Posted on 11/15/2018 6:21:42 AM PST by Kaslin
Times change, attitudes change, and (thankfully) hairstyles change. In the last few years we’ve been witness to one amazing change that is surprising in its speed – the idea that adults should be allowed to smoke marijuana, either for medical purposes or because they want to. There’s no reason to think this trend will ever reverse itself.
In the interest of full disclosure, while it’s been more than a decade, I am intimately familiar with marijuana. I didn’t experiment with it, I majored in it in college. But, like most people, I grew out of it. I didn’t make a conscious stop, I just stopped. There comes a certain point when you just don’t do the things you did when you were young, I suppose that’s a roundabout way of saying we grow up.
There also comes a point where everyone (or at least most people) decide they’d rather be able to pass a drug test for a job or not get arrested for possession and walk away. When I think of all the stupid things I did in my 20s, not only were I and my friends lucky to avoid arrest, we’re lucky to be alive. I’m not unique in that.
When I “smoked down,” I knew I was breaking the law, but I never gave it a moment’s thought. It was usually at parties or with friends, it was just what we did. We’re older now and we don’t do those things anymore – parties have seen joints and keg stands replaced with wine and dinner, and we now have kids. We’ve changed. And so have attitudes.
In last week’s election, weed was on the ballot in 4 states – Michigan, North Dakota, Utah, and Missouri. The pro-pot sentiment won in all but North Dakota.
Michigan, where I grew up, essentially legalized pot (where was this when I was a kid?), while Missouri and Utah (UTAH!) legalized medical marijuana.
I’ve always been in favor of medical marijuana, I think the sick and dying should be able to do pretty much whatever they want to alleviate their suffering, and even if it just increases their appetites, more power to them. But I have had reservations about recreational use.
Part of me, cynically, likes to joke that when I was young I had to know a guy who knew a guy and go to a place, etc., in order to buy an eighth, so why should kids nowadays have it so easy? I risked arrest and more, and now people want to be able to go to store? It helped, I joked, meet people and learn to read and trust or distrust people – there was one friend I knew in college I’d not only never buy from again after one experience, I avoided him altogether.
But the less-bitter answer is I would have been fine with marijuana being legal if there was a way to know whether someone was driving while high, meaning high at that moment and not the weekend before. To my knowledge, there still isn’t a test to tell the difference – it’s either in your system or it’s not.
That’s neither here nor there. As is often the case with societal attitudes, they change even if you don’t. I have.
Through a combination of inevitability and my libertarian streak, I’m now on board with legalization. I don’t know if it’ll be a good thing or not, but people have to be free to choose. It’s available and at least decriminalized throughout the country and there’s no going back.
Think of it like gambling. When I was a kid there was Vegas and Atlantic City, with the occasional small Indian casino on a reservation here and there. Then, kind of quickly, they started popping up everywhere. Detroit, where I grew up, now has 3 big casinos, for example. The predictions of doom and gloom didn’t come true. Of course, some people were hurt, gambling is addictive, but by and large it didn’t make much of a difference. People who want to gamble now don’t have to hop on a flight to Nevada or Jersey, they can get in their cars. Marijuana is going to be the same, sooner or later.
I’d rather have the tax revenue and have it above board, out in the sunlight, than run out of a skeevy apartment or bathroom somewhere. I’m not interested, but I don’t want to tell anyone else how to live because I don’t want to be told how to live by anyone else. And that’s the irony of last Tuesday, to me at least. Areas where individuals have won the right to smoke weed if they want have embraced authoritarian liberal politicians who seek to impose so much on those people who voted for personal liberty. Marijuana laws are going up in smoke, hopefully the people who support that will wake up and realize they’re electing people who want most of the rest of their individual rights to do the same.
Not that long ago you had to join a private club in order to drink a beer in Utah.
Ha! Once it is legal and more people are long-term users, watch for all the ill effects become apparent. When people start developing psychosis or cancer, “big weed” will get the “big tobacco” treatment with lawsuits. And isn’t this just what we need? The whole country vegging out on drugs and losing all motivation to do anything else.
