It's simple, really: money. Let's start with a similar tale and then work our way around to marijuana. Remember when people used to be able to afford cigarettes?
Little by little, government put exorbitant taxes on cigarettes while outlawing smoking in more and more places. They said they did it for our health. Funny, that.
As the government worked to make it virtually impossible to continue smoking, the drug industry simultaneously set up companies to market nicotine in manners other than smoking. They produced nicotine patches and gums -- and then stumbled upon the holy grail: Commit Lozenges (now called Nicorette Lozenges). It's a pill you can suck on to get your nicotine. Isn't that convenient?
Nicorette Lozenges
really work. I can confirm this. It's exactly like smoking a cigarette, but without the smoke. These lozenges are advertised as a means to get off cigarettes. But in the real world, people either go back to smoking cigarettes --
or they use the substitute product on a permanent basis. Yes, they get off smoking but they stay on nicotine. As a result, tobacco is out and the drug industry is in. How fortuitous for them! In case the message didn't get through, what I've just described is the wholesale transfer of an addiction from one legal party to another.
