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.
which is one reason perhaps we should just allow people to grow their own for their own use on private property.
Absolutely! And there is no filter on a marijuana cigarette.
Haha. I know I’m going to regret this, but I have to ask. Why am I an idiot?
Weed isn less harmful than alcohol - it doesn’t give you liver cirrhosis or delirium tremens or cause you to fight and it causes way fewer DUIs. But it also makes you zone out and not be present and a terrible role model to kids. Alcohol isn’t legal because it’s good for you, it’s legal because humans will always use substances to get in an altered state and the least harmful approach is to regulate substances, not prohibition. We tried prohibition and it didn’t work.
It is regulated in public places. I believe most states only allow it in the privacy of your home. I certainly don’t recommend pot but it is no worse for society than alcohol. If someone wants to drink, smoke pot in their home or ride a motorcycle with no helmet it should be no business of mine or the state.
Bullshite!
I use cannabis daily as a legal patient here in Florida. I believe sincerely alcohol is far deadlier & destructive than cannabis. It’s not even close from where I sit.
I do not believe it is ok to smoke it around children for any reason.
Cannabis helped me get free of decades long depression, anxiety & insomnia. I’ve lost 116 lbs of flab using cannabis and I went from being 100% unemployable to a thankful, thriving 57 year old who’s on his last week working TWO jobs before ‘just’ working one full time job.
In Colorado, at least, smoking in public is a ticket-able offense. There are private establishments where people can ingest/smoke together. I’m fine with that.
Don’t hire any Pot people. Work effort is at about 15%
You can also expect them to be alcohol free. None of those rules changed.
I figured all the undesirables would flock to those states from here. But now our governor supports legalization.
It’s illegal to smoke pot in public, in Oregon. It’s almost illegal to smoke tobacco in public.
Thanks for the info ...
People puffing on weed look so dirty. They have dirty hands and it’s just icky. Maybe it’s just me but I’ve never seen a picture of clean cut, clean looking hands or body.
That article is 3 years old and speaks to Florida laws. I would suggest that folks do their own research based on their own state. AFAIK, in Michigan you can have both.
I get so PO’d driving around town and smelling skunk-butt everywhere. It’s sickening. And the negative aspects of pot is never brought up.
Idiots one and all.
Check your data and see how many of the folks on unemployment and on assistance are actually transplanted from other states. It seems that especially Boulder had an influx of out of state people who moved there for the legal pot.
I’m agin it!
The cost to society for legalizing drugs will be enormous! Lives, money, wasted time, wasted talent, etc,etc.
We have ample evidence that a drugged society cannot sustain itself, and the last thing our society should do is encourage drug use!
Except for the thrill of being able to buy pot from a store front, it is quickly replaced by the fact that it is so expensive from a dispensary.
As in high priced alcohol, people will seek more affordable pot. Also, people from long ago smoked much weaker pot, and the stuff today is far too strong.
People will by strong pot, and cut it with shake just to make it smoke able.
Home grown is not as strong, does not have as strong an odor, and gives a more pleasant high, and does not last so long.
The old days of getting the munchies is gone with stronger pot, you just want to come down.
Shake and less strong pot is preferable to most people I know. Homegrown is becoming more popular because of reduced potency, and a nicer buzz, like a good drink that is watered a bit.
Like alcohol, most recreational smokers save it for the weekends or with friends...
Just my opinion, and that of MANY people I know.
Good homegrown is always preferable.
Transplants? That only bolsters my claim.
I was in Colorado this past September. A small town of about 1,000 people that had no pharmacy, no hotels or motels, no grocery store, no library, no parks, no banks, doctors, lawyers, realtors, no nothing.
It did have dollar store and 3-4 crappy places to eat.
Oh. Also 3 marijuana dispensaries.
Priorities first, right?
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