Posted on 01/06/2014 8:16:32 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Launching 17 million “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, Colorado has become the first state to make the prudent choice of legalizing the consumption and sale of marijuana, thus dispensing with the charade of medical restrictions and recognizing the fact that, while some people smoke marijuana to counter the effects of chemotherapy, most people smoke marijuana to get high — and that is not the worst thing in the world.
Regardless of whether one accepts the individual-liberty case for legalizing marijuana, the consequentialist case is convincing. That is because the history of marijuana prohibition is a catalogue of unprofitable tradeoffs: billions in enforcement costs, and hundreds of thousands of arrests each year, in a fruitless attempt to control a mostly benign drug the use of which remains widespread despite our energetic attempts at prohibition. We make a lot of criminals while preventing very little crime, and do a great deal of harm in the course of trying to prevent an activity that presents little if any harm in and of itself.
Marijuana is a drug, as abusable as any intoxicant is, and its long-term use is in some people associated with undesirable effects. But its effects are relatively mild, and while nearly half of American adults have smoked marijuana, few develop habits, much less habits that are lifelong (in another context, we might write “chronic”). Compared to binge drinking or alcohol addiction, marijuana use is a minor public-health concern. All that being the case, the price of prohibition is relatively high, whether measured in police and penal expenses or in liberty lost. The popularity of marijuana may not be the most admirable social trend of our time, but it simply is not worth suppressing.
One of the worst consequences of marijuana use is the development of saucer-eyed arguments about the benefits of legalizing it. Colorado, and other states that may follow its example, should go into this with realistic expectations. If the Dutch example is any guide, then Colorado can probably expect to see higher rates of marijuana use and the use of other drugs, though not dramatically so. As with the case of Amsterdam, Colorado already is developing a marijuana-tourism industry — some hotels are considering offering designated marijuana-smoking rooms, even while smoking tobacco outdoors is banned in parts of Boulder — which brings problems of its own, among them opportunistic property crime and public intoxication. Colorado’s legal drug dealers inevitably will end up supplying black markets in neighboring prohibition states. Expected tax revenues from marijuana sales will amount to a mere three-tenths of 1 percent of the state’s budget.
The payoff is not in tax revenue gained but in losses avoided. A great many people will avoid being convicted of crimes for a relatively benign recreational indulgence — and those criminal convictions often have much more severe long-term consequences on pot-smokers’ lives than marijuana does. The business of policing covert marijuana dealers has been replaced with the relatively straightforward business of regulating them in the open. A large and fairly nasty criminal enterprise has lost its raison d’être, at least so far as the Colorado market is concerned.
Perhaps most important, the legalization of marijuana in Colorado — and the push for its legalization elsewhere — is a sign that Americans still recognize some limitations on the reach of the state and its stable of nannies-in-arms. The desire to discourage is all too easily transmuted into the desire to criminalize, just as the desire to encourage metastasizes into the desire to mandate. It is perhaps a little dispiriting that of all the abusive overreaches of government to choose from, it is weed that has the nation’s attention, but it is a victory nonetheless. Unfortunately, it is probably too much to hope that Colorado’s recognition of this individual liberty might inspire some popular reconsideration of other individual liberties, for instance that of a working man to decide for himself whether he wants to join a union, or for Catholic nuns to decide for themselves whether they want to purchase drugs that may work as abortifacients — higher liberties, if you will.
It’s been legal for anyone willing to jump through the very easy hoops. What the feds don’t want to enforce is their problem. I like the idea of the citizens of sovereign states living by their own constitutions without federal interference. And the constitution of Colorado says it’s legal.
Impeaching Obama is a political question, and it would be a huge mistake to impeach him over this, or any of his more important crimes unless there are the votes in the Senate to convict him.
All outside growing is illegal in Colorado.
Must be grown within a secured, enclosed area.
They should have shot Wickard and sent Filburn to Congress back in the day.
That’s correct.
Sorry, typo, I know that as I live in Colorado.
On the black market, yes, just like the last 50 years.
