To put everyone’s mind at ease, legalization of pot is not going to change much of anything. I live in Los Angeles, where pot has been functionally legal for the past decade or so. There are hundreds of hip, little “dispensaries” in every commercial district, and they sell pot to anyone with a “recommendation” that can be obtained in about 15 minutes by claiming, without documentation, medical “stress” or “anxiety” or “insomnia”.
Now, there are a lot of things to complain about in terms of life in Los Angeles, but you’d be hard-pressed to attribute many of them to legal pot. Crime rates have posted substantial year over year declines; test scores remain dismal, but slightly improving; drug abuse and addiction rates haven’t changed that I’m aware of.
Think about it like this: do you personally know anyone who doesn’t smoke pot because it’s illegal, and once it’s legal, will become a pot smoker? Everyone I know either likes pot and smokes it, or doesn’t. Nobody is sitting out there saying to themselves, “boy I wish I could smoke some pot, but unfortunately, it’s illegal, so I can’t.”
So make it legal or not, nothing much is going to change. The only thing that I really hope is that if it becomes legal in more places, the market for Mexican pot moved across the border by narco-terrorist cartels via illegal aliens will dry up, helping with our attempts to seal the freakin’ border and stop the illegal alien invasion. Now that would change things in L.A. significantly, for the better!
Pot is effectively legal in California. It’s incredibly easy to get a prescription — I live in a retirement area, average age is probably 70. Nice to have retired neighbors because they keep an eye on the area.
BUT, I smell pot CONSTANTLY in my backyard, through my open windows and on the streets when I walk the pooches.
I am sensitive to it because of allergies/asthma and I well know the smell of it having grown up in the 60s and 70s.
These OLD people all (well a lot of them) seem to have prescription for legal pot!!— they’ve told me you can buy pot ice cream, pot brownies, pot lollipops (for the kiddies?), and various brand names of pot — for their glaucoma or arthritis, I’ve heard.
I worry about them getting behind the wheel of a car — which they all do — and driving around STONED.
Sometimes, it’s not what you think...