Posted on 08/15/2018 9:06:53 AM PDT by fwdude
Yesterday I visited our local bookstore and was struck by the abundance of magazine covers promoting marijuana. Later my wife commented that she’s received two ads this week for cannabis products, something she’s never received before! What’s going on?
In case you haven’t noticed or are simply distracted by the busyness of life, propaganda promoting marijuana and its legalization is bombarding us. Should we be concerned about something that is celebrated as a “harmless recreational” indulgence that progressive people should embrace excitedly?
Recently our state newspaper ran a prominent piece by a young woman calling for weed to be legalized. Coincidentally, she works for a statewide cannabis advocacy group. Reading her arguments and questionable statistics made me wonder if we should begin distributing marijuana freely since she opines it is so harmless and beneficial!
What follows is my pushback to the propaganda. Feel free to “borrow” any and all my counterpoints for op-eds you can submit, exposing the seductive logic.
Let’s Get Serious
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, dxxxxd lies and statistics,” said Mark Twain. He was pointing out the use of statistics to bolster weak or fallacious arguments. The dope supporter whose article appeared in our newspaper, typical of many, deserved a five star Pinocchio award for her misleading stats and misguided presentation.
Recently, I had an in-depth conversation with a police officer formerly on paid leave who has since retired. He was rehabilitating from a serious injury sustained when he confronted a young man about to commit a crime who was stoned on marijuana. He subsequently assaulted the officer, tearing his rotator cuff. He now faces numerous felony offenses plus decades behind bars, in addition to the impounding of his car containing marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Olympic gold medalist, Michael Phelps, often appears in the news with his lovely wife and two little boys celebrating his success emerging from rehab and his near-death experience. “Not wanting to be alive anymore” at one point, the champion who smoked marijuana, deceived it would not affect his ability to excel, now swears off any drugs as he encourages youth to emulate his example.
Close to where I live, a 33-year-old woman was sentenced to 30 years in prison for her reckless driving which resulted in the death of a teenager helping change his mother’s flat tire. The THP report showed her high on drugs and impaired in her driving ability as she callously fled the scene of the homicide. She’ll now have many decades to ponder her stupidity, recreational drug usage and the devastation it brought her and a grieving family.
With scores of people killed, maimed, or disabled for life from drunk driving, especially by young people, do we really want to compound the problem by adding marijuana to the mix? Teens can think they are invincible and adding a joint can seem innocuous until the tragedy happens, which it does all too frequently.
Contrary to what drug proponents profess, marijuana and other drugs take a toll—eventually, if not immediately. Drugs don’t deliver as advertised. Why do you think they call it “dope?”
Even pot-smoking, poster boy Willie Nelson, battling emphysema and pneumonia four or five times, admits his lungs have gotten “really screwed up.”
In Willie’s own words, “There’s been a lot of talk about marijuana being harmless, but I think it’s a lot more dangerous to the lungs than most dope smokers realize. Especially the strong marijuana that’s around these days. Each year it seems to get a little stronger … your lungs are not really supposed to breath anything but oxygen—pure, fresh air.”
How about the tragic, premature deaths of both Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse portrayed in recent documentaries? Both got started on the path to their destruction the exact same way, smoking weed, those “harmless” joints.
Research Studies Should Not Be Ignored As Sergeant Joe Friday used to say on the TV program Dragnet, “Just the facts!” so here they are …
The United States Drug Enforcement Agency states: “U.S. drug overdose kills more people than traffic accidents and gun incidents.” The total number cited was 46,471! If we could ask these victims how many started on marijuana or maintained their marijuana usage along with other drugs, I wonder how many would hang their heads in regret wishing they’d never succumbed to the seduction of the Pied Piper’s enticement onto this pernicious path?
My best friend growing up started experimenting with recreational drugs when he started college with me. What started as a fun escape spiraled into his premature death in his mid-20s. I carry an ache in my heart to this day from this experience.
When marijuana proponents glorify drugs and celebrate its “harmless” even “beneficial effect,” they should take heed to the words of an expert, Dr. Ed Gogek, an addiction psychiatrist. He wrote the following in the uber-liberal New York Times: “I’ve spent 25 years as a doctor treating drug abusers and they are con artists…. Marijuana activists are phony scientists. For years they said marijuana is good for glaucoma when it actually worsens it! They said it is not addictive and this is false! They said it doesn’t increase usage among teenagers and all evidence says the opposite…. It is not harmless! Youth do worse in school and have two times the dropout rate while marijuana permanently lowers their IQ.”
