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Pot – Weed – Marijuana – Cannabis
That is what is emblazoned on a mailing that we received prior to Christmas. The words are huge and white, followed by “It doesn’t matter what you call it, MAKE IT LEGAL. Immediate action required – send your personalized petition and mail it back today – free!” I looked at my “personalized petition” and it contained the voter’s information printed on the three-fold flyer, of both my husband and I, including our full address, and our voter registration numbers. All we had to do was sign it and pop in the mail, no postage needed! It came from “Make It Legal Florida” in Tallahassee.
It then states that the “form” if mailed, will become a “public record” upon its filing with the Supervisor of Elections, because apparently, it is a planned Amendment. The amendment is titled “Adult Use of Marijuana,” and gives a ballot summary. The big glossy, colored flyer gives some incentives. They are as follows:
- The amendment includes “strict rules” to make sure that marijuana products are clearly labeled, childproof, and not advertised to children.
- It will help combat the “opioid addiction” crisis and free up law enforcement to protect us from violent criminals and sexual predators.
- It will boost our economy and generate more than a hundred million dollars per year in new revenue to fund important priorities such as schools, healthcare, and public safety. The above words in bold were in bold on the flyer, so they took the time to point out the wonderful benefits of legalization of marijuana in the state of Florida.
Where do I begin? I was deeply offended that this organization dove into our County Records and obtained our and others voting registration records. I live in a state that already has a major drug problem. We are known as the capital of the pill-popping clinics, called pill mills. Just Google pain clinics in Florida and the articles are filled with doctors spreading the addiction of oxycodone across the country, reports if numerous arrests of physicians in the business of writing endless prescriptions for drugs, the increased crackdowns on drug distribution, etc. that go back decades.
Combine that problem with a port that is open to illegals and plenty of drugs, pouring in from Mexico and other countries. Then throw in a nation-wide drug epidemic that is stupefying generations into a state of inertia. Inertia, numbness, combined with new laws that many states are embracing, to not prosecute “petty crime”, stealing, whether from stores, homes or people, assault and drug possession… where is this going?
It all started with medical marijuana. People in pain can benefit; who can argue with that? Yes! Let’s relieve those in pain, agree there. We also knew it would be a short leap to recreational legalization and here we are. But wait! Florida’s schools, crime rate, and economy could benefit from this law passing, if we would just give in and see the light, as they pointed out in the flyer!
Who didn’t take a puff in high school or college? The tainted brownie, pot was everywhere, but not legal. Sometimes it was mixed with other “substances” to boost potency. I do remember being foggy-brained as a youth after “inhaling,” a la Bill Clinton, and then being flat out crosseyed by a strange chocolate brownie or a laced joint. We do very stupid things when we’re young. Then we grow up.
Florida is a challenging state. It is beautiful, warm, and also hosts a dark side. Here in the Panhandle, the nightly news is full of drug busts, meth heads, perverts, and suffering. How can legalizing more drugs improve this condition? We know people that hand over their pay to buy pot and beer while their families need diapers and food. Addiction is addiction. Of course, they won’t “follow the rules,” they don’t now!
So far, we are up to 11 states that have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes.
I understand that this is a product that someone 21 and over, might want to indulge in. Fine. We also know about human nature. Look what happened with vaping, a product designed to help adults kick cigarettes. Look at the states that have already legalized marijuana. Their homeless populations have grown, and drug problems have increased. My sister sent me the newspapers from her little mountain town so I can read about the local news. Maryland has just disbursed over a million dollars to her small town to combat the rampant drug problem. This is a tiny drop in the bucket of money that states are having to shell out to fight drug abuse.
Some may say oh, it’s just pot. Let’s take it out of the hands of the cartels. It’s just pot, but Narcotics Anonymous and Al-Anon are filled with stories of “just pot.” My friend who smoked pot for years has chronic COPD. Her son went on to bigger drugs, was incarcerated for years. It starts with just pot. Headlines of people hospitalized from consuming synthetic pot – who can tell what is what with a can of worms?
