Let’s be clear right up front. I don’t smoke pot. I don’t eat it in brownies or bread, but personally have no particular feelings about it one way or the other. Without having any personal experience, I’m assuming it isn’t really much different from alcohol, a legal, but well-regulated substance that adults have no problem obtaining, or abusing.
Sixteen sovereign states of the United States of America have laws on their books that make the possession and use of marijuana legal in certain circumstances.
Some of the states that have made the medical use of marijuana legal did so by placing a measure on the ballot, where the voting citizens approved it by margins ranging from 50.1% to 65%. Other states made this usage legal by an act of their state legislatures, also generally by an overwhelming positive margin across both major political parties.
Fourteen of the sixteen states allow home cultivation by the patient or their caregiver.
I’m not a scientist, nor a user, so I can’t tell you how a person intoxicated by alcohol is any different from a person intoxicated by marijuana. I have no absolute proof, but I suspect that people who are intoxicated from the use of marijuana are probably a bit less likely to have embarrassing photographs of themselves appear on the internet.
I also can’t state with any degree of authority whether or not a person in severe pain gets better relief from marijuana, or from a half-pint of vodka.
I do think that any person who is on a mind-altering substance, legal or not, should not drive. People on the roads are crazy enough, and we already know that drunk drivers kill people.
What irks me the most is that several United States Attorneys have decided to ignore the will of the people of these sixteen states, and take it upon themselves to continue to prosecute either individual users, or shut dispensaries, or growers who grow marijuana as caregivers for their clients who cannot grow for themselves.
John Walsh, the US Attorney in Colorado is apparently one of the bigger horses behinds involved in this. While I understand that there is a Federal law on the books making marijuana a schedule I drug and illegal. However, President Obama is on the record as being unopposed to marijuana when prescribed medically, and that he would not devote a lot of federal law enforcement to the issue in states where it is otherwise legal.
Mr. Walsh seems to be adopting some sort of personal vendetta against marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, sending letters out to some, insisting that they have to close their doors or risk a federal bust. The time frame given to the recipients of these letters is ridiculously short, not even what a landlord is required to give of a tenant, and considering that some of these legal businesses have been in place for months or even years, it is mind-boggling to consider the financial impact to the owners.
A group of Colorado coalitions has written an open letter to Mr. Walsh, which I doubt he will actually read or give serious consideration to anyway, considering that of the 11 signatories, 7 of them have the word ‘cannabis’ or ‘marijuana’ in their names.
But, the letter itself makes some sense. I’ve driven through neighborhoods that have medical marijuana dispensaries. They are clean, well-lit, with video cameras and security in place. I’d rather see one of these establishments than a boarded up empty building with a trash filled lot.
The Republican/Tea Party side of me is showing, forgive me, but I truly think that in instances like these, the U.S. Attorneys have better places to spend our tax dollars, and better places to spend the time of their employees.
Next time you are writing your Congressman or Senator (you do write them regularly I hope?), let them know that they should lean on the Justice Department and tell them to go plow in another field.