Joseph Califano, head of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, declares without qualification that “pot smoking adversely affects motor skills and does serious damage to the brain over the long term.” It is a fact that objective studies repeatedly show that regular users find their IQ dropping and all cognitive functions hindered. Finally, a recent study from Northwestern University established clearly that teen “potheads” had brain abnormalities related to poor short-term memory performance. Healthy individuals who did not use marijuana scored 37 times better on average than users—not just addicts—who had smoked pot in the past. The National Institute of Health makes it clear: “One in six youth who try marijuana before age 18 will either abuse it or will become addicted.” Those are dangerous odds, parents. Is this what we want for our children and grandchildren? What’s Happening in Massachusetts? The state of Massachusetts jumped on the bandwagon to legalize marijuana. After a number of months, a study was done to discover the impact on young people. The results are sobering and startling: currently 1/2 of youth ages 18–25 have smoked marijuana in the past month!
In the classic film The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy finally pulled back the curtain and exposed the deceiving mastermind behind the façade. May we do likewise amid celebrities and other pot promoters who glamorize toking up, some under the ruse of the “medical marijuana” argument (which can have some medicinal benefits but it’s not the only alternative).
A little while ago, in the mall where I daily exercise, a middle-aged mother darted from the coffee shop and stammered these words amidst her tears, “They just found my daughter dead!” She proceeded to tell me about her 27-year-old daughter who met a young fellow who influenced her to start smoking dope. Prior to this encounter, “she had never been involved with any drugs” but this was the gateway to her death and her mother’s devastation.
Here’s the deal: Scripture says, “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools…” (Romans 1:22). People will accuse us of being “fear mongers,” but we must not back down. Let’s winsomely and confidently communicate the truth about this massive deception permeating America today.
Using cocaine, heroin, meth, crack, LSD, et al is entirely un-American. Their production is dangerous not only to those producing them, but to anyone around the production area. If something goes wrong, there is strong possibility of explosion or other contamination that can hurt others - that can deprive others of their rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Marijuana, on the other hand, is no more dangerous than alcohol, in that aspect. If I grow a plant in my backyard, not only is it none of your business, but no one is hurt by that - no one loses their right to life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness. I pick the flowers and dry them in my kitchen - again, no one is hurt by that action. I smoke in the privacy of my own home? Nope, no one hurt, and it's no one's business what I do in the privacy of my own home.
At no point in the production of recreational/medical marijuana is there anything that puts anyone at risk. I don't have to cook it. I don't have to add chemicals. I simply grow, pick, dry and use it.
I don't condone legalization of any of the man-made, chemical heavy drugs. In fact, I advocate allowing addicts to die of overdose rather than using narcan. Fewer addicts = less demand. Less demand = less supply on the streets. I also strongly support the death penalty for anyone involved in the manufacture or sale of those types of drugs. They are dangerous in that they do not only affect the user, but also those around them.
“The whole thing is nothing more than an emerging industry that is seen by governments as a huge source of untapped tax revenue.”
______
If that were true, then governments would be leading the charge to legalize. Instead, they are dragging their feet, even in blue states.
The first 8 states (plus DC) to legalize did so by referendum. Politicians are way out of step with the people on this issue.
Thank you, brother.
In my layman's opinion, love is what beats the demon, because from love springs true happiness, and true happiness is what eludes the addict, so he fills that void with the false happiness provided by the high of drug use.
That is what is missing from the spirit of the addict, and that is what is provided by the Spirit of The Lord.
These girls are what The Lord blessed me with. He sent them into my life, and then the demon left.
The War On Drugs has been going on since the Nixon administration. It hasn’t worked.
What are the unintended consequences of the WOD?
No Knock Raids that kill innocents every year.
Our WOD can have the formation of the Narcocracies of Mexico and several South American countries laid at its feet.
The outlawing of marijuana and other recreational drugs may have been the impetus of the creation of methamphetamine and other more dangerous designer drugs.
The unrestrained use of civil forfeiture laws that lets law enforcement take position of property or money without the filing of any charges or recourse to courts.
The expansion of the Federal law enforcement behemoth. DEA, FDA and on and on. Our civil liberties have taken a beating in the name of the WOD.
