LEGALIZING MARIJUANA FOR DUMMIES

Marijuana, marijuana.

I need to smoke you 'cause I wanna.

I have an ache that could be faked. Figure it out, while I get baked.
- -- Turner Hicks

Marijuana is safer to use than alcohol.

Yes, and driving 80 mph through a school zone at three in the
afternoon is safer than doing it with the speedometer buried.

Neither of these arguments has been proven absolutely true, but
convincing evidence can be compiled to make each case.

So, it is no wonder that the former is one of the common arguments
put forth in the quest to legalize pot. It is safer to be stoned than drunk.

Need proof?

Nearly 18,000 people die in alcohol-related traffic accidents each
year. Hundreds more die from alcohol poisoning.

Alcohol is toxic.

Alcohol is addictive.

Alcohol is a carcinogen. Alcohol abuse contributes to domestic
violence and sexual assault.

Alcohol is highly associated with other violent crimes.

Alcohol is bad for your skin and makes you look older. Alcohol makes
you fat. Alcohol has many long-term negative effects that are obvious
to everyone, including dissolving the lacquer on the dining room
table if you spill it there.

Try to find compelling negative evidence like this against pot.
Smoldering roaches are known to leave burn marks in sofas, but other
than that, you can't. I tried.

Never mind the difference in the size of sampling populations, however.

In the United States it is estimated that 60 percent of the adult
population consumes alcohol regularly, compared to only 6 percent
being regular smokers of weed, and, as we all know, many of these
people don't even inhale.

The truth is that we don't know what kinds of long-term problems
cannabis consumption might cause or contribute to if it was used
regularly by a majority of our adult population. But, since we don't
know, I will concede that it isn't fair to bring speculation into the
discussion as a black mark against marijuana.

Just the same, there is a problem with the logic of using the evils
of alcohol as evidence of why pot should be legalized.

It's stupid.

While nobody in their right mind is going to dispute the problems
with alcohol, wouldn't it be far more logical to use the
well-documented negative results to argue that it should be outlawed
rather than arguing that another dangerous drug (yes, marijuana is a
drug, and it is dangerous) should be legalized?

The horse is out of the barn with alcohol, so to speak. There is no
way in hell that it will be outlawed again in this country for as
long as Pyramid Peak stands above 14,000 feet, no matter how harmful
it is proven to be. So, what is the smartest thing to do now that the
ornery horse is on the run? Let it go. But, what sense does it make
to let another horse out to follow along simply because this one is
already on the run? If you let two go, why not three?

Four? Why not just take the barn doors off their hinges?

If you let go of the reins on marijuana now, what's next? X? Cocaine?
Meth? Heroine?

Medical marijuana is the lead-in to legalizing pot. And, it's a farce.

If the issue with grass was an issue about medicine then we wouldn't
have dispensaries selling products named AK-47. We would sell it in
pharmacies in little brown bottles; no lounges, flat-screen
televisions, or pool tables in the sampling room. Tell me this: How
can a doctor prescribe a medicine that they don't have a good idea of
how much of the active ingredient it contains and almost no idea of
what else it has in it? What is the appropriate dosage of that?
Patient, heal thy self!

Of course, proponents of legalizing the drug will be the first to
tell us that pot is so harmless that monitoring its use carefully is
not necessary. Really? Then why can't you quit using it? I know; it's
because you don't want to and because it's not harmful.

Most of this is beside the point, pot proponents tell us, though.

There is an even bigger reason why pot should be legal.

It's because we are fighting a costly war on drugs that can't be won.
Aside from the emotional plea, here's the logic in this argument:
We're losing the war, so let's give up. OK, then, apply the same
logic to other wars we are fighting and losing.

How about the war on world hunger?

Global warming?

Poverty? Genocide? Racism? Hate? Heck, how about the war on wars? As
far as I can tell, we're not doing so well in any of these.

Should we give them all up?

And if none of the other arguments work, finally the pitfalls of
Prohibition are dragged out in arguing that pot should be legalized.

One major observation about Prohibition is universally ignored, though.

Although it is debatable whether overall problems related to alcohol
in this country are fewer or greater before, during and after
Prohibition, it is clear that the abject failure of the movement
proved that once a vice is legalized it cannot then be made illegal
again. The fact that smoking filter-less Camels is now embraced as a
personal freedom to a greater extent than it is recognized as a
public health disaster is another example.

If we are going to legalize marijuana, we better make damn sure that
it is the right thing to do.

The bottom line is that the current popular arguments for
legalization of pot don't make sense. Pot should not be legalized
because it is less dangerous than alcohol, because we can't win the
war on drugs, or because Prohibition was a historic failure; even if
these arguments are proved to be true (which they are not, by the way).

If, on the other hand, somebody can prove to me that smoking
marijuana is actually good for me and those around me, well then,
that's the evidence I'm looking for. Good luck.