I went to CVS today. On the counter was a sample bottle of hand lotion containing cannabis. Pot leaves were on the label. It’s turning up everywhere… even teabags at the local farmer’s market. Can we think a moment about having a society that is coherent, present, healthy, energetic, aware, and vibrant, and not drugged up and unresponsive? Is this not the best deterrent to a burdened healthcare system, or vulnerable homeland security, while promoting healthy families and children and productive employees? Interesting that the flyer included an economic boost to healthcare! I plant to petition this with my local and state representatives, which include Congressman Matt Gaetz and Governor Rick Desantis. I believe they have good intentions for my state, and that doesn’t include more drugged-up and tuned-out citizens.
Published in General
Who didn’t take a puff in high school or college? Me . I was to busy drinking beer. I have never tried it. Certainly didn’t miss it or ever was tempted. Burn that thing you got in the mail.
“Can we think a moment about having a society that is coherent, present, healthy, energetic, aware, and vibrant, and not drugged up and unresponsive? Is this not the best deterrent to a burdened healthcare system, or a vulnerable homeland security, while promoting healthy families and children and productive employees?”
Beautifully stated. A Massachusetts cannabis shop opened up a mile from my office last summer. Even now, the lines stretch around the block. Drugged up losers.
I thought I was the only one!
Want to start a club?
🙋♂️
Me either
I wasn’t imbibing in alcohol, though. I’m just too boring for recreational drugs.
I want to join!
More to the point of the post though – I agree with the medical marijuana, but there were other things I would have liked to see studied medicinally and hemp availability, for whatever reason, seems like a rather innocent way to use marijuana.
All these things were verboten with its illegality.
The issue is predominantly in the recreational drug market.
As a side, I was tempted to try it while pregnant. I had heard anecdotal evidence of it being useful in combatting HG and I was already using anti-emesis drugs off label (zofran and reglan). The harm/benefit ratio didn’t seem much different at the time.
The conflict between the state government and federal government laws are going to be more of an issue as this process continues.
Brothels will be next. Think of the empowerment; think of the liberation; think of the cash!
Meanwhile, in France, a young man high on marijuana becomes psychotic and tortures his neighbor and throws her out a window to her death. The courts find him not responsible for the crime because he was under the influence of this oh, so, harmless drug. Which is it, harmless or psychosis inducing? The court in France followed this reasoning:
“The court followed the opinions of two psychiatric examiners who claimed Traoré was too intoxicated from smoking cannabis to be held responsible.”
Indeed, as Front Seat Cat says, we need a coherent, at least moderately sober population. Self-government isn’t for wimps. Or are we to turn into a country of lotus eaters, the better to be led by our Progressive overlords? I do, in fact, believe that is the intent behind these legalization protocols.
It is a race between legalizing prostitution and polygamy marriage. I think both are ripe for a legal challenge.
I, too, could join.
(And I, too, have considered in sober adulthood a cannabis product for a health problem. Haven’t tried it yet, though.)
I too, but I did after [high school].
Considering all the reactions I have always had to various legal or prescribed drugs, I wouldn’t even consider it.
Doctor – do you wonder who is in that line that stretches around the block, like bus drivers, teachers, crane operators, contractors and builders for example? Interestingly, a friend observed a big fancy house being built across their tiny cul-de-sac on the beach. The workers were smoking pot on the job and constantly talking on their phones – he could smell the pot. The place caught fire. The owner fired the outfit and hired another contractor with Hispanic labor. No pot, no yammering on the phone – the place got built on schedule and is beautiful – just saying…….
Caryn – research is showing that pot is way stronger today than it was in the 1970’s. This article says that the THC, the ingredient that induces the high, can be as much as 30%, when back then it was around 4%. They may explain the scenario you described?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marijuana-far-more-potent-than-it-used-to-be-tests-find/
I’m mildly in favor of legalization (or at least decriminalization), but my argument in Florida would be: let’s wait a while and see how the whole legalized recreational marijuana thing plays out in the states that have already enacted it. What’s the point of having “50 laboratories of democracy” if the other states don’t wait for some results before copy-catting the changes their neighbors make?
And when it comes to “new” drugs in particular, experience shows that their use/acceptance among the populace at large goes through several shakedown phases (pardon the pun) before enough community knowledge is acquired to achieve something resembling a stable opinion. For example, a few years ago the big scare was “bath salts”: they were new, trendy, addictive, yet unbelievably destructive. And indeed, a few people destroyed their lives. But the feared big epidemic never materialized. Why? Perhaps because it gained such a horrible reputation that even druggies decided to give it a pass.
