In a few weeks, those of us who live
in Ohio will be voting on a constitutional amendment that will
legalize recreational and medicinal marijuana. A yes vote will
legalize it and a no vote will leave the laws as they stand. I expect
that most Ohioans know where they stand on the issue by now. I don't
really expect to change anyone’s mind. My sole goal in this post is
to encourage those in my small circle of influence to put some
considerable thought into their decision on the issue. It seems to me
that there is a tend in our country to make snap judgments based on
our first, and often, our only impression. My hope for this post is
that it will spur on some discussion in my community so that we can
rest assured that we gave it some solid consideration before showing
our opinions with our votes.
The laws prohibiting the sale and
subsequent use of marijuana are far to difficult to enforce. Far too
many people are using it for law enforcement to enforce such a
sweeping law.
This
is one of the arguments I’ve heard for the passing of this
amendment. I find it to be a little weak for my tastes. It sounds a
lot like “Everyone else is doing it!” I can practically hear my
mother saying “What if everyone else was jumping off a cliff? Would
you follow them then?” I would think that we could find a few laws
that were just a little harder to enforce than this one. How about
speed limits? I am fairly certain that there is a much higher
percentage of the population that breaks that law. Why aren't we
thinking about abolishing speed limits? Why stop at marijuana? How
about all the laws against the sale and use of other illegal
substances? Because these laws are all in place for the safety of the
general public. Besides, since when do we remove laws because people
break them?
It's
impossible to overdose on marijuana. Why should it be illegal if it
can't hurt you?
First
of all, it can hurt you. The long-term use of this 'harmless plant'
will cause a serious reduction of the users mental capacity. It will
also cause a reduction of the immune systems ability to protect ones
body from disease. There are a number of other negative side effects,
but I'm not going to go into all those. It is impossible to overdose
on this drug when it's being smoked. The theory is that eventually,
the smoker will pass out at which point he will no longer be able to
inhale the harmful smoke. However, pot for smoking will only
constitute a portion of the products that will be available on the
projected market. Many of the products that will include marijuana
will be edible. Products such as cookies and candies will be
available for the general public's unwise consumption. Let me spin a
little yarn for you. He's eleven years old. His twenty-two year old
brother is home for the hilidays. While the older of the two is out
doing some last minute Christmas shopping, the younger is wandering
into the older's room. He makes his way around the room until he
comes to a drwaer in the night stand. He pulls it open to find a bag
of candies each adorned with the likeness of a leaf. He knos what
they are and pops one in his mouth, swallowing it whole. He doesn't
feel any different so he swallows two more. Not realizing that it
would take a while for the drug to be absorbed into his system this
way, he consumes several more... I'm sure you can see where this is
going. If we legalize marijuana, sooner or later we will know what an
overdose of this drug will look like. And it'll be our children who
show us. Is that a risk we are willing to take?
That's
an obscure example. There will be regulations in place to prevent
people under the age of twenty-one from obtaining marijuana.
We
have regulations just like that in place for alcohol. As it turns
out, those regulations are only so effective. According to this page,
http://www.udetc.org/factsheets/OH.pdf,
somewhere in the ballpark of 353,000 underage individuals managed to
get alcohol every year. That's only in Ohio, by the way. Also,
forty-one people died because of traffic accidents caused by underage
drinking. That's in addition to the 2,476 injuries caused by that
same type of accident. Please feel free to check out the other
statistics found on the cited page. That is how effective we've been
at keeping alcohol out of the hands of our youth. Are we so arrogant
as to think we'll do any better with drugs?
Well,
that's why we're only going to allow ten dedicated sites to grow it
and why residents will only be allowed to have four plants for
personal use. It'll be easier to regulate it this way.
This
point is exactly the reason that there is another amendment up for
vote preventing the forming of monopolies in the future. If the
government is unable to regulate the growing and distribution of
marijuana as an illegal substance, why would making it legal make it
any easier for them to regulate? It's counter intuitive. By granting
ten sites exclusive rights to produce marijuana, we will be
presenting the opportunity for them to corner the market and drive
prices up. This creates the perfect environment for a black market to
pop up. Then we're right back to the uncontrollable production and
distribution of a controlled substance by persons not subject to
government regulations. Also, can you imagine the manpower it would
tale to enforce the four plant per person rule? You'll end up the
same illegal growers as before except they'll keep four plants in
their living room and the rest in their basement growing room. We're
basically giving them a legal smokescreen
These
arguments for the legalization of marijuana are the main ones that
I've heard this fall. This post basically explains the reasons why I
intend to vote no on this issue. I leave you to make you own
decisions. Please remember that the outcome of this vote will affect
our state's future forever. I don't usually ask people to share my
posts, but if you agree with some of my arguments and are invested in
Ohio's future, then spread the word.
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