If marijuana were legal in the United States the people that use it would probably continue to use it, and the people that don”t use it would abstain.
Interdiction (law enforcement) is a difference that makes no difference. In other words, if we stop spending billions of dollars on inhibiting the flow of marijuana, or we don”t spend those billions, nothing will change as far as marijuana use.
Tuesday night, during the sheriff candidates” debate, the sheriff, rightfully, pointed out his impressive record of arrests, however, the problem, where marijuana is concerned, it is still widely available, and as long as there are high profits for growers, it always will be.
Only Bob Chalk had the courage to tell the truth: Interdiction does not work and we need to legalize pot nationally, and use our resources to go after meth labs and such.
One thing that will change, if marijuana is legalized, is that the guys with the guns and the pit bulls will be gone. How do I know that? Please, watch the documentary, by the legendary filmmaker, Ken Burns, called “Prohibition.” To paraphrase Neal Diamond, “Except for the name and a few of the changes, the story is the same one.” The guys with the Tommy Guns got out of the liquor business when the “black market” profits disappeared.
Furthermore, research and use of marijuana as a pain reliever and curative is inhibited because of pot laws. Recently, on the website “democracynow.org” I came across the story of the “Colorado marijuana immigrants.” These are families that pulled up stakes and moved to Colorado to be able receive cannabis derived medicine for their families. One of these “immigrants” was interviewed, along with her young daughter. The daughter was born premature, and began to have seizures. These seizures were occurring at the rate of 300 a week, in other words, every several minutes. The girl”s doctors had tried the products of “big pharma” to no avail. The daughter began to lose cognitive functioning as well. The mother heard about cannabis treatment and uprooted and moved to Colorado. The girl was given an oil derived from cannabis (the oil does not contain the chemical that make a person “high.” The effects were dramatic.
The seizures almost disappeared altogether. And, sadly, the woman can”t take her daughter out of the state if she brings the oil. There is much research that should be done regarding marijuana, but sadly, is not.
Ironically, one of the largest drug dealers in the history of the world is the United States government. This is not hyperbole. I am reading the book “Unholy Wars,” by John Cooley. Cooley documents how the U.S. government, in pursuit of the war against the Contras and the wars in the Middle-East, facilitated and organized the flow of drugs to help finance and conduct those efforts. As a result, heroine and other drugs thrived in Russia, Europe and the United States. So, the United States, having outlawed drugs, cynically used them to pursue its perceived interests. Our government spread drugs at the same time it attempted to interdict them. This went on through the ?80s and ?90s. This insanity regarding drugs has got to stop. The government has to get out of the drug business on one hand, and legalize marijuana on the other.
Nelson Strasser
Lakeport
