you say? So? Alcohol is legal... and as a result many more crimes are committed and many more people die of foolish Dutch courage. Alcohol is a part of life, narcotics don't have to be.