You are probably right. Parasitic government has just about killed off it’s Big Tobacco host and so is shopping for a new one.
America is a divided nation. There no longer exists a reasonable cultural consensus regarding behavior and values.
Hedonism and decadence are now practiced without shame by nearly a majority of the population. Drug use, fornication, pornography, celebrity worship, habitual dependence, unrestricted abortion and narcissism are common and acceptable. Others adhere to traditional values of sobriety, self reliance and accountability. What is more the divide is widening. Sorry but most traditional people want as little to do with the others in every aspect of life as is possible. The question is will traditional people ever make the supreme sacrifice for the others or for that matter any sacrifice at all for people they don’t trust, respect or like.
I took a girlfriend out to dinner at an exclusive restaurant in Salt Lake City in 1976. The waitress pushed a rolling cart loaded with miniature bottles of booze up to our table and asked if we wanted to “join the club.” I was still a wet behind the ears 25 year old, but I remember thinking “this is SO weird.”
My dad used to travel to Utah on business back in the 70’s. Between tales of the hoop-jumping to try and get a drink, and of Mormons driving pretty strong to the hoop to try and recruit him when they found out he had six kids, I think he was glad when that job ended.
“Not that long ago you had to join a private club in order to drink a beer in Utah.”
I remember Iowa in the 50’s. Hard liquor only legally purchased in State liquor stores. Had to have a little State issued book where they recorded each purchase. Had to bring your own bottles to restaurants and night clubs and buy the mixers there. Led to lots of nasty things on the highways.
When I was in college at FSU in Tallahassee you could not get a drink in a restaurant. You brought your bottle of booze in a paper bag and the waiter supplied a glass and set ups. You poured your own.
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You're going to have employers operating in jurisdictions where marijuana is completely legal, but in industries where insurance carriers are increasingly insisting on protective measures like drug tests to minimize the risk of claims for work-related incidents.
This is how we end up with tens of millions of Americans who are not just unemployed, but unemployable.
The whole thing -- from all sides -- is nothing more than a new industry for places that have chased their old ones out and have nothing left.
Dope smoking makes Democrats.
Mush head leftists, conspiracy theorists.
This is THE problem in this country causing all if it.
“Traditional people”, like the Founders, who didn’t think your list of evils rose to the level requiring government intervention? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - our most revered forefathers were Libertarians, thankfully for all of us.
You had to be a "member" of the bar to purchase alcohol. We presented our Texas drivers licenses to join the "club", but were informed that they couldn't verify the IDs until the next day. As a result, they could serve us drinks but couldn't charge us for them. We ended up having a few drinks "on the house", and left a very large tip.
“The whole country vegging out on drugs and losing all motivation to do anything else.”
I know at least a dozen people, personally, that hold down 6 figure jobs and smoke somewhat regularly. By regularly I mean at least once per week.
Sometimes I caution them that it will eventually degrade their professional vigor. And may impact family life.
The usual reaction is either laughter or a sharp “not your business”.
“Others adhere to traditional values of sobriety, self reliance and accountability. “
That should be practiced and encouraged.
However, to impose that on others is a fool’s errand.
Once a week? They're rookies.
More like pikers.
“You’re going to have employers operating in jurisdictions where marijuana is completely legal, but in industries where insurance carriers are increasingly insisting on protective measures like drug tests to minimize the risk of claims for work-related incidents.”
There are some industries where those restriction should remain in perpetuity.
But for most it’s not necessary. It is entirely reasonable to just judge work performance.
Many companies now don’t tell applicants they have dropped the THC screening from their urinalysis. But they have.
Many other have dropped the pre-employment drug screen entirely as they are not subject to Federal regulation on that matter. Even some workplace insurance companies are looking the other way on the THC screen.
The world will continue unabated.
And marijuana will be universally legal in the US in the next 5-10 years. At least at the Federal level. And likely all states as well.
There may be some pockets/localities that retain their prohibition because their state government allows that. But as you can see above that is true with alcohol as well.
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