Why is sugar given a free pass on its addictive properties while medicinal marijuana is routinely suppressed by the government?

Wednesday, June 08, 2016 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: sugar addicts, children, marijuana

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(NaturalNews) With so much reputable research having been done, not only on the negative health impacts of sugar on humans, but also on sugar's addictive effects, it is strange to many that the sweet substance isn't more heavily regulated (or even banned) as marijuana is in many states and on the federal level.

Writing a "rant" to parents in a recent piece for High Times – a pro-marijuana legalization magazine – Russ Belville lamented this very point, noting that health advocates are quick to point out the fact that sugar crusaders only now see a problem when, all along, they were focused on the influence pot would have on kids.

Sugar = addictive drug

Belville cited a Huffington Post blog post by Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, in which she begins:

"There is a great debate taking place right now in America. Public health advocates are calling on soda makers to stop targeting our children and to stop targeting minorities. They are calling on celebrities to stop selling out to the industry and using their fame to peddle an unhealthy habit to their fans — and the legions of young people who follow and mimic their every move. I believe we are nearing a tipping point as more and more Americans are fed up, leaving the industry on the defensive and increasingly desperate to preserve market share."

She goes on to specifically call out "Big Soda" companies for their products, noting that soda-pop manufacturers directly market to kids and young people (though folks in their commercials are never obese, which is a medical condition their products cause directly), and that such marketing should be curbed or otherwise regulated because of the ill-effects of the sugar in soda.

Nevertheless, there is this:

"Americans, and especially our nation's teens, are smart and quickly learning the health harms of too much sugar — particularly the overwhelming amount of sugar in one single soda. Soda sales are beginning to fizzle out. U.S. per capita consumption dropped 24 percent between 1998 and 2014 and represents the single largest change in the American diet in the last decade."

Sites like ours are leading voices in the education of youth and adults about the ills of sugar. But, as Belville notes, and as Brown just admitted, surely parents and other adults are smart enough to make up their own minds about a product, including marijuana? Why does there need to be so much government interference and influence, which of course never comes without punitive measures being attached to them, like taxes (Brown likes options used by the cities of Berkeley and Philadelphia, which have imposed taxes of one cent- and three cents-per-ounce on all sodas).

Where's the outrage?

What, Belville asks rhetorically, if we imposed the same set of rules on sugar that we do on pot use in places where states have 'legalized' it?

"First, absolutely no marketing of sugar to kids. This means no packaging of sugar-infused foods with cartoon characters, no advertising on morning TV or cartoon networks, and all products must come in childproof, opaque containers.

"Second, any place that sells sugar-infused products must be 1,000 feet from any school, park or playground, and there can only be a limited number of such places.

"Third, you must be 21 to purchase sugar-infused products, which can only be sold in 10 milligram servings with a maximum of 100 milligrams per package."

The point he makes is that while everyone has been so concerned about pot being marketed to kids, the big food companies have been ravaging kids' health with copious amounts of sugar-filled cereals, snack foods, soda and other products.

So, he asks, where is the outrage over that? It's a good question.

Read his entire column here.

Sources:

HighTimes.com

HuffingtonPost.com

Science.NaturalNews.com