I donāt want Isabella to be a drug addict, and I imagine most parents feel the same way about their own kids.
Iām lucky. No matter what Colorado voters decide on Election Day about legalizing marijuana, the chances of my 17-year-old daughter becoming a hopped-up drug queen are pretty slim.
Like everyone else in her school, Isabella has plenty of opportunity to get high, get drunk or dabble in a growing list of potentially dangerous stunts. Sheās just not interested. Now, sheās no pious princess. Iāve seen her crude, potty-mouth texts to her goofy friends. But when it comes to pot, sheās seen the vacant-eyed stares of her chums who not only partake, but some who sedate themselves right out of an education.
Some of the parents I know are certain theyāll vote ānoā on Amendment 64, thinking it will work to help keep their own kids or grandkids from being life-long dopers.
Itās an illogical and mistaken stance based on generations of propaganda that weāve got to turn away from. Hereās the reality, Aurora: Even if we donāt legalize marijuana, there will always be kids and adults who buy it and smoke it. Because we make it illegal, we make criminals out of those who will smoke it no matter what we do at the polls in November.
If you think recreational drugs are so dangerous and offensive that we should criminalise them, I can give you about 80,000 reasons a year why alcohol should be outlawed. Thatās the number of U.S. deaths attributed each year to drinking. About half are due to the health effects of drinking, and half due to car crashes. The only difference between the recreational use of alcohol and pot is our attitude. A piƱa colada is every bit as much a drug as is a bowl of Maui Wowee.
Given the logic that we donāt want to make pot legal for health and safety, it makes more sense to legalize pot and criminalise alcohol ā again.
But, it didnāt work. All Prohibition did was push alcohol underground and turn the industry over to criminals ā just like we have with pot.
So we spend billions of dollars in this country making criminals out of harmless people who want to get high. It leads to thousands of gruesome gang-related murders, which have nearly paralyzed Mexico. Meanwhile we have no money to keep our borders secure, our airlines safe and people like James Holmes from amassing an arsenal and shooting up 70-some people in a movie theater.
Beyond the fact that it makes no practical sense, it misses the bigger point that made Prohibition fail: Itās fun. Thatās why people keep doing it.
My first real high occurred in my girlfriendās apartment when I was 18. With glassy eyes the size of doughnuts, I stared at the popcorn ceiling and had an eargasm behind Technica earphones listening to Boston and the Grateful Dead. Who knew?
There was a long list of gasms to come, most involving food, camping, music and Laserium. Despite my dalliances with a variety of weeds, and some pretty regular consumption of beer, wine and kamikazes on the rocks, I managed to pick up a couple of college degrees, keep all my jobs, buy a house and enjoy a family.
Somewhere around 30, I lost interest in getting high and indulging in Twinkie-Canadian-Bacon-Dorito sandwiches (they rock). I donāt know why. I started taking my fun more seriously in the forms of skiing, food, skiing, wine, skiing, travel, gardening, biking, and skiing.
Mostly, Iām now either at work or with my family, and I canāt fathom being stoned around my daughter. I do, however, find myself being more interested in her teenage monologues after a beer. I have friends who still like to get high, and they come from all political persuasions. Whether I approve of that, I disapprove of turning them into scofflaws and criminals. Theyāre not.
Making pot illegal does not keep people from smoking it. It does not keep kids from getting it. It does cost the state and the country billions to try and enforce marijuana laws. It does put the industry into the hands of criminals. It keeps Colorado from making a ton of cash in taxes and regulation fees.
Iām voting āyesā on an issue that just makes sense and has nothing to do with the trials Isabella will face as she becomes an adult.
Reach Editor Dave Perry at 303-750-7555 or dperry@aurorasentinel.com.
Good call Dave Perry.
Prohibition does not work. Never has, never will. We need to address the root of desire and educate for the future.
FYI – That includes the prohibition of certain breeds of dogs, such as Staffordshire Terriers and other short haired muscular breeds deemed “pit bulls.”
and everything that’s got worms!
Hooray logic!
