Pot Wars
Are you sleeping better at night knowing that your U.S. Department of Justice is coming after California’s mushrooming (sorry!) pot clinics as announced last week? This is the same DOJ that won’t go after Black Panther voter intimidation thugs; that shipped thousands of guns to Mexican cartels resulting in the death of at least one Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, and hundreds of deaths in Mexico as well; that is suing the state of Arizona for trying to enforce federal law and turning a blind eye to all the “sanctuary cities” in the nation including Los Angeles which are violating federal law.
Now the missus and I spent a day strolling the Venice boardwalk last summer and it is laughable that “medical marijuana” clinics seem to have proliferated in the numbers they have. If treating cancer pain were their true mission, would we need dozens of them every few blocks? And why is most of their clientele in their 20s? In point of fact, no medical condition exists that can’t be treated as well or better with other less controversial drugs. In fact marijuana has been available for years by prescription (Marinol) and can be ingested if needed.
I do believe that military metaphors such as the “war on drugs” have made lots of folks feel self-righteous but have accomplished little, and that it is time to decriminalize marijuana (I think all my kids just fainted). Prohibition didn’t work either. Tax the hell out of it and admit that people who intend to use it will find a way, as they do with alcohol. It is the most valuable cash crop in much of California and will remain so as long as pot users want it.
Speaking of alcohol, people often equate the two but there are important differences. (Full disclosure: I have never tried it, although I got punched in the nose in 8th grade for refusing to buy “reefer” from a classmate – this during the Truman administration!) Alcohol is a food which can be processed and eliminated at about an ounce an hour by the liver, which is an organ capable of rapid restoration when injured. Marijuana, by contrast, contains thousands of chemicals (as do cigarettes) and also delivers carbon monoxide and radiation to the lungs. Most worrisome, cannabinoids are deposited in the brain and remain there, probably forever. We know that cannabis disturbs memory, robs users of ambition, and delays the development of adolescent problem-solving ability. If you doubt it, check out the “Occupy Wall Street” protests going on all over the land. Penalties for marijuana use tend to be much more severe in emerging countries which cannot afford an unproductive horde of young people getting high (e.g. India).
All the arguments against legalization have validity and I’ve used them myself. It is a gateway drug, it is illegal, it is carcinogenic (more so than tobacco), plus the above behavioral issues. Adolescence is challenging enough, and youngsters are influenced by their peers which makes their choice of friends critical. The family remains the #1 bulwark against all the traps teenagers must avoid, including drugs and alcohol, premature and reckless sex, careless driving, etc. Government at any level is a poor substitute, especially when its messages are purposely kept free of traditional moral standards. And it doesn’t help when, for example, Obamacare enshrines the “right” of young people up to 26 to remain dependents on their parents’ insurance. Are we heading for the European model, where we stay in school until 30 and retire at 50?
Decriminalizing pot is a gamble. One hopes that law enforcement would be able to go after heavy drugs, that prison populations would go down, that tax revenues would help fund rehab programs, etc. Alcohol is far more destructive to society in terms of drunk driving, domestic abuse, and actual medical costs, but trying to make it illegal backfired. (I hope you’re all watching “Boardwalk Empire, by the way) I’m not a libertarian by any means, but it’s obvious that there are things the Nanny State is no good at, and trying to regulate stupid behavior is not an effective use of taxpayers’ dollars.