Friday, April 3, 2009

Reefer Madness


Do me a favor, please. If you ever sparked the leaf, raise your hand. You know, burned one. Chiefed. Smoked a phatty.

Some of you are not being very honest. I should see more hands than that. I’m almost certain of it. But I understand. Some of you have professional and personal concerns that prevent your complete honesty. Me? Well, I have professional and personal concerns that prevent me from being completely honest (mostly professional).

Let’s just say I do not partake at this time. However, it seems to me there are a number of persons around me who do and who do on a very regular basis. And it’s not like I hang out with a bunch of degenerates or low-lifes. I’m talking about doctors, lawyers, professors, businessmen—respected professionals.

But let me get to my point. I don’t have a scientific survey to back up my hypothesis, but I suspect that the number of marijuana users has remained constant over the years, if not increased. But the laws making marijuana illegal have not changed. Why?

It has been suggested that marijuana laws simply cost us more than they are worth. And as we found out during prohibition, even the most well meant laws sometimes have devastating results. Out of the effort to rid the country of that demon alcohol, a whole new criminal enterprise was born.

Furthermore, given our current economic situation, can we still afford to not legalize marijuana? Just think of the tax revenue legalizing marijuana would bring. Just think of the number of criminals who would be put out of business, the number of persons we don’t have to feed and cloth and house in that enormous corporate entity we call the prison system.

But marijuana is a gateway drug. If we legalize it, we make it easier for kids to get. Is it not easy for them to procure marijuana now? Don’t fool yourself. If kids want to get it, that will get it. When you were underage, did you not manage to purchase alcohol? Even though marijuana was and has always been illegal, as a teenager, were you not able to purchase marijuana?

I am not an anarchist. But I do believe that we must go back and re-evaluate this law. Again, I am not a marijuana fan. I don’t even use marijuana. But to not legalize marijuana at this point is not very smart. It is simply madness, reefer madness.

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