“The amount of money and of legal energy being given to prosecute hundreds of thousands of Americans who are caught with a few ounces of marijuana in their jeans simply makes no sense – the kindest way to put it. A sterner way to put it is that it is an outrage, an imposition on basic civil liberties and on the reasonable expenditure of social energy.”
That quote wasn’t from a Cheech and Chong movie, or written on a sign waved by a protestor in the 1960s, but from conservative political columnist and National Review publisher William F. Buckley Jr.
As a farmer and father, and someone who tries his best every day to respect and obey laws, I take ballot measures seriously. Measure 2 on Alaska’s November 4, 2014 General Election ballot is a very important issue that I encourage all voters to contemplate.
My first disclosure is that I neither smoke cigarettes nor marijuana. Secondly, I really don’t want my wife or kids (when they’re adults and able to do so legally) to smoke and am glad they choose not to. Third, I’m very health conscious in diet and nutrition, and I’m unsure if marijuana, whether through edibles or by smoking, is even remotely healthy for humans. I’ve also learned that most things we consume or ingest are not necessarily good for us – but we still do.
The realization that states are legalizing marijuana, like Washington and Colorado, is indicative the nation is seriously considering the legality or lack thereof in marijuana use. If you think smoking pot is no big deal legally, remember the Drug Enforcement Agency categorizes marijuana like heroin, LSD, and ecstasy. Financial institutions are leery of accepting revenues from even legal distribution. The uncertainty in laws from state-to-state to the broader federal system is unnerving.
There appears to be a change in opinion by outgoing Attorney General Holder, who now says he’s willing to work with Congress to possibly remove pot from the dangerous drug list. Recall that after Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana in 2012, Holder was silent even though both states were in direct violation of federal law aforementioned. Fast-forward to here and now, and 20 states are legalizing medical cannabis while 15 states have new laws decriminalizing marijuana.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) offers annual drunk driving fatality statistics on its website. While their update hasn’t been made for 2012-2013, it’s clear that nationally about 10,000 people per year die from accidents linked to alcohol-related driver impairment. (http://www.madd.org/blog/2013/november/2012-drunk-driving-fatalities.html)
Alcohol is legal and freely poured, yet the outcry against its consumption is minimal, while the marijuana discussion seems to generate vitriol from the oddest places (Alliance and State Chambers in Alaska opposing; clergy submitting OpEd in opposition; law enforcement associations suggesting officers need $6 million + in “new” training to detect if someone is high from pot). In concert, these objections and atypical spokespersons make me take pause.
Is marijuana a gateway drug? Neuroscience journalist Maia Szalavitz’s article in Time Magazine suggests not at all. Szalavitz revealed that:
“Scientists long ago abandoned the idea that marijuana causes users to try other drugs: as far back as 1999, in a report commissioned by Congress to look at the possible dangers of medical marijuana, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences wrote”:
Patterns in progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood are strikingly regular. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug most people encounter. Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first. In fact, most drug users begin with alcohol and nicotine before marijuana — usually before they are of legal age.
In the sense that marijuana use typically precedes rather than follows initiation of other illicit drug use, it is indeed a “gateway” drug. But because underage smoking and alcohol use typically precede marijuana use, marijuana is not the most common, and is rarely the first, “gateway” to illicit drug use. There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.
http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/29/marijuna-as-a-gateway-drug-the-myth-that-will-not-die/
Is marijuana addictive? TIME’s Maia Szalavitz covered this question too. In her article entitled Is Marijuana Addictive? It Depends How You Define Addiction she reports that “Estimates vary, but compared with tobacco, which hooks about 20% to 30% of smokers, marijuana is much less addictive, coming in at 9% to 10%. In contrast, 23% to 25% of heroin users get addicted, along with 15% of alcohol users and 15% to 20% of those who use cocaine.”
http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/19/is-marijuana-addictive-it-depends-how-you-define-addiction/
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention cites that between 2006 and 2010 there were 38,253 chronic causes of alcohol-related disease and 49,544 acute cases. While anti-pot stalwarts claim use of marijuana vs. alcohol is an apples-to-oranges analysis, it sure doesn’t seem that way to me. The staggering numbers of illness and fatalities (and violence against women) caused by booze, and with the protections and defense by the trillion-dollar per year liquor lobby, is like Davey vs. Goliath when it comes to advocacy and criminalization. Pot growers, smokers and consumers don’t have a chance.
I’d hope no one argues that marijuana can’t benefit those suffering from chronic pain, terminal illness, anxiety. You don’t have to be a physician or researcher to recognize that mind alteration in certain contexts is a positive effect from cannabis. See the history of marijuana as a medicine. http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000026
As for prisons and marijuana, Rolling Stone Magazine reported the following: “About 750,000 people are arrested every year for marijuana offenses in the U.S. There’s a lot of variation across states in what happens next. Not all arrests lead to prosecutions, and relatively few people prosecuted and convicted of simple possession end up in jail. Most are fined or are placed into community supervision. About 40,000 inmates of state and federal prison have a current conviction involving marijuana, and about half of them are in for marijuana offenses alone; most of these were involved in distribution.”
To me, that’s a lot of people incarcerated. Imagine if alcohol (or God forbid – soda pop) became illegal again. I’d venture to guess we’d have ten times the amount of incarcerations from alcohol infractions compared to marijuana use. In 2012 there were 2,266,800 adults incarcerated in United States federal and state prisons. That’s an embarrassing and disappointing statistic in and of itself.
So in the past weeks I’ve heard it all. Marijuana will be used more if accessible legally. Cannabis in other forms like brownies and cookies will get in the hands of and harm children. Cops will need massive and technical training to sniff out the droves of new violators once legal (seriously?). The free-for-all of new herb addicts will skyrocket driving accidents, psychosis and paranoia, violence and lethargy, appetites and squandering of income that could be used for better purposes. Add that the mafia will come to town, and major drug gangs, and that kids will be accessing their parents’ “pot stashes” in a frenzy of dope-laden nirvana….
I don’t buy it. I’m not suggesting marijuana is healthy and warranted for everyone, but I embrace the libertarian perspective our country was founded on. The ideal that marijuana is “somewhat” legal through the state’s Ravin decision, and medical marijuana is an option but with strict and infringing rules attached to the issuance of such a license, and suddenly it makes more sense to legalize, regulate and afford citizens the right of choice and free will. The income alone is an economic benefit, and employment and new infrastructure can be added to the list of personal choice equating to more revenue and fiscal strength.
And no – I don’t smoke nor intend to enter the pot selling or growing market despite the fact I’m farmer, and a businessman. I want nothing to do with marijuana. But I also don’t drink Jagermeister or devour Big Gulps or smoke cigarettes or gamble at casinos or go to strip clubs or buy two-for-one pizzas, and that’s all legal and unhealthy too.
Consider parental accountability, as you weigh your decision to vote to legalize marijuana. Shouldn’t parents educate and watch over their kids like they do with other illegal and youth-prohibited substances and activities? And the thought that legalizing marijuana will stir a hornet’s nest of wasted drivers and sick-days and Taco Bell line congestion….it’s nonsense.
The freedom to making our own decisions is a huge liberty for me. It matters! It’s what our country was founded on more than any other reason.
I’ll leave with you with one more quote from a fellow most revere as our greatest president:
“Prohibition… goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes… A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.” ― Abraham Lincoln
