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 weve 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. Theres no reason to think this trend will ever reverse itself.
In the interest of full disclosure, while its been more than a decade, I am intimately familiar with marijuana. I didnt experiment with it, I majored in it in college. But, like most people, I grew out of it. I didnt make a conscious stop, I just stopped. There comes a certain point when you just dont do the things you did when you were young, I suppose thats a roundabout way of saying we grow up.
There also comes a point where everyone (or at least most people) decide theyd 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, were lucky to be alive. Im not unique in that.
When I smoked down, I knew I was breaking the law, but I never gave it a moments thought. It was usually at parties or with friends, it was just what we did. Were older now and we dont do those things anymore parties have seen joints and keg stands replaced with wine and dinner, and we now have kids. Weve changed. And so have attitudes.
In last weeks 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.
Ive 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 Id 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 isnt a test to tell the difference its either in your system or its not.
Thats neither here nor there. As is often the case with societal attitudes, they change even if you dont. I have.
Through a combination of inevitability and my libertarian streak, Im now on board with legalization. I dont know if itll be a good thing or not, but people have to be free to choose. Its available and at least decriminalized throughout the country and theres 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 didnt come true. Of course, some people were hurt, gambling is addictive, but by and large it didnt make much of a difference. People who want to gamble now dont 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.
Id rather have the tax revenue and have it above board, out in the sunlight, than run out of a skeevy apartment or bathroom somewhere. Im not interested, but I dont want to tell anyone else how to live because I dont want to be told how to live by anyone else. And thats 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 theyre electing people who want most of the rest of their individual rights to do the same.
Are we also going to monitor people's salt intake? How about how much alcohol they consume?
I think the existence of socialist government policy is not a valid excuse to further erode our rights.
If I'm paying you to work for me, I'm only really concerned about what affects your work. If I have to pay for medical insurance that covers your whole family, then your entire family is now my business. I have every right to demand drug tests for THEM, too!
Good luck requiring drug tests for the whole family even with our modern police state.
I see where you are coming from, but from my point of view, I want all the stupid regulations done away with. Rather than waiting until some magical day when we can get rid of them all at once, I'm all for striking any that we can as we go along.
I know. LOL. I’m just using that to illustrate the inherent conflict presented when you have government meddle in personal or business relationships.
Oh, no worries. I understood your point completely, and it didn’t come across the wrong way at all!
Giving up pot helps the brain. Between drugs and binge drinking, what will become of the next generation? Already there is more liver damage among 25-35 year-olds than in the older set. This does not bode well for the future.
I understand that many people have tried weed. I am an old gal and never did. It was not so acceptable in my younger days.
“losing all motivation to do anything else”
Except eat...
Many cried when they stopped making
Twinkies.
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