The legal stuff is taxed.
I discussed fines, rather than prison time, and added:
But the emphasis in these ‘no-victim’ crimes should be deterrence, rather than punishment.
Those whom we deter, do not perform the crime, right?
And all those criminals will simply move onto pushing harder, still illegal drugs, as well as circumventing any marijuana taxes or regulations. And they'll have a growing population of potential customers ready to march through the gateway seeking a greater high than marijuana offers.
An economy and society built around hedonism and "getting high" offers poisonous consequences for the individuals who partake in it and for society as a whole. These people are a danger to themselves, their families, their co-workers and everyone around them. The natural vices leading to this kind of a society are constantly moving forward. If you don't have a strong effort with the power of law enforcement to push back in it, those forces will win and corrupt and corrode the entire society, creating huge and growing burdens even on those who don't partake in the drugs.
We’ll see more dangerous drivers on the road, more people unable to hold down a job, more people dropping out of school, higher medical costs, more abuse of the welfare system, more people being bad and inattentive parents, less people starting families at all, more people facing bankruptcy, more people entering the gateway drug spiral that leads to death (e.g. Amy Winehouse and her eventual death by horse tranquilizer), and more people wasting their time instead of working on being creative, inventive and innovative members of society. This will inevitably lead to a weak society that is ripe for being taken over and subjugated by foreign powers, ones who actually kept their anti-drug laws in place and influenced their citizens to be productive and responsible. Intoxicants are destructive, corrosive, offer nothing of value and should be fought by every sector of society.
Had my first illegal cig at 14. (gateway drug)
First illegal drink at 16.
First illegal pot at 19. (45 years ago)
Quit cigs at 32. It was not easy and took multiple attempts.
Still drink lightly, just because I like a little red wine. Hate feeling drunk.
Quit pot at 43 (after 24 years) for 10 years due to raising a child. No problem, just stopped. Now smoke socially, can take it or leave it, and do so at will. Don’t like getting real high, like the taste and always liked smoking, used to smoke pipe tobacco as well as cigs. Don’t care anything about the edibles and all that.
I’ve run my own businesses since I was 24, retired at 60, no pensions, just my own savings and investments. Never understood the idea of being just being an employee. THAT leads to laziness. I had to produce or suffer the consequences.
My doctor says I’m radically healthy for my age, but then I’ve always exercised, been a runner (up to half-marathons), and lifted weights for 45 years.
None of the above made me lazy. Maybe I’m an exception.
The total of rear only states is 19.
This will change as more and more cities add stoplight cameras. All 19 will want front plates so they can catch you coming and going.
There was a video a while back of a couple of losers giving a toddler a puff of marijuana. I hope that the state gets really serious about enforcing all the laws that also apply to alcohol such as being twenty one, not being allowed to drink in public, no drinking or pot on the job, especially jobs that involve public safety, not selling pot close to schools or churches. Anyone who gives pot to a minor should be dealt with severely and that means anyone under the age of twenty one.
do you remember video of the bomb scare at a pot festival in Colorado?? There were tongs of children. Libertopians have no problem with that
No new ones. It’s already illegal to operate a vehicle under the influence of drugs.
“Federal laws are still in force though, but rather than having Congress change them, obama has elected to abrogate his sworn duty to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the U.S., just like he has illegally chosen to do so with enforcement of immigration law and anything else that strikes his fancy.”
Selective enforcement of federal MJ laws in other states would seem a pretty good defense to prosecution.
Employers and the market will take care of it.
Pot smokers already smoke pot, law or no law.
What about growers who are parents of minor children? Another glitch to contend with.
“And all those criminals will simply move onto pushing harder, still illegal drugs, as well as circumventing any marijuana taxes or regulations”
Perhaps we should make alcohol illegal so they move into a softer drug.
(yes, sarcasm)
Maybe people have had enough of no-knock raids and the jack-booted thugs used to enforce the WOD.
“What about growers who are parents of minor children? “
What about people who have guns at home!?
Think of the children!
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