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.
re: “William F. Buckley enjoyed a doobie now and then, I’ve read. “
No proof; a rumor. Based on one statement he made once upon a time. The Pro-Drug crowd has managed to twist this to their advantage.
There are tumor-suppressing chemicals in marijuana - and no epidemiological evidence linking marijuana to any lung ailment other than bronchitis.
[Lizavetta:] I find it amazing (and typical double standard of the Left) that during their loud demands for legalization their previous concerns about the dangers of smoking and cancer and children inhaling second hand smoke evaporated.
[Mears:] There are people right here on FR that feel the same way
There are people on FR who want tobacco more restricted than marijuana? I call BS ... name one.
Thank You NobleFree.
Some people think going to jail is worse than paying taxes - go figure.
“Seriously? The same people who argue pot is far less harmful than alcohol. If that is true, then by default - they argue that smoking pot around you children is OK.”
Nobody is saying that smoke is good for children or yourself.
However, thanks to legalization there are countless smokeless ways to consume cannabis and not cause harm.
Without blowing smoke in the room, it is no different than having a wine or beer around your kids while watching TV. Hell, it is practically an American tradition to drink the first beer with your son. They watch you drink from a young age and eventually join you.
As long as you behave and meet responsibilities, what is the problem?
YES. Some people will start acting deranged and even beat their family after a beer loosens them up. I’ve known several individuals that could not behave and miss work after ONE 12oz light beer. ONE.
Just because SOME people are irresponsible and drink when they shouldn’t, does not mean we should blame the beer and ban it for all.
“I find it amazing (and typical double standard of the Left) that during their loud demands for legalization their previous concerns about the dangers of smoking and cancer and children inhaling second hand smoke evaporated.
Thanks to legalization bringing down the price of extracts, more cannabis is being consumed smokelessly. And also thanks to legalization, extracts are being tested in labs for toxic chemicals.
Thanks to legalization, even a paralyzed deathly sick person can now comsume it without smoke, toxins or cancer.
Thank God!
I'm glad it's affordable where you live. Here in L.A. a 12-ounce bottle of cannabis infused juice is $31 at a local dispensary. A bag of 10 edibles brownies is the same. Legislation has opened the floodgates on pot taxes.
Bingo. There should be stronger laws against smoking pot in public. In the privacy of one’s one home, fine. But on a busy public sidewalk? No.
Consider how tobacco is attributed to filling our hospitals, killing little babies in their beds with second hand smoke and causing every sort of cancer and as such has been heavily taxed, banned and restricted. So we are now to believe that inhalling marijuana smoke has no similar health hazards? Of course government will ignore these hazards just to get tax money.
““Pot driving fatalities in Colorado are up 151 percent!”
That bogus stat was corrected in this very same article.
“Doctors drug the perpetually agitated children further into stupors. The parents conceal and deny it. Doctors pretend that it isn’t happening. It’s horrible. Who will guard them all in adulthood? Who will support them? What kinds of facilities will be built to hold them?”
And, most importantly, who will substantiate this claim?
So, since alcohol and tobacco are legal, we should legalize yet another class of drugs that are harmful to body and soul?
Thanks for the backup!
Big Tobacco has owned the trademarks for commercial marijuana cigarette brands for years. IIRC, RJReynolds owns the “Acapulco Gold” trademark.
And, there are many others already staked out, of course!
As in all things, follow the money!
Here in Flori-Duh, a prominent Orlando law firm successfully pushed passage of the medical marijuana sales, and is poised to make millions when recreational marijuana is legalized.
“What up, Dude” is likely to get more prevalent!
“Highly manipulative bull crap being spread... by none other than John Boehner chief lobbyist for Cannabis, Inc (so to speak). A true moron of the scotch soaked chain smoking variety— a useless turd.”
When he was in power, he was a big time drug warrior. Now that he’s retired, the old lush is going for the $$$. It’s what whores do.
People in government love pot prohibition, what with federal aid, asset seizure, gun control and the like.
Thanks for pings.
States rightly should decide whether cannabis is legal vs the federal prohibition.
I don’t get how people smoke it either. Hell, I’ve arrested dozens of people for weed possession/smoking in public. But I just don’t feel that people should be criminalized for buying it from a regulated dispensary (which takes it off the street) and smoking it in their own home or a controlled private establishment.
So, since alcohol and tobacco are legal, we should legalize yet another class of drugs that are harmful to body and soul?
We should be consistent in applying our professed principles: if we say marijuana should be illegal because it's harmful to body and soul, we should also say that alcohol and tobacco should be illegal because they're harmful to body and soul.
Do you so say?
Don’t disagree with “consistency.”
Disagree with legalizing yet another substance KNOWN to create massive social problems and lay even more massive costs on society.
In answer to comments about pregnant mothers smoking pot, some subscribers here have said that pot is good for treating or curing autism in kids. They’ve also said that pot cures cancer.
Addicts won’t be convinced that the stuff is harmful. Not long ago, I in was in town in the middle of the day and saw a yelling match between a couple of potheads over next to nothing. Both were known around that town as being political weed activists. Neither one of those paranoid individuals made any sense, but both them made quite a bit of noise. The situation very nearly transitioned into a typical bum fight.
Taxman,
That HAS to be Morgan & Morgan....
Cheers
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