What we eat has changed more in the last 40 years than in the previous 40,000. The survival of the current food system depends upon widespread ignorance of how it really operates.
Eric SchlosserRead
Marijuana gives rise to insanity -- not in its users but in the policies directed against it. A nation that sentences the possessor of a single joint to life imprisonment without parole but sets a murderer free after perhaps six years is in the grips of a deep psychosis.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the irrational and punitive policies against marijuana use compared to the leniency shown to violent crimes.
Eric Schlosser's quote highlights the absurdity and injustice in the legal system regarding marijuana. It points out how a society can be considered 'insane' when it imposes harsh penalties for minor drug offenses while treating serious crimes with leniency, illustrating a critical disconnect in moral and legal reasoning.
Themes
MarijuanaInsanityPolicyJusticeLaw
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on drug reform, this quote could be used to emphasize the need for a rational approach to drug laws.
More from Eric Schlosser
All quotes →The executives who run the fast food industry are not bad men. They are businessmen. They will sell free-range, organic, grass-fed hamburgers if you demand it. They will sell whatever sells at a profit.
Eric SchlosserRead
Fast food is popular because it's convenient, it's cheap, and it tastes good. But the real cost of eating fast food never appears on the menu.
Eric SchlosserRead
Similar quotes
I worry about global anti-Semitism - not just as a bad idea that originates from bad people, but also as something that arises as a challenge to global order.
Timothy D. SnyderRead
You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
When he found that the administrators were upset, he laughed. “Do they expect students not to be anarchists?” he said. “What else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
As long as there are rich people in the world, they will be desirous of distinguishing themselves from the poor.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
A good style must, first of all, be clear. It must not be mean or above the dignity of the subject. It must be appropriate.
AristotleRead
Do you remember any instance where tyranny was destroyed and freedom established on its ruins, among a people possessing so small a share of virtue and public spirit? I recollect none, and this more than the British arms makes me fearful of final success, without a reform.
Patrick HenryRead