Imagine if, when Prohibition was repealed, instead of shielding children from harmful exposure to alcohol, state and federal governments had essentially abandoned them to the glamour drinking culture.
We might have seen documentaries about the social problems by 1938. Socially conservative elements in society might have lamented the situation, given the fact that such conditions couldn’t have prevailed if there were an effective government of laws, not of men.
Eventually, society would have decayed to a film noir alternate reality like that in Dashiell Hammett’s horribly cynical “Red Harvest”. The American “City on a Hill” would be well on its way to the complete dominance of brute force portrayed in Alessandro Manzoni’s “The Betrothed”.
This is essentially the situation today, with the news announcement that the US Justice Department will not prosecute any marijuana crimes unless there is indication of organized crime infiltration—as happened in the Netherlands when cannabis and hashish possession for personal use were decriminalized.
The core issue is that underage users are most seriously impacted. There are no public discussions about the effects upon minors of the marijuana gray market. The only group with an organized platform of political agitation is the “medical” marijuana industry, which has substantial incentives for current conditions to remain as they are, including essentially unregulated use by minors.
Unexpected.
Why should they do anything? The government owes them and should pay for a comfortable lifestyle.
No one in that demographic has ever had any trouble whatsoever buying M.J. in the black market. Many of the homeless are too young to buy pot in the grey market.
A close reading of the article reveals the only reason there might be a link between legal pot, and homelessness in Denver — habitual users migrating back to Colorado, so that they can indulge their habit without fear of arrest (for possession or using).
This should surprise no one. Welfare and crime will also rise. Too bad for families who want a wholesome place to rear their children.
The headline, while accurate, is a little misleading. Pot is not causing people to go homeless in Colorado. Pot is the reason homeless people from other states are moving to Colorado.
“Officials at some Denver homeless shelters say the legalization of marijuana has contributed to an increase in the number of younger people living on the city’s streets.”
Easy to dope, easy to dupe. They have turned young people into good little Democrats. They have made them passive, dependent on others and unable to understnd or care what is going on around them.
EBT cards are being used in the marijuana stores. These young people are sitting around all day, being supported by others and contributing nothing to society. There is little or no reason to believe they will change.
The Democrats have won.
Dude, where’s my house?
This is such a surprise! Who would’ve guessed this might ever happen? /s
Haven’t they gotten a shipment of “immigrant chillllllldren” too recently?
And, now Denver would like to “rehab” the Boettcher Performing Arts Center in downtown Denver, to house these folks. Goodbye Symphony, Opera and Ballet.
BTW, the Denver Downtown 16th Street Mall inhabitants look like zombies.
Total BS from the shelters as they look for easy money.
Bums always come to Colorado in the summer and most will move south like always when it gets cold.
I thought homelessness was President Reagan’s fault, same as HIV/AIDS.
You-All are correct that pot tourism or pot immigration is a reason.
However, this is the beginning, not the end.
Oregon, not to be left behind in the slide into dependency and shiftlessness, will soon legalize.
We should look to Nederlands, where they’ve had generations of experience with these problems.
Especially a takeover by organized crime.
For a substance that’s now supposed to be legal, and problem-free.
The self-inflicted attack on reason and logic creating a new class of needy? Go figure. Just what the socialists ordered, another collective to redistribute OUR time of life to. Work harder economic slaves.
When potheads self medicate themselves with pot, they admit tacitly that they are mentally and emotionally ill.
Homelessness is just one of many ways they express it.
Stevie Wonder could’ve seen this coming.
This is quite shocking. Smoking pot and drinking beer together makes you smarter
No sympathy from me.
The law of unintended consequences always delivers swift and sure justice to the stupid and arrogant!