Posted on 08/15/2018 9:06:53 AM PDT by fwdude
Yesterday I visited our local bookstore and was struck by the abundance of magazine covers promoting marijuana. Later my wife commented that she’s received two ads this week for cannabis products, something she’s never received before! What’s going on?
In case you haven’t noticed or are simply distracted by the busyness of life, propaganda promoting marijuana and its legalization is bombarding us. Should we be concerned about something that is celebrated as a “harmless recreational” indulgence that progressive people should embrace excitedly?
Recently our state newspaper ran a prominent piece by a young woman calling for weed to be legalized. Coincidentally, she works for a statewide cannabis advocacy group. Reading her arguments and questionable statistics made me wonder if we should begin distributing marijuana freely since she opines it is so harmless and beneficial!
What follows is my pushback to the propaganda. Feel free to “borrow” any and all my counterpoints for op-eds you can submit, exposing the seductive logic.
Let’s Get Serious
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, dxxxxd lies and statistics,” said Mark Twain. He was pointing out the use of statistics to bolster weak or fallacious arguments. The dope supporter whose article appeared in our newspaper, typical of many, deserved a five star Pinocchio award for her misleading stats and misguided presentation.
Recently, I had an in-depth conversation with a police officer formerly on paid leave who has since retired. He was rehabilitating from a serious injury sustained when he confronted a young man about to commit a crime who was stoned on marijuana. He subsequently assaulted the officer, tearing his rotator cuff. He now faces numerous felony offenses plus decades behind bars, in addition to the impounding of his car containing marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Olympic gold medalist, Michael Phelps, often appears in the news with his lovely wife and two little boys celebrating his success emerging from rehab and his near-death experience. “Not wanting to be alive anymore” at one point, the champion who smoked marijuana, deceived it would not affect his ability to excel, now swears off any drugs as he encourages youth to emulate his example.
Close to where I live, a 33-year-old woman was sentenced to 30 years in prison for her reckless driving which resulted in the death of a teenager helping change his mother’s flat tire. The THP report showed her high on drugs and impaired in her driving ability as she callously fled the scene of the homicide. She’ll now have many decades to ponder her stupidity, recreational drug usage and the devastation it brought her and a grieving family.
With scores of people killed, maimed, or disabled for life from drunk driving, especially by young people, do we really want to compound the problem by adding marijuana to the mix? Teens can think they are invincible and adding a joint can seem innocuous until the tragedy happens, which it does all too frequently.
Contrary to what drug proponents profess, marijuana and other drugs take a toll—eventually, if not immediately. Drugs don’t deliver as advertised. Why do you think they call it “dope?”
Even pot-smoking, poster boy Willie Nelson, battling emphysema and pneumonia four or five times, admits his lungs have gotten “really screwed up.”
In Willie’s own words, “There’s been a lot of talk about marijuana being harmless, but I think it’s a lot more dangerous to the lungs than most dope smokers realize. Especially the strong marijuana that’s around these days. Each year it seems to get a little stronger … your lungs are not really supposed to breath anything but oxygen—pure, fresh air.”
How about the tragic, premature deaths of both Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse portrayed in recent documentaries? Both got started on the path to their destruction the exact same way, smoking weed, those “harmless” joints.
Research Studies Should Not Be Ignored As Sergeant Joe Friday used to say on the TV program Dragnet, “Just the facts!” so here they are …
The United States Drug Enforcement Agency states: “U.S. drug overdose kills more people than traffic accidents and gun incidents.” The total number cited was 46,471! If we could ask these victims how many started on marijuana or maintained their marijuana usage along with other drugs, I wonder how many would hang their heads in regret wishing they’d never succumbed to the seduction of the Pied Piper’s enticement onto this pernicious path?
My best friend growing up started experimenting with recreational drugs when he started college with me. What started as a fun escape spiraled into his premature death in his mid-20s. I carry an ache in my heart to this day from this experience.
When marijuana proponents glorify drugs and celebrate its “harmless” even “beneficial effect,” they should take heed to the words of an expert, Dr. Ed Gogek, an addiction psychiatrist. He wrote the following in the uber-liberal New York Times: “I’ve spent 25 years as a doctor treating drug abusers and they are con artists…. Marijuana activists are phony scientists. For years they said marijuana is good for glaucoma when it actually worsens it! They said it is not addictive and this is false! They said it doesn’t increase usage among teenagers and all evidence says the opposite…. It is not harmless! Youth do worse in school and have two times the dropout rate while marijuana permanently lowers their IQ.”