Can’t we keep things the way they are for another 40 years, “Invest” another Trillion Dollars, and continue to arrest nearly a million fellow Americans, annually?
sincerely,
Prohibitionist Parasite
These stoned drunks don’t recognize parody š
Well-written, sir!
Right on!
A voice of reason.
Totally agree with you sir!!!!
I have a question for the Author, Mr. Perry; why is there no mention of the cannabis plant as a whole? Marijuana is a small part of the economical benefit of thew cannabis plant. The medicinal benefits of cannabinoids out weighs, the marijuana flowers benefits 100 fold; then there is the hemp aspect of the cannabis plant. Hemp has so many uses in the modern day that it would take to long to type them.
How about doing an article on the cannabis plant as a whole benefit?
Good point. This piece ran in the Aurora Sentinel. Space constraints, unfortunately, result in limiting the scope of the argument. I think for most residents, the issues of safety, prohibition and recreation are paramount. We’ll look into other hemp issues on the news side in the next few weeks.
āWhat was done with the seed saved from the India Hemp last summer? It ought, all of it, to have been sewn again; that not only a stock of seed sufficient for my own purposes might have been raised, but to have disseminated the seed to others; as it is more valuable than the common Hemp.ā
ā George Washington, Writings of Washington, Vol. 35, pg. 72
* Until the 1880s, 80% of all textiles and fabrics used for clothing, tents, bed sheets, rugs, drapes, quilts, towels, diapers, etc., and even the flag, “Old Glory,” were principally made from hemp fibers. Additionally, hemp, due to its extreme durability and color-fastness, was used for 80% of all paper in the world, including Bibles, newspapers, maps, paper money, stocks and bonds, etc.
* The paintings of Van Gogh, Gainsborough, Rembrandt, etc., were primarily painted on hemp canvas, as were practically all canvas paintings of that period.
* In one year alone (1935), 116 million pounds (58,000 tons*) of hempseed were used in America just for paint and varnish.
* Until 1937 an estimated 80% of all rope, twine, and cordage was made from hemp.
* All American farmers were legally bound to grow hemp during the Colonial Era and Early Republic.
Finally someone who understands the marijuana debate. Wish i lived in Colorado, it’s miles ahead of the rest of the country, maybe this fine state will lead the entire union to reform the corrupt laws that were made b/c of the fact that hemp is way cheaper and actually a better material than cotton/polyester, or mainstream productions in America at the time, so they made it illegal to keep the agricultural/textile companies wealthy (this probably all happened b/c of backroom deals) Anyway long and short I applaud you for actually thinking about the issues logically, I hope that one day the rest of the US will wise up and vote based off of logic rather than emotion and influence of years of propaganda.
āIt is impolitic. The fact well established in the system of agriculture is that the best hemp and the best tobacco grow on the same kind of soil. The former article is of first necessity to the commerce and marine, in other words to the wealth and protection of the country. The latter, never useful and sometimes pernicious, derives its estimation from caprice, and its value from the taxes to which it was formerly exposed. The preference to be given will result from a comparison of them: Hemp employs in its rudest state more labor than tobacco, but being a material for manufactures of various sorts, becomes afterwards the means of support to numbers of people, hence it is to be preferred in a populous country.”
ā Thomas Jefferson, Farm Journal (16 March 1791)
This would make an awesome TV commercial.
Couldn’t have said it any better.
It’s time to end the ignorance!
I’m 17, nearly 18 years old. I smoke pot daily, and I have since I was 15. I got a 29 on the ACT and I’m graduating High School a year early. Fight me š
I’m 29, been smoking pot off and on since I was about 23. Mostly off. But don’t fool yourself man, you ARE limiting your potential by using this substance, you would’ve gotten a 30 if you hadn’t been using pot, who knows? Human brains grow and get smarter until you’re 25 or so, that why it seems that it’s having no effect from your perspective. You ARE getting smarter, as you should, but you’re not becoming as smart as you could be. You’ll nevver know what you would’ve been had you let your brain grow to it’s FULL potential. Keep your use real sparse until you’re about 25, then spark one up and light that fine tuned brain of yours on fire with some ganja and see what it can do š Just my two cents.
share share share It couldn’t be any better said
Looking back, I think I never got into smoking mj so much because it interfered with my constant tobacco dosage. I can’t disagree with this article, but it has caused me to wonder what will happen with all those dealers, mexican and stateside. It seems like they aren’t all going to go get jobs as walmart greeters. Is it possible that the feds have kept chasing this “horrid” drug, knowing that the real devil lurks behind?
think of all the jobs that will become available when they do finally legalize it. And less violence, You’ll have stores JUST selling weed, more head shops, more accountants will be needed, etc etc it will go down the line and well save 9 billion a year in Colorado alone!?! Wait til the other 49 catch on.
