Legalize It: It’s About Time

The most significant side-effect of marijuana is a vague sense of paranoia and nausea in some, although in most individuals marijuana suppresses the feeling of nausea.  Therefore, it should never be combined with alcohol.  It is physically impossible to ingest enough of the marijuana plant to reach toxic levels; it would be like trying to get alcohol poisoning on vanilla extract.  You are sound asleep long before you are dead.

The most significant after-effect of marijuana (that is, where you would normally have a hangover) is being tired.  If you smoke today, you may (MAY) feel a little tired tomorrow.

Marijuana does not cause crime to go up; crime is up because marijuana has been criminalized against the will and logic of the masses.  Crack is self-regulating… you either go broke or die to the addiction.  Heroine is self-regulating… you either go broke or die to the addiction.  Marijuana has been used responsibly by millions of people in America for their entire lives, and they never go broke (because marijuana is not addictive), nor do they die to their addiction.  It should be clear who the real enemies are in the war on drugs.  

Marijuana is not a “gateway” drug.  This is propaganda and has always been.  Marijuana use does not lead to cocaine use, just as driving a car does not lead to flying a plane.  In the broader War on Drugs, against true threats like Cocaine, Heroine, PCP, and Meth, marijuana has been caught up and thrown in against all fact and logic.  The “high” that many marijuana users enjoy can only be diminished by the “high” brought on by strong chemical drugs.  Many users choose to forgo even alcohol while smoking marijuana.  Yes, there are exceptions to every rule… but they are just that; exceptions.  The vast majority of marijuana users have no intention, and will never, progress to “harder” forms of drugs.

The supply will never, ever go away, precisely because of how easy it is to grow even top-grade marijuana.  In a black-market economy, it is far too profitable NOT to grow it.  Those who want it, teens included, are already smoking it.  Those who are not, would not after it’s legalized.

The demand will never, ever go away, precisely because people know that its safety record is superior to alcohol; that its addictive potential is non-existent; that the effects produced are often more pleasant than alcohol, while simultaneously being more “manageable” than alcohol, and that they will not get a hangover from marijuana. 

So the only question left, Mr. Senator, Mr. President, Mr. Tax Payer, is: 

WILL YOU legalize it, TAX it, and help us get out of this unimaginable deficit that we are in, while simultaneously and sincerely doing the RIGHT thing by keeping honest people out of prisons and employed despite what you may personally find a distasteful pursuit?

Or…

WILL YOU continue to support the incarceration of innocent people and the restriction of human rights, the suppression of industry and the unjustifiable millions of dollars in the Criminal Justice system, all based on outdated hysteria similar in EVERY aspect to the Prohibition with NO facts to base it upon?

Nobody steals their mama’s TV to buy marijuana… but they’ve had to put up the house to make bail.  Innocent people are suffering in a criminal justice system that they do not belong in.  Taxpayers are shelling out millions each year for The System to prosecute and persecute, render homeless and re-house those unfortunate enough to get caught.  Government is missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue from sales of marijuana, applying the tax instead to your juice, your gas, your fruit, your milk, and your corn flakes, while the deficit steadily grows deeper. 

Write a Senator and tell a friend.  It is way past time that common sense won out over private interests.