Girl Scout Cookies Controversy – To Sell or Not To Sell? You Decide!

AMAC (a Decent AARP Alternative) ^ | 03/14/14 | D.J. Wilson

[harpu]

It was Juliette Gordon Low’s vision to empower young girls to grow courageous and strong and to develop their full potential. For that reason, she founded Girl Scouts in 1912. Today, membership has grown to 3.2 million, 2.3 million girl members and 890,000 adult members working primarily as volunteers. Some of the many benefits of scouting include learning skills, discovering fun, increasing understanding and respect, contributing to society and developing values to guide actions. If value driven actions matter, I can’t help but wonder if Juliette would have envisioned a sweet little 8-year-old girl selling cookies on the doorstep of a pot distributor.

Thin Mints, Tagalongs and Samoas are some of the beloved cookies which were once sold door-to-door. Due to safety concerns, girls are now encouraged to set up tables in public areas in the form of cookie booths to operate under the supervision of adult troop leaders. Last year, declining cookie sales made headlines, leaving many to quip about ‘watching the cookie crumble’ in the face of financial woes. Falling membership rates, pension plans with a nearly $350 million deficit and tensions at headquarters created a firestorm leading to forced retirements, layoffs and a vacating of positions. Despite the organization’s economic hardships of 2013, young girls worked harder than ever to sell cookies. Some girls even paraded in empty cookie boxes to attract customers to buy cookies. Are girl scouts being pushed to extremes by leaders and parents to make sales?

Shortly after a teenager sold dozens of boxes of cookies at a marijuana dispensary in San Francisco, an 8-year-old girl made headlines by setting up a cookie booth at a dispensary in Phoenix. This decision was encouraged by parental approval. The Phoenix dispensary, happy to have free press, agreed to solicit customers and offered patients who buy at least a half ounce of pot a free box of Girl Scout cookies. I must say, I find Scouts and Marijuana an odd partnership. Some folks claim it’s simply a clever selling strategy which may help break down the barriers of marijuana use for various purposes. Others disagree, stating a marijuana (cannabis) dispensary is not an appropriate place for a young and impressionable child to sell cookies nor is it setting a good example. Girl Scouts is now thrust into the debate, putting councils at odds with one another over the controversy, with the deciding factors often left up to the parents. The 8-year-old child’s father spoke to the media on his daughter’s sales success, “It’s better than she would’ve gotten outside a grocery store.” So, what’s the next profitable spot? Will he have her sell cookies in front of a strip joint, casino, or liquor store? Heck, why not set up a cookie booth in a prison courtyard on pay-day?

Girl Scouts of Colorado is currently barring girls from selling cookies outside of adult oriented businesses. In a statement issued, they say “We recognize these are legitimate businesses, but we don’t feel they are an appropriate place for girls to be selling cookies in Colorado.” They are receiving mixed reactions and are being accused of hypocrisy and creating missed opportunities. Think it’s odd that the organization isn’t taking a universal stance other than providing general safety guidelines? Perhaps they are taking lessons from our President. When interviewed by David Remnick for The New Yorker, Obama acts wishy-washy. On one hand, the President speaks about legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington and says that “It’s important for it to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished.” According to Obama, the “select few” are African American kids and Latino kids. Obama says “Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do.” On the other hand, in the same interview, he says “It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy.”

As it stands, the Federal government allows states to pass their own laws to decriminalize marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes with a regulation system in place. Marijuana is now legal in two states, Colorado and Washington, and is currently approved for medicinal purposes in nearly two-dozen states. Legalization of this drug, which more than one-third of Americans have tried, is continually debated. Gallup polls show that past and present use of the drug is similar among Democrats and Independents. Its use is more prevalent among both these groups than it is among Republicans.

Increasingly, and strangely, some Republicans are abandoning their conservative sensibilities to join the pro-marijuana movement. Why? They see a marijuana tax as a government means to earn money. Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational marijuana had voters approve a “pot sales tax.” Monies earned will be used for public school construction projects and enforcement of regulations on the drug’s retail industry. Recreational sales will have a 25% tax. Some marijuana advocates argue that a large tax may lead to the creation of a black market. Washington, the second state to legalize its use, passed a tax with each party in the buying and selling process paying a 25% excise tax. This affects producer to processor, processor to retailer and retailer to consumer. The state estimates it may produce several billions in tax revenue during the first five years.

Remember the late C. Everett Koop? In his role as Surgeon General of the United States, under President Ronald Reagan, Koop did not shy away from controversy. Many liberal politicians and women’s group opposed his nomination, as Koop maintained conservative beliefs. He supported the rights of disabled children, took a strong anti-abortion stance and worked diligently towards AIDS education and prevention. Koop strongly opposed tobacco use and warned of its connection to smoking-caused illnesses and death and of its addictiveness. It was during his tenure, that in 1984, Congress passed legislation to place warning labels on cigarette packs. Koop issued Americans a challenge that same year to “create a smoke-free society in the United States by the year 2000.” He did not waiver in his opinion of marijuana, and diligently urged doctors and other health professionals to discourage patients, especially youth, from using marijuana due to its negative psychological and biological effects. Dr. Koop bluntly called marijuana “a major public health problem”. Perhaps the Girl Scouts should take note of Dr. Koop’s findings and steer away from associating with its distribution.

Those who oppose marijuana legalization strongly believe that the state’s role in distributing addictive substances is immoral. They argue that the government’s job is to protect the health and welfare of its people, not expose them to risk of high abuse and addiction. Do the Girl Scouts have a moral obligation to protect these children? Those on the pro-side feel that the government has a responsibility to respect individual free will. Like Obama, they suggest its use is no different than that of alcohol. Do the Girl Scouts have a duty to uphold free will? While the organization sorts out the matter, or ignores it, let me remind them that smack dab in the middle of the controversy are innocent young females hoping to sell cookies.

[onedoug]

Homosexualism destroys.

[csivils]

GS decided to highlight abortion barbie right for her failed filibuster. Wendy can buy their cookies.

[BykrBayb]

Your partnership with Planned Parenthood is stronger than your partnership with marijuana dealers. You don’t have to have a legal document that specifically uses the word partnership. When you partner with them, that is a partnership, just like your partnership with the marijuana dealers is a partnership. You can try to hide behind semantics all you want, but it won’t fly here.

[Bigg Red]

While the organization sorts out the matter, or ignores it, let me remind them that smack dab in the middle of the controversy are innocent young females hoping to sell cookies.

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That’s only one of the issues these children’s lives are being threatened with.