The plant was made illegal mainly because of the oil companies..there are a ton of documentaries and copies of the commercials they used available on youtube. They created the marijuana madness campain to brainwas everybody. I mean…we all know what we r willing to do for oil in america.
Big oil must be behind the muslims too, imagine what they will do for profit, Think of it, oil companies behind the conspiracy to end drug useage in the USA, wow.
I’m glad the author mentioned several things he acheived as a pot smoker: he got two college degrees, held steady jobs and bought a house. He should contribute to http://www.thingsididwhilehighonpot.com.
Seems like the whole of Aurora are pot heads like yourself (in your past, as in mine) and agree wholeheartedly with y ou and your pov. I however, do not. I say ‘where do you stop’? Pills seem okay, plenty of folks are strung out on them. Heroin? Why not? Think of all the jobs and the by products of heroin.
Anyone can make a case for legalizing drugs of any kind, it just doesn’t work for me. A picture of a prison for marijuana dealers, sure. That old saw about ‘I was caught smoking and joint and sent to prison’ is just that, a old wives tale, it isn’t true. What they don’t tell you is that they were on probatioin for drug related sale or distribution and then got caught with distribution amounts on their person or in their home or car. NO ONE went to prison for smoking a joint, NO ONE.
So all of you potheads can stand together and make Colorado one big high community, but……who will do the hard work, the skilled work, the surgeries? If they’re all high, do you want a surgeon operating on you high? If it’s legal, why not a toque or two before a 4 hour operation. Yes, I know, I exaggerate, but so do you.
I understand your point that legalizing cannabis is a slippery slope leading to other drugs being legalized, but I disagree with it. There are clear reasons heroin and pills are illegal that do not apply to cannabis. I think it is unreasonable to say that if we legalize a drug we must legalize all drugs. Drugs have different effects on the user and society and therefore must all be considered in their own right. Our view of cannabis’ legality should have no bearing on how we treat other drugs.
To your point that legalization would make Coloradans high on the job, I would respond that alcohol is perfectly legal, yet most people choose not to drink on the job or be fired. This is because employers keep or release their employees based on their performance. If a person is not performing well enough to keep their job (regardless of the reason) they will become unemployed. Whether or not any drug is legal or illegal changes nothing about this. It is absurd to think that employers and employees would just drop their work ethic if cannabis were legal.
Now to the “nobody goes to prison for smoking a joint” line. It is true you may not be sent to prison for possession of a small amount of cannabis, but many would argue that the negative effects of tobacco are much worse than those of marijuana, and it is perfectly legal to smoke a cigarette. In places that society wants to be smoke-free, cigarette smoking is prohibited. If you want to make the case that tobacco should be legal and cannabis illegal, you must provide clear reasons cigarette smoking is safer and more acceptable than joint smoking, reasons I believe don’t exist.
Also, I sense in your statement that you don’t believe that someone should be severely punished for having a joint. I ask: why should they be punished at all if they are using a drug that has been scientifically proven to be less harmful than two other drugs that are currently legal?
TL;DR:
-Cannabis use doesn’t necessarily lead to all drugs being legalized
-Economics dictates that people with skilled jobs will only keep those jobs if they perform satisfactorily, with or without legal cannabis
-In response to “no prison for a joint,” cigarette smoking is perfectly legal, therefore you must provide a clear reason it is okay to smoke cigarettes and not joints in order to justify prohibiting one but not the other
Sound logic indeed, but did anyone hear it?
It’s sad that so many people feel the need to justify the legalization of a completely non-violent recreational activity that’s been enjoyed safely by millions of Americans.