I don’t have any skin in this game right now.
I’m not on SNAP and don’t know anyone who really is.

I support the changes – the reduction or inability to buy processed foods. While this is uneven in the states, facing powerful lobbyists and brainwashed consumers, it’s a nod in the right direction.

Although I’m sure that it won’t last.
It’s just a token of ‘we tried,’ before the powers that be double down and the degradation of ‘food’ to ‘food like’ becomes more ingrained.

Anyway, the American legal system restricts or limits substances that are harmful to the population or, specifically, to children.

It’s illegal for a child to smoke.
Nicotine is bad.

A child can’t have a beer. No alcohol.

Cocaine and other street drugs are illegal, with marijuana being somewhat of an exception.

What these substances are made out of, the coca leaves, tobacco leaves, potatoes, barley, etc., is fine. They’re not illegal and can be helpful. Potatoes, etc., are staples and commonly found. I understand that coca leaves can make a wonderful tea.

But it’s when these natural items are concentrated and chemically altered that they become harmful and illegal.

High fructose syrup is derived from plants. It is processed and is harmful.

Refined sugar comes from sugar beets and sugarcane. It’s harmful.

MSG, another highly processed, harmful plant-based item, has many different names that sound okay. Some of them, like whey protein isolate and calcium caseinate, sound kind of healthy. Other names, like carrageenan and malodextrin, sound harmless but science-based.

Bottom line –
They’re all harmful. They’re all processed.
They’re all proven addictive. In a natural form, they’re fine – even beneficial.

So… just like beer, cocaine, and cigarettes, high fructose syrup and MSG, share the same basic process and qualities.

But – with lobbyists, marketing, consumer ignorance (or just stupidity) – some are accepted, and others are not.

While fructose syrup probably tastes better than cocaine — I wouldn’t know. I’ve never had a joint — it’s okay for it to be unrestricted and expected.

Why?

Maybe it doesn’t kill as quickly as cocaine or have immediate effects like a double malt whisky. The addiction is still immediate, although the effects are slower.

But the end result is the same.

Lives are ruined. A person’s quality of life is reduced. Big Pharma is paid. Taxpayers are burdened.

If adults truly had their children’s best interests at heart, why push back against the SNAP restrictions?

Honestly, I don’t want to know.
I don’t care.

If an adult wants to be addicted to sugar, that’s on them. If they want to develop cancer from smoking, that’s on them.

But a child shouldn’t be addicted to harmful substances. There are laws against that.

Except when money, Big Food, Big Farm, Big Pharma, and the government are involved.

F(ch that.

People are stupid.