Monday, May 14, 2012

Purpose of an economy

Last week my friend and I started talking about weed (or marijuana to be specific). I expressed my concern over the fact that alcohol and nicotine cigarettes are legal but marijuana, which doesn't have any short term effect and negligible long term adverse effects, unless you're a hopeless addict, its an illegal commodity. In fact my friend, few of my other friends and many others whom I've talked to, and my hours of browsing the internet told me only one thing, Marijuana is a harmless drug. In fact, doctors recommend it in some cases even for Cancer and AIDS patients! To resolve this dilemma, my friend told me something that I still can't understand. He said, Marijuana makes a person feel happy, and its harmless. Moreover, its a weed so a person can grow it in his backyard, and is quite cheap if you manage to procure it. If this is made legal, people will consume it and remain happy. But corporations don't want that, economy doesn't allow that. How will economy grow if people remain happy? Happy people won't buy products they don't need. But then, I thought, why can't we remain happy and live with less, won't that be good? Making marijuana illegal is like making potato illegal !! Both are easy to grow and universally consumed. He exclaimed, maybe in some civilization sometime in history, potatoes were made illegal for similar reason.
It makes me wonder, what's the purpose of an economy? Consumerism? To keep people miserable so that they keep buying things, and to keep them engaged in this vicious cycle doesn't feel right to me. I have been and will continue to only take what I need and get out of this cycle, and will enter it only when I again need something.
Peace and happiness is our final destination. Material goods may be tangible but their existence is quite fragile in our lives. Peace and happiness is what makes us strong and life worth living.

9 comments:

kautuk said...

Awesome man !! Even i think it is the only purpose of an economy. But people stay buried in consumerism without even thinking of its consequences.
Nice one

Anonymous said...

Writing gives us happiness too :D
Haina?

Hey, good one!
Liked your thoughts here! :)

Anonymous said...

Hello Nivedita,

You are a journo. You must have gone into details of such a sensitive issue before tagging the post as 'GOOD ONE'. It's the least expected from you. For you and others, I am writing down a few disadvantages in using Marijuana:

1. Marijuana increases heart rate by 20-100 percent shortly after smoking; this effect can last up to 3 hours. In one study, it was estimated that marijuana users have a 4.8-fold increase in the risk of heart attack in the first hour after smoking the drug.

2. Numerous studies have shown marijuana smoke to contain carcinogens and to be an irritant to the lungs. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50-70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke.

3. Marijuana users usually inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than tobacco smokers do, which further increase the lungs' exposure to carcinogenic smoke.

4.Heavy marijuana abusers reported that the drug impaired several important measures of life achievement, including physical and mental health, cognitive abilities, social life, and career status.

Reference: http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana

Always there for you,
ANONYMOUS

Unknown said...

Anonymous..
Anonymous..

how to be an Anonymous..
??????

Anonymous said...

Hello Anonymous,

You could be right. Thanks again. I will be more careful here on.

But yes, I said good one to the thoughts about consumerism.
Perhaps, I should be more clear in my comments.

Thanks again for the list.

Anonymous said...

@invitro`santanu ..
Why do you want to be ANONYMOUS?
There is no test you could pass to be ANONYMOUS.
Just live your own identity.
And inspire others to be invitro`santanu. :)

@Nivedita ..
Thanks for paying heed to my suggestions. :)

One and only,
Anonymous

Atul Dwivedi said...

weed is legal here in hollywood ! :D

Unknown said...

i think marijuana's other name is pineapple express but i'm not sure abt this,.

kautuk said...

Hey Anonymous,
Whatever you said about marijuana is correct but what do you say about cigarettes being legal? I don't see any good coming out of it except for the revenues for the state coffers.
Also, i don't think the author has validated the consumption of weed anywhere in the article, he has merely used it as a starting point for a thought.