I live in the mountains of southeast Kentucky and have watched the scourge of illegal drugs destroy families and lives. I have a couple of relatives who are what I call lost souls. Each day you hear they haven’t been found dead is by the grace of God with them. They both started with weed.
I hope the powers that be know what the long term consequences of this may be. I suspect they don’t and only see tax revenue streams from this and votes. Ironically I expect the use of pot will eventually get a negative view in society down the road, not because it is a drug but because of the damage the health care system is going to start finding with the destroyed lungs of pot smokers. They will be the new tobacco smokers in our society eventually.
“They both started with weed.”
I would bet $100 they actually started with Budweiser.
Mostly libertarian trash wanting vending machine opiates and cocaine. That, and open borders, women's right to murder the unborn, etc.
And some moron on this thread says legal dope has not harmed Colorado? What an idiot. Go to Durango and say that. Scumbag addicts everywhere.
I see the same thing. I understand all the reasons to legalize it. But its certainly not something to celebrate. There are going to be real human consequences, which we know, because I see it already. With the advent of “medical” marijuana it just ramped up and invaded families it would not have touched before.
You can’t build a republic with potheads as your citizenry. Kids who start down this road, if they don’t snap out of it, are as you say, lost souls. They lose their spark; they never quite get off dead-center. This is what I see all around me.
If I may offer a correction, they probably both started with cigarettes - say age 12? Then, they most likely broke into a liquor cabinet to steal some whiskey and get drunk - 12-14? Eventually, they acquired a taste for beer; pot might have entered the picture around the same time - 14-16?
Actually, if you want to be honest, predilections towards addiction, regardless of gateways, are easy to determine by the time a child is 5. Doing poorly at school, aggressive, hyper-active (not in an athletic way), resisting parent/teacher authority, etc.
Blaming ingrained tendencies on a specific drug is simply trying to obscure the issue. Regardless of availability, people determined to destroy themselves can accomplish it through many different channels.
Did they start with weed or with cigarettes and alcohol?
Intellectual honesty goes a long way toward making your case.
I live in the mountains of southeast Kentucky and have watched the scourge of illegal drugs destroy families and lives. I have a couple of relatives who are what I call lost souls. Each day you hear they haven’t been found dead is by the grace of God with them. They both started with weed.
BTW, I now live in south central KY. I love it but one of the differences I notice between here and my old home, Seattle, is that all classes mix in these small communities. I get to see first hand the ravages of drug abuse in my neighborhood. My wife was a “big sister” to a 12 year old girl living with her grandmother. Her mom was a meth head off and on, and her husband was too. Naturally marijuana and alcohol were also part of their lives, but not so much alcohol because it’s a dry county.
The mother finally died of a drug overdose just a little over a year ago. The girl is now 16, the grandmother is in a mental institution and the girls older sister was housing her but now wants her out due to all the lying and drug abuse (probably marijuana). We may find ourselves washing our hands of the girl. We’ve worked very hard to be an example couple and teach her about life and personal success (relationships, not money) and it simply did not sink in. We will not risk our grandchildren by bringing her into our home.
We tried that a couple of decades ago and it was an unmitigated disaster. You don’t bring a coyote pup in with your domesticated litter. And at the end of the day, that is what this is.
Drugs are like money. They are a tool. They can be used for good or for evil. Mild ones can be put in the hands of the general population in the name of personal responsibility. This includes things like Alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and marijuana. The government should not be involved in the use of such drugs other than to tax them as they do everything else.