The Law and the Munchies

Colorado is the newest state to consider the notion of legalized marijuana.  Oregon and Washington, the last bulwark of old hippies and new wannabes, are also set to vote on legalization.  Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan suggested that policy with regards to pot should be a state decision.  California has been on personal crusade to legalize the drug in one form or another, though the federal government and the Supreme Court has stood in its way.  It is a popular cause for the Libertarians who feel that any substance that does not harm others should be left alone by Washington.  However, legalizing a problem does not erase the problem.

In a recent Rasmussen poll, 56% favor marijuana joining such drugs as alcohol and cigarettes and being legal and regulated.  Advocates for the measure suggest that the money spent to combat it and the crowded jails, not to mention the seemingly relentless battle the U.S. must fight to address the drug, are just some of the reasons for their call for legalization.  The notion of marijuana as a “victimless” crime, emphasizing the ill effects of the drug as nominal, is echoed throughout.  Furthermore, they mock and ridicule attempts and the philosophy behind the “war on drugs,” first popularized under the Reagan administration. 

However, according to a recent editorial in the Christian Science Monitor, marijuana use in the United States has dropped 50% since the 1980s.  It would seem the efforts are more productive than some would characterize.  Any high school teacher can debate against the assertion that marijuana has little to no effect on the user.  As one joked, the worst thing that pot does to a person is to condition them to accept boredom and wallow in it.  That alone and the intellectual void it leaves in its wake is enough to keep this drug on the permanent “do-not-legalize” list. 

Some are quick to point out that tobacco and alcohol are just as bad and therefore, we should be more open with marijuana use.  One cannot compare the latter to the former.  For alcohol and tobacco, that horse left the barn a long time ago and there is little to no point discussing or bemoaning that they are legal.  The fact that they are legal is not a reason why marijuana should follow suit. 

Lastly, there is something about the importance of the need of a standard.  The search for more money in the form of taxation and regulation of a possible legitimate marijuana trade is a shallow, rather cynical argument on the legalization of a drug that has hurt many people since its explosion in use in the 1960s and 1970s.  The fight has been tough to reduce the usage and those efforts have paid off.  There should also be some consideration as to the message sent by an approving nod in the Pacific Northwest to marijuana’s legalization.  Imagine the battle that parents fight on a regular basis to explain to their kids why they fear for them under the effects of pot, only to have the government say it is not that big of a deal.   

So that some may live as they want, indulging immoderately in a substance that has no positive aftereffects, we as a culture struggle with explaining to our students and children that the anti-drug message is still valid and that consequences are still potentially damaging.  I don’t need the government working with me but sure don’t expect it to work against me.  John Cardinal O’Connor, the late archbishop in New York City, mentioned it was not the responsibility of the church to succumb to the sins of the congregation.  It was the congregation’s job to rise to the standards of the church.  We are a better society than one who would surrender the ghost and the argument against drugs.  The impact that legalization efforts would have on society could be devastating and should be avoided.