Joseph Califano, head of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, declares without qualification that “pot smoking adversely affects motor skills and does serious damage to the brain over the long term.” It is a fact that objective studies repeatedly show that regular users find their IQ dropping and all cognitive functions hindered. Finally, a recent study from Northwestern University established clearly that teen “potheads” had brain abnormalities related to poor short-term memory performance. Healthy individuals who did not use marijuana scored 37 times better on average than users—not just addicts—who had smoked pot in the past. The National Institute of Health makes it clear: “One in six youth who try marijuana before age 18 will either abuse it or will become addicted.” Those are dangerous odds, parents. Is this what we want for our children and grandchildren? What’s Happening in Massachusetts? The state of Massachusetts jumped on the bandwagon to legalize marijuana. After a number of months, a study was done to discover the impact on young people. The results are sobering and startling: currently 1/2 of youth ages 18–25 have smoked marijuana in the past month!
In the classic film The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy finally pulled back the curtain and exposed the deceiving mastermind behind the façade. May we do likewise amid celebrities and other pot promoters who glamorize toking up, some under the ruse of the “medical marijuana” argument (which can have some medicinal benefits but it’s not the only alternative).
A little while ago, in the mall where I daily exercise, a middle-aged mother darted from the coffee shop and stammered these words amidst her tears, “They just found my daughter dead!” She proceeded to tell me about her 27-year-old daughter who met a young fellow who influenced her to start smoking dope. Prior to this encounter, “she had never been involved with any drugs” but this was the gateway to her death and her mother’s devastation.
Here’s the deal: Scripture says, “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools…” (Romans 1:22). People will accuse us of being “fear mongers,” but we must not back down. Let’s winsomely and confidently communicate the truth about this massive deception permeating America today.
Why, haven't you heard, the "WEED" is good for you..! It cures moles, colds and sore butt holes, makes child birth a pleasure... But those evil tobacco barons will KILL US ALL....!!! /s
It’s more like 30% (not 1%, as you suggest) who have serious “dependency” (addictive) problems with MJ, according to the research I cited.
piss off , I probably know more about this subject than the next 20 people
It doesn’t show.
Oh, Good Lord! My wife and I both were born here. There have been lots of people smoking pot here since the 1960s. But the magnitude has changed dramatically since legalization. It has gone from minor nonsense to major disruption. People used to show a little discretion and try to keep it discreet.
You obviously were living in a different area of the state than where we are. If the stoners around here would smoke pot in the privacy of their own homes I wouldn't really give a hoot. If any of those here can recall what it smells like when someone ahead of you has run over a skunk then you will know what it smells like when you are following a car where the occupants are toking it up. And this is something that happens basically every time that you are on the road. I am always thinking "who ran over the skunk?" and then I remember that it is someone smoking pot ahead of me.
And they don't just drive “10 to 20 MPH slower than the speed limit” and hold up traffic that way. They forget to go when the light turns green when you are in gridlock causing others to spend extra cycles of the lights stuck in traffic. They also drive erratically. One minute they are holding up traffic doing 40 mph in the fast lane, the next minute they are passing people on the right doing 80 mph. The police do little about this because they have no tools to prove what the problem is in the field.
But it is not just the driving. The city built a walking path near our house. And the potheads wander off the trail and smoke pot on our private property and stink up our house and have caused several small fires. When we have tried to run them off they have been very threatening to both my wife and I. They also leave their pot smoking paraphernalia in our yard. This is just a small sample of the types of nonsense we have had to put up with these days.
We occasionally had difficulties before legalization, but it went up ten fold after legalization. And the people causing the problems have become emboldened, obnoxious and extremely threatening. We are probably going to be forced to leave our beautiful home that we have owned for decades. It was built in 1900 and we have spent many years restoring it, but this nonsense is becoming intolerable.
Ironically we have been looking at moving to Florida. The housing prices in central Florida are good. We have friends and relatives who live there. My wife is always cold and loves warm tropical weather. So if we end up down there with you... I guess we will be able to thank the potheads. And you will have a negative consequence as well... more grumpy old neighbors.
As a conservative, I believe in individual responsibility. My lawyer daughter makes a good living defending drunk drivers in court, which is majority of her clients. And she is in WA state.
If a pot smoker is causing traffic problem, he/she should be given a traffic ticket. I not want my tax dollars spent on cops, judges, bailiffs, court personnel, prison personnel, prosecutors and publicly funded defense lawyers to prosecute possession of pot.
