MARIJUANA PROPOSAL NOT AS SCARY AS IT SEEMS

I heard someone utter, once or twice, that the truth shall set you free.
Today I play the role of the good cop, loosening your handcuffs. Iid like
to start with general idealism, then work my way into specific realism.

The war on drugs isnit working. Really. Worse than not working, itis a
joke. One could argue that itis working in reverse, by making the ibad
guysi richer. In fact, its inefficiency is only evidentiary of the fact
that it will probably never work.

People have been self-medicating for thousands of years. How they choose to
self-medicate is usually not a question they put to the team. Even if you
put 10 tough judges and a rehab unit in every part in the world, itis not
going to be influential enough to change the course of average human
behavior. And legislating behavior is such a difficult task anyway.

Americans want drugs o all types of drugs. This has been shown time and
time again. Caffeine, coke, aspirin, marijuana, Prozac, you name it.
Addiction is a part of human nature we never like to talk about. Weire all
creatures of habit to differing degrees.

The fact is, most illegal drugs will never become fully legal. There are
too many benefits built into the status quo for people in power. Many
times, youill see a sheriff or a district attorney speak out against any
so-called, irelaxingi of drug laws. Sometimes I wonder, if those laws were
relaxed, just how many sheriffs and district attorneys we would actually
need. Iim sure they have wondered the same thing.

You have those people who use visual aids, like 50 tobacco cigarettes
posing as marijuana joints in a Ziploc bag. I wonder if it they think about
how dangerous it would be if they smoked that prop, in relation to what it
represents. I guess tax money blinds murderous intent.

Iive seen the association game played as well. Drugs support terrorism.
This is your brain on drugs. These are all half-truths so obviously meant
to manipulate public opinion they lose their effectiveness. All of this is
part of a purported strategy to change human behavior that is doomed to
continue to fail.

The definition of insanity is when one continues to try the same exact
methods to produce a different result.

This brings me to the subject of today. Today you get to decide what kind
of effect the federal government will have on the way we run our beloved
community. Today you get to vote yes on Proposition 1.

Prop. 1 makes the use of medical marijuana for seriously ill patients
legal. Some people will try to make this sound like the communists are
coming into town with this proposal. As a policy, do we really want to
arrest people who are seriously ill for smoking a joint?

Prop. 1 also requires law enforcement to actually work to find criminals
who deserve prosecution, rather than getting the ieasyi busts whenever they
need some arrests. It does this by making it improper for cops to call in a
prosecuting attorney unless the amount is more than 35 grams. This seems
like an efficient time-saver to me. The feds donit like it, so theyire
sending people into Columbia to convince you your neighborhood will become
Compton. But itis propaganda, take it from me.

How about if we just start trying something that works? How about voting
yes, on Prop. 1?