I am not a drug user but it doesn’t mean I am in favor of giving the Feds the power to stop others from using them. I don’t want the Feds to have one bit more power than is necessary to fulfill their constitutionally designated responsibilities.
The War on Drugs has not measurably improved the quality of life of US citizens and has done immeasurable harm.
When the CSA was drafted, marijuana was put in Schedule 1 provisionally, pending the findings of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse:
"Some question has been raised whether the use of the plant itself produces "severe psychological or physical dependence" as required by a schedule I or even schedule II criterion. Since there is still a considerable void in our knowledge of the plant and effects of the active drug contained in it, our recommendation is that marijuana be retained within schedule I at least until the completion of certain studies now underway to resolve the issue."- Roger Egeberg, Asst. Secretary of Health
When the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (Shafer Commission) recommended decriminalization, the Nixon administration said "meh," and did nothing about it. A congressional committee headed by Sen. James Eastland, whom Nixon considered an ally, recommended keeping it in Schedule 1. Sen. Eastland sounds like a guy you might admire.
This article is so full of crap it’s actually funny. In kind of a “Reefer madness” kind of way.
The ending part of the story of the woman coming out of a store gasping that “my daughter is dead” because some boy got her started smoking pot is not really a compelling argument. My guess is her daughter drank alcohol long before he got her hooked on the evil weed. But no one bats an eye at that.
The only thing this article does is demonstrate that the median age of Freepers has got to be about 80.
Please learn how to resize a photo.
That is exactly right.
A person can be become addicted to many things, some of them not even chemicals, but rather activities or patterns of behavior.
The fault does not lay outside the person, it’s on the inside. Some of us must do battle with our dark side, and it’s an epic battle, and sometimes the dark side wins.
In the end there is only one person who can win this battle, and that is the addict himself, and only one who can help the addict, and that is Jesus, because He is also within the addict.
THAT is why my own state is moving very slowly on this. If legalizing marijuana doesn't produce a huge pile of tax revenues, then that defeats the whole purpose of legalization (as far as the political leadership is concerned).
I’ve known more people who’ve gone to jail for drinking than pot. Sending someone to jail for possession of pot for personal use is just the dumbest thing the government could do. Complete waste of money.
I'm not following your line of reasoning, so I can't answer your question.
CO sells more than $1B worth of pot a year. The numbers don’t support a claim of 80% black market sales, at least in CO. Got a link to the study?
As an aside, we would be doing a lot more favors droning the shit out of the cartels than we do hitting weddings in Yemen. How long would the “drug problem” be a problem If being the #2 guy in Sinaloa was a job measured in hours?
I’m on a phone here and have a hard time posting links, but I’ll track it down later. There was an interesting thread here on the subject when the study results were reported in the media.
“The root cause of this problem is in the spirit, and the solution is also there.”
This is a basic tenant of AA. I have seen the spiritual awakening in people involved with AA. The steps do work, but the rigorous honesty thing is tough for a lot of people.
The 12 steps could solve a ton of problems in this world, for the sober and the addict.
“Well, ban or not, consider some implications, it is illegal federally.”
Sounds like the problem is federal usurpation and ignoring the bill of rights.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3638889/posts
AA is a good thing for many people.
I am not sure it would have worked for me, because as a drug user, I would have gone to NA, and knowing myself at the time I probably would have just looked for new connections in the group from which to score more drugs.
My battle had to be fought alone, but that may not be the case for all.
But yes, the 12 Steps are legit, and the entire conflict begins and ends within one’s spirit.
I am not sure how one who does not believe in the spirit tackles the problem of addiction. I just don’t know.
Drug test ALL politicians who wish to run for office . If they fail they should not be allowed to run . Random drug tests for those whom hold elected office . If they test positive , they need to be fired/relieved , with loss of all government retirement benefits , etc
No worries. What I was alluding to is the government spends lots of tax payer dollars in enforcing marijuana laws. I sat on a jury once when a 70 something person was arrested for possession of a couple ounces of marijuana in his home. So we spent lot of time in court and the perp was convicted. What made an impression on me was the court costs when you include the judge, bailiff, recorder, cops in court, lawyer given to defendant by government, prosecutors, jury time with stipend, cost of court building, and the cost of jailing the defendant. He had not attacked anyone, but was a bit of a jerk.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.