After the state of Colorado rolled out legalized marijuana, other states are considering following suit. Now, for the first time, intelligent people are questioning whether pot is truly as universally harmless as advocates often argue.
Cheaper Than Riot Cops
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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I picked Denver and Seattle to win on Sunday, figuring the two teams that have had the most time to adjust to legal Marijuana would outperform visiting teams; they being unaccustomed to its use, would be too spaced out to play in top form.
Super Pot Bowl coming right up.
I was for legalized marijuana something like 45 years ago. I sent a letter to “Playboy” magazine in support. It’s taken a long time for others to catch up. 🙂
People peg stoners as the most obvious ones. With full legalization we’d find out everybody who used marijuana for some reason, and that they are not all slackers.
Hear! Hear!
Why, I know one engineer who’s been smoking for nearly forty years. Far from being a burnt-out stoner, he’s got a six figure salary in a highly competitive, highly technical, field.
His wife has a similar story, she’s a manager in an IT department.
We do need to keep it out of kids’ hands, but legalization is the best way to accomplish that. When I was in high school (tee hee “high” school) it was easier to get pot, speed or even acid than it was to get beer. You had to know someone over 21 to get you beer. He couldn’t turn a profit on it, so he had no incentive to buy you any, OTOH, he *did* have the disincentive of jail should he be caught.
Someone selling illegal drugs has no such disincentive – he’s going to jail if he’s caught, regardless of the age of his customers.
Exactly. People who handle a given drug poorly are the most high profile and thus drive the associations.
Hell, if we legalized heroin, all these maintenance shooters would come out of the closet.
I’d grow opium poppies in bulk if I could get away with it. You never know when you or someone you care for might need a serious pain-killer for a medical condition that is not immediately threatening, if at all. And the idea that we are all helpless in the hands of easily available drugs is a right-wing meme.
My father died of colon cancer – he had opiates available but preferred marijuana for his pain.
This from a life-long Republican, no less. (in all fairness, he was more of an Eisenhower Republican than the latest batch – thoroughly hated Bush)
Saw a bumper sticker that said, “Medically speaking, what is the risk in giving marijuana to a terminally ill patient?”
I had a career at a high-tech firm, where I rose to the top of my profession and completed a second university degree. I never smoked at work, and I rarely drank alcohol during that time – pot had replaced it. It was recreational use, and I also ran 10K’s and other long-distance races. I didn’t fit the stereotype of lazy stoner, and I suspect that a lot of people didn’t and don’t. I am a bit surprised to see you perpetuate a stereotype, Ted.
Ted has also drawn cartoons pointing out how absolutely bizarre it is that alcohol is legal and marijuana is not. I read this one more as cynical; “Hey look there’s this meme about how marijuana makes people passive, this could work for us.”
Although “We should totally drone Bob” was funnier than this one. And the one where Obama is telling Hitler about his drone program. Those were sharp, the theme with this one is a bit tired.
Drones are interesting. A Mexican drone crashed in an El Paso backyard some years back. I posted the article at That Blog, it was a big hit. And Amazon is looking at drone deