Marijuana in the News, 7-26-2010

 [This was a subject I avoided while I practiced law. No sense losing business because I spoke my mind. Seeing crackheads up close and personal, hearing some of them say they would prefer marijuana if they could get some good stuff, what I saw defending drug cases, left me thinking marijuana needed to be legalized. I think now that it has, some of my points have been made. Funny thing is I never liked pot, it gave me sinus infections and put me asleep, so it was never out of a personal interest that I wrote this post or hold my views. I take too many naps nowadays to need an artificial inducement to sleep. I regret the naps when I consider the time left to me has to be very short. sch 2/17/23]

 I wrote a bit on the insane foolishness of our War on Drugs. It seems that California is taking the lead towards sanity. Going bankrupt has a way of clearing minds, not unlike a hanging.

The July 20, 2010 New York Times published “California's Efforts to Legalize Marijuana Divides Black Voters Deeply.” I got stuck on this paragraph:

"How stupid to think that by legalizing a vice is going to change the situation," said Darryl B. Heath, pastor of the St. john Baptist Missionary Bpatist Church in Sacramento. "This is not a game. A whoile generation is at stake."

 What we have here is the imposition of a religious tent without offering any solution to a secular problem. Baptists oppose any use of alcohol or sale of alcohol. (I know, I was raised as one.) So much for separating church and state.

I cannot criticize Reverend Heath from a religious standpoint. I can do so for wanting the government to enforce his religious viewpoint. During Prohibition, that same religious viewpoint aided the rise of Capone and the Mafia.

I can also complain about his logic. The vice he speaks of is using marijuana. He could – should, perhaps – include alcohol as a vice that ought to be banned. Except history roughs up that pairing. 

Then there is the secular argument:

 Kamala D. Harris, the San Francisco district attorney who is black, joined the opposition last week. Ms. Harris, who is running for state attorney general, issued a statement saying that the proposition would encourage "driving while high" and drugs in the workplace.

California must lack Indiana's operating while intoxicated, or else the lady is misleading the voters of California. Likewise, I never had an employer who allowed drinking alcohol during work hours – not even the bar I worked in from 1982 and 1984. Are a California's employers any different?

Let us just call this it is: pure demagoguery meant to frighten rather than debate.

Criminalize bad acts injuring other people is the correct answer. We learned our lesson with alcohol, but not much more than that. No, the government likes to pose straw man victims to support is exercise of power over people's lives. In my own case, the probation department in its pre-sentence report strained at finding victims after fist stating there were no victims in my case; you might say there were virtual, not real, victims. Finding victims keeps critical thought at bay.

Back to marijuana and California, The New Times for July 22, 2010, published “Oakland Seeking Financial Life, Approves Giant Marijuana Farms”:

While the city has been one of the most welcoming in the state to medical marijuana purveyors, how the drug is grown hasd been largely unregualted. Oaklan's new law, which requires a final vote from the City Council next week would bring large-scale marijuana culitivator above ground, mandating that they pay a $211,000annual fee, provide security, conduct criminal background checks on employees, install camera surveillance,a nd fire-safe electricla systems,a nd buy insurance.

The article also mentions that Oakland has a $31 million deficit and a 17 percent unemployment.

Finally, the Veteran's Administration allows medical marijuana in the states where it is legal. So reported The New York Times on July 24, 2010. Does anything show the limits of the Republicans' states right philosophy more than medical marijuana? Why should the Democrats downplay marijuana? What would legalization do to the federal budget deficit? Maybe we should start recognizing states rights as amorphous an idea as beauty.

For those thinking any intoxicant is immoral, I have a suggestion: preach against it, talk against it, use the power of persuasion. Leave off with using the force of law. We cannot afford any more superstition supplanting rationality.

sch

[And then came the opioid epidemic.... sch 2/17/23.]