Why Does Amazon Want to Legalize Marijuana?

Does Amazon, one of the largest monopolies in the world, want to dip its conglomerate toes in the potential 200 billion-dollar Marijuana industry?

The Washington Post:

Amazon is channeling its influence in Washington to drum up bipartisan support for an unlikely cause: legalizing marijuana.

The company on Tuesday endorsed legislation by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) to end the federal prohibition on pot, as Forbes reported, the first time it has backed a GOP-led bill on the issue.

It seems like the only time these political parties want to push for bipartisan agendas is when they involve the black market and further the military-industrial complex through wars. Why are there no concerted efforts to end the homeless problem in America, or bipartisan efforts against the opioid substance abuse epidemic that was caused by FDA negligence?

Watch how Amazon frames their support for the legislation to make themselves appear like the good guys.

The Washington Post:

Now the tech giant is again flexing its political might to rally lawmakers behind the cause, which Amazon says could widen its applicant pool by helping to ease drug testing requirements and assist with employee retention.

When did Amazon, the same company that treats employees like robots, employees who compare the working atmosphere to “prison,” become so understanding of their employees?

RELATED: My Muslim Teen Is Doing Drugs! A Cautionary Tale

Consider these horror stories:

The Guardian:

“I was a picker and we were expected to always pick 400 units within the hour in seven seconds of each item we picked,” said Espinoza. “I couldn’t handle it. I’m a human being, not a robot.”

…Jimpat Lacewell started working at Amazon in Staten Island in November as a sorter, but quit after three days because it reminded him of prison 

“I would rather go back to a state correctional facility and work for 18 cents an hour than do that job,” Lacewell said. “I’m sure Mr Bezos couldn’t do a full shift at that place as an undercover boss.”

Amazon workers would rather work for pennies in prison than work at Amazon. That’s telling.

By the way, how would legalization help their workers meet these seemingly impossible labor demands (that cause double the turnover rate of similar-sized businesses) if they show up under the influence?

According to David Niekerk, a former vice president at Amazon, it seems like firing employees en masse is actually good for Amazon’s bottom line.

Business Insider:

David Niekerk, who helped design the company’s warehouse-management system, told the publication that founder Jeff Bezos’ belief that people are inherently lazy helped shape the company’s policies.

He pointed to a short-term employment model that doesn’t provide employees many opportunities for advancement…The practices that Niekerk described are some of the company’s most contentious — like firing employees for a single day of low productivity and continually keeping workers on task with limited break time

RELATED: What Should Muslims Think About Marijuana Legalization? The Bernie Plan

Amazon has all the hallmarks of a sweatshop: inhumane labor, high turnover rate if workers don’t meet the back-breaking work given, and little to no break time. Maybe one of the real reasons for legalization is so they can have access to an even greater pool of potential workers that’ll be treated like scum. Scum, that because of drug-test regulations, Amazon can’t currently hire.

If recreational use is legalized nationwide, the consequences could be disastrous especially when considering states that have already legalized it.

Rutgers:

Take California for example: first in the nation to legalize the medical use of the drug in 1996, the state would go on to legalize recreational use in 2016…the state reported several massive illegal cannabis busts, with 20 tons of cannabis confiscated off a series of farms, $8 million worth of plants found in a thought-abandoned warehouse alongside a busy highway, and 100+ illegal operations busted in the southern town of Anza – just over the last three or four months.

…What’s more, police reports suggest that arrests for pot crimes have increased following the drug’s legalization. Among such reports are a series of police records secured by the Los Angeles Times in early 2019

Out of all the social and political movements Amazon could have chosen to support, they choose to vie for an industry that is heavily connected with other black-market trades. This includes smuggling and prostitution with extremely nefarious gangs that have their own monopoly of the underground black market.

Even if these legislations do mean lower crime rates for that particular substance, criminal underground organizations will just do what any other financially savvy enterprise would do: they’ll adapt. If they can’t make their illicit earnings from marijuana, they’ll just move on to extortion, prostitution, or other drugs such as heroin or cocaine.

But the studies ultimately show that legalization of these addictive substances doesn’t lower criminality, it actually encourages it.

Do Muslims or anyone else want to support such bipartisan issues if it means destroying a society just so these politicians can get kickbacks from these too-big-to-fail corporations that treat their workers worse than animals?

RELATED: Aljazeera’s AJ+ Promotes LGBT, Sex Work, and Drugs to Muslims

MuslimSkeptic Needs Your Support!
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

2 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
A K

JazakumUllah. Continue to expose these animals. There should be a whole section on the capitalist mafia. It’s important because young Muslims need to know not just whose trash they’re consuming but who the criminals behind these big corporations actually are so that young graduates think twice before they enslave themselves to these demons and stain their resumes and career experience with the names of such “prestigious” companies.

Takeshi

Definition of capitalism : an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

You blame capitalism, what is the alternative?

Does Islam oppose capitalism?

Please answer

Last edited 1 year ago by Takeshi