I was on a jury in Dupage County, Illinois, where a 70 something man was in court for possession of marijuana and resisting arrest. His pot inventory was on display in court. It was a small tin can, probably 2-3 Oz of pot. This man was thin and old and the arresting cops in court were 200 pounders young burly men.
What a huge waste of tax payer money to pay the judge and other court personnel, the court house, the prosecutors, stipend paid to the jury for the week, court supplied defense lawyer, prison costs to jail the convicted 70 year old man, and so many other miscellaneous costs.
The resisting cops charge was ridiculous. I was the lone hold out on that charge but gave in after 2 days of jury deliberation, because I just wanted to get back to my job.
Move to Florida...!!! Very good state for seniors. We get $50,000 deduction on assessed value for property tax. Our property tax is $650/year for a 2 Bed room 2 bath condo in a gated community. Sales tax 6.5%, and fee to renew car stickers is less than $30.
This is a purple state, and we can use more conservative voters.
Weather is hot and humid for 4 months, and the rest of year is actually quite pleasant. Last year we drove from FL to WA state and crossed dozens of states, and discovered Florida has highways in best condition.
Ironically we lived in Smokey Point, WA ... LOLOL
About 40 miles north of Seattle.
As I said— a poorer definition of CNC dependency. CNS— central nervous system. At that time, poorly understood blood brain barrier and receptor mediated effects specific to CNS tissue receptors.
Don’t know a thing about Eastland... but in those times the underground industry of marijuana (dealers, producers, importers) were financing rather serious threats to natsec surrounding Vietnam (whether one agrees with WHAT they were protesting against— the source manipulators were provably, communists- long enemies of Nixon, coupled with the elitist snots of Foggy Bottom who never forgave Nixon for pursuing and getting Alger Hiss. The Venona transcripts proving much later, as well as Harry Dexter White), and co-opting with good ole Walter Cronkite the again media driven lies that the US was somehow losing in Vietnam (example: Tet Offensive was obliterated, but not to our media. It is what brought them to negotiating table, and the intelligence community turned it into defeat).
So, if you want to argue about the poorer science (more properly the limitations of clinical knowledge/pharmacology of the day)— fine, but that is NOT the case today, despite yet again political based howling. Seems that certain elements of our political (dare one call it ruling) class decided to err on the side of caution and many years of prior law enforcement experience. Elvis’s offer to help being of little value as a “music industry narc”(LOL).
thank you and good day.
Every time we come down to visit friends and family Florida we spend the next few months trying to figure out the best way for us to move there. We agree that the highways and rest areas are superb. Our last visit we did a round trip of almost the entire state visiting friends and relatives on both coasts from the far North to South of Miami for over two weeks and drove our rental car approximately 1200 miles.
We did manage to get off the freeway in unfriendly areas in Ft. Lauderdale, but it is just like any other large community... you need to keep your wits about you. Everywhere else we were treated great.
When we stayed with some friends in Central Florida they hit us up to bring them marijuana if we drove down next time. They were growing it in their greenhouse “for medical purposes” when they lived in Washington but started making a lot of money on the side selling it to their neighbors in an upscale community. They eat it instead of smoke it. It was funny because at his retirement party a few years ago they had a bunch of recently acquired expensive junk all around their house in Washington. And my one friend said, “I thought when you retired you were suppose to buy less crap. What are they doing... selling pot?” And it turns out that they were. But they are afraid to grow it in the small community they live in now in Florida.
We live in Tacoma about 40 miles South of Seattle so that would probably explain our difference in perception. Tacoma is a war zone compared to Smokey Point. We did buy a tandem sea kayak from someone in Smokey Point a few years ago.
20X stronger than in 60s.
Auto accidents. Slack workers.
Get ready.
Yep.
Yeah, get ready for the lies and cover.
Colorado can give lessons.
This applies to Michael Savage. He used it in his formative years, as I recall. He never grew up emotionally.
Pals with Timothy Leary, Alan Ginsberg. That is why I refuse to read a book on God by an arrogant agnostic.
You’re ignoring the externalities of legalized pot use while making that point at the same time, unwittingly.
Giving people traffic tickets for driving high involves resources, including courts, administration, and others we can’t even think of. The money recovered through fines hardly covers the cost of enforcement. Sometimes lives are the cost.
Speeding tickets are several hundred dollars and is a YUGE source of revenue for police departments.
On the other hand arresting & prosecuting a recreational pot smoker is just the opposite...costs tens of thousands of dollars to the tax payers.
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