The Cannabis Law and Silent Anxieties
A public reflection addressed to Mr. Murat Ülker and the wider public:
The recent legislative proposal on medical cannabis in Turkey has triggered certain invisible reflexes that go beyond public health concerns. The sudden and intense reaction expressed by Mr. Murat Ülker, while framed on the surface as an effort to “protect young people,” appears at a deeper structural level to reflect a strategic concern regarding market balances.
Because if this law passes:
- New actors will enter the food, health, supplement, and cosmetics sectors.
- Value-added, medically based products will legally take their place in pharmacies.
- A science-based new economy will begin to challenge traditional monopoly structures.
This will inevitably disrupt the “competitive comfort zones” of certain large-scale economic actors. However, we must now accept a fundamental truth: The well-being of society cannot be sacrificed for the comfort of any capital group.
If we truly want to “protect young people,” we must do so not through prohibition, but through science; not through fear, but through education. History has repeatedly shown that many things once banned did not disappear—instead, they grew in the dark and fell into the arms of the informal and illegal market.
Our respect for Mr. Ülker remains intact. But in this country, a new generation is emerging—one that seeks to lead knowledge-based transformation rather than fear it. We will not remain silent. Because there are already many who speak for their interests… but still too few who speak for solutions.