Friday, October 9, 2015

My Arguments Against the Legalization of Marijuana

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

One more point I'd like to make. What kind of precedent will this amendment make? How many other illegal substances will make there way into polite society? As my pastor said, it's a Pandora's Box. Lets just hope we can close the lid before hoplessness gets out.


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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