Posted on 01/09/2019 10:03:03 AM PST by Kaslin
Ten states and Washington, D.C., have now legalized adult use of marijuana.
Supporters of America's long war on drugs said legalization would create disaster. Has it? No.
Colorado and Washington offer the longest points of comparison because weed has been legal in those states now for five years.
More people in Colorado tried marijuana after legalization, but that's not a surprise.
Colorado's crime rate did rise a bit. But many things influence crime rates. Washington state's violent crime rate rose a little but slightly less than the national average.
In California, people I interviewed said legalization made the streets safer. "It's cleaned up the corner," said one woman. Marijuana stores "have a lot of security (and) pay attention to who's on the sidewalk."
Sounds good to me.
But drug warriors are not convinced. Paul Chabot, a former anti-drug policy advisor for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, tells me that legalization has been a disaster.
"Colorado youth have an 85 percent higher marijuana use rate than the rest of the country," he says in my new video on marijuana legalization.
But he is wrong. Federal and state surveys and the New England Journal of Medicine report that teen marijuana use dropped a little in Colorado. Maybe there's something about legal businesses, with the dreary name "dispensaries," that makes weed less sexy to kids.
But there is bad news: The driving death rate increased in Colorado and Washington after legalization. But the data isn't clear -- driving deaths are up even more in some neighboring states like Idaho, where weed is still banned.
Chabot says, "Pot driving fatalities in Colorado are up 151 percent!"
That's true, but that statistic is misleading because traces of marijuana stay in a person's system for a long time. Some of those people may have used marijuana weeks before.
A more stringent measure that may indicate whether someone was actually high at the time of an accident suggests an increase of 84 percent.
That's terrible, but the numbers of accidents are so small -- 35 in all of Colorado in 2017, up from 19 in 2014 -- it's hard to draw conclusions. That deserves more study.
If anti-drug warriors like Chabot want to look seriously at the statistics, they should also include the harm done by drug prohibition itself.
It's nearly impossible to overdose on pot. But banning marijuana drives sales into the black market, where criminals do the selling. And criminals are more likely to settle their disagreements with guns.
They don't perform the reliable quality controls that legal drug sellers must do to please their customers.
On the black market, customers take their chances. Then, when things go wrong, anti-drug voices cry out: "See? Drug markets are inherently unsafe!"
Banning drugs doesn't stop teens or adults from using them. Anyone who wants the stuff knows how to get it. One survey found that teens said it's easier to buy weed than alcohol. Alcohol is rarely sold in schools, but banning marijuana creates fat profits that inspire dealers to recruit students to sell to their peers.
Then there are the billions of dollars spent by law enforcement -- $900 per second. (That's just the federal cost. Total spending is much higher.) And the million people arrested yearly for drug violations.
I suggest to Chabot that drug prohibition has worked out as badly as alcohol prohibition did nearly 100 years ago.
"Just because something doesn't work doesn't mean that we end it," he replies. "Doesn't mean we quit."
I say failure sometimes does mean you should quit, because you're doing more harm than good.
"No, because then we give up, and that's not American," Chabot says.
Well, today, two-thirds of Americans say marijuana should be legal. One state at a time, with New York and New Jersey about to join the list, Americans are giving up on marijuana prohibition.
Good. Adults should have the right to make their own decisions about what to put in their own bodies.
“Pot driving fatalities in Colorado are up 151 percent!”
Right and let THEM babysit YOUR kids
Big straw-man.
[[ Ten states and Washington, D.C., have now legalized adult use of marijuana.]]
And if you smoke it, in some states, and it is determined that you do, you can never own a gun again-
Medical or Recreational Marijuana Means No Gun Rights
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2016/11/john-boch/medical-marijuana-means-no-gun-rights/
No one can convince me "parents" should be smoking weed around their young children or that it doesn't have lasting cumulative effects.
Legalizing weed is about dulling and controlling new generations for political power.
I guess no one is safe anymore....
Pilots and bus drivers are tested.
I’m fine with recreational weed smoking. But it should be regulated in public. If they can limit a Constitutional right (firearms possession) in certain space, they can absolutely limit smoking weed in certain spaces.
From what I have been told, the tourists frequent the dispensaries and most locals continue to buy on the black market. The greatest danger from weed are the edibles. It takes a couple of hours to feel the effect, and many become impatient and take way more than they should. It can make you disturbingly high. It’s like candy, and tempting to children. Today’s weed isn’t like the dreck from back in the day. not by a long shot.
Some mid-wive’s and naturopaths are recommending marijuana to alleviate symptoms associated with morning sickness. There is evidence that marijuana usage during pregnancy may have bad effects on the unborn child’s brain development.
Legalizing weed is about dulling and controlling new generations for political power.
Bingo!
Fool. It's not just crime rates that need looking at. What about unemployment rates? What about welfare rates? What about the tax and spending increases that Colorado has suffered with? The lower educational levels?
There are many tangible negatives to legal weed.
“No one can convince me “parents” should be smoking weed around their young children or that it doesn’t have lasting cumulative effects.”
Who is arguing that parents should smoke pot around their kids?
It’s a very reliable axiom that you can view any CHANGE in societal rules that the left champions as the ideological opposite of the conservative position.
Where does the left fall on this issue, is what should be examined.
I am hard over opposed to legalizing Marijuana!
In researching the “results” of legalization, I can find no dispassionate, objective statistics supporting legalization or keeping it a criminal act.
Both sides have their own facts and statistics, and both claim to be right!
So, all we can do is follow the money, and the big money people are spending millions to get drugs legalized under the rubric of “Well, they are gonna do it anyway, legal or not, so we may as well cash in and get the criminal element out of the drug business.”
How has that worked out so far?
And, what does legalization of a substance that is known to cause health and behavior problems say about our society?
We are not strong enough to call out evil? We caution against drinking too much alcohol - how much is too much marijuana?
This experiment will not end well for anybody but government and the big money behind legalization.
The poor suffering honest, non-dope smoking taxpayer is gonna get screwed again!
Supporters of America’s long war on drugs said legalization would create disaster. Has it? No.
When pot was illegal the legal consequence was more dangerous than the drug.
I don't smoke, either tobacco or marijuana, but I cannot understand how smoking marijuana isn't restricted to the level that smoking tobacco is. Both are burning weeds; if there are tars and carcinogens in burning tobacco, wouldn't there be the same problems with burning marijuana?
Bingo!
Just like LBJ's Great Society and Welfare State was about controlling the 60's generation for political power.
Bread and Circuses are now Welfare and Weed.
It definitely was still a question n the 4473 I filled out a couple of days ago. “No” is still the accurate and honest answer from myself.
Pot might be legal but has consequences: 1. No job if it requires drug test, 2. No gun ownership if honest on background application, etc.
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