I imagine the usage habits of pot will continue to change considerably over the coming years in the states which have already legalized it. Take the example of hyperpotent pot: this is likely a result of the fact that the proprietors of pot are themselves all heavy users and their first customers were also heavy users – all of whom have acquired monstrous tolerance to the drug. So it makes some sense that they would instinctively sell the type of pot that they and their friends consume. But since this caliber of weed is undesirable (and likely truly dangerous) for the casual or first-time user, the marketplace is rapidly adjusting the concentration of commercial pot downward and improving the labeling of different products so the user knows what they’re getting themselves into.
Of course, it could also turn out that there are indeed unforeseen negative consequences even as society learns to stably integrate pot into its collective lifestyle. Perhaps there will be an obvious, population-wide link to decreased productivity and self-reliance. Perhaps the desire for it will simply wane over time until the prohibition movement again overweighs the legalization fervor.
But until then, why not stay content to let the states that really want to play human guinea pigs do so, while the rest watch from the outside?
There is no doubt that the pot today is far more potent. In addition chronic use can result in psychosis.
So there are going to be some people very adversely affected by use.
The same can be said about alcohol and any other drug.
Do we as a society want to ban these substances for everyone because some people will be adversely affected?
Do we want the problems with the black market and criminalization of substances that are going to be widely used anyway?
I can tell you as an ER doc with over 30 years experience, the mental health, physical problems and societal costs with MJ pale in comparison with alcohol.
Good points, but alcohol is manufactured and distributed under strict laws (unless you are in the GA mountains and you have mason jars lining your kitchen……my husband had a stuffed up nose and the local plumber said – take a swig and you’ll be cured – but that’s a whole nother story…). Pot would be a totally different animal and harder to control, would it not?
Not really. The stuff sold in legal stores could be controlled just like liquor.
For those states where you are allowed a couple of pot platnts I don’t see that as a major problem.
Plenty of folks make their own wine or beer at home.
And keeping pot illegal will make sure no checks are placed on it, and may expose buyers to other “product” like coke, or meth etc.
I went to middle school and high school in Tallahassee. On Thomasville Road, the towns major thoroughfare, there is a big sign with a pot leaf at the intersection with Bradfordville Road. This is across the street from a major park, and right next to a major shopping center with popular restaurants like Beef O’Bradey’s, Five Guys, and Jimmy John’s. I passed all of this on my way to school.
I’m dubious that these people are concerned with keeping this away from kids.
Because of the lure of easy tax money. I doubt that it will ever outweigh the costs, but legislatures have addictions too.
We already know the .gov can’t make money running a brothel in Nevada, and if California’s experience is any guide, they’ll tax the legal stuff at a high enough rate to make illegal products cheaper. Rather than discouraging the cartels they’ll be helping them.
Unexpectedly, no doubt. But running for office is expensive, and you can’t get elected if you choose wrong when your choice is plata o plomo. Not that the cartels would invest in rising politicians. They’re not that smart.
Now, now. It’s sex work, not prostitution now. We have to distinguish between honest whores and people working for the MSM. And a lot of academics and politicians.
People who use marijuana already use it around their children. If it becomes legal, it means they won’t have to spend any portion of their time or income fighting the court system for being busted for pot. They can instead spend that time and income on their kids.
The other thing is, if you live in a community wherein many people are opposed, you can help see to it that certain limits are placed on the distribution centers. In my area of Northern Calif, the local restrictions are severe and are already encouraging people going back to having illegal grows. (The more things change, the more they remain the same.)
Oh yeah. Legalize it so you can tax it. We might as well legalize:
Prostitution
Contract murders
Burglary
Bribery
Etc.
The argument of legalizing something just so it can be taxed sounds incredibly immoral to me . . .
Prostitution is now referred to by the woke as “sex work” and, as @fakejohnjanegalt noted, legalization is in the works.
Burglary is being decriminalized in many blue cities, at least de facto.
The police try; even getting a burglar off the streets for a day or two helps. But, following a lot of Leftist money in the election, the offspring of two domestic terrorists is SF’s new district attorney. What’s in store with him running the DA’s office?
Yes.
It is legal.
I don’t know why people use this argument. The drugs causing the most issues are alcohol and tobacco. The legal ones. That is not an argument to make more stuff legal.
Not a complete argument in any case.
There are advantages to bringing things out where they can be looked at rather than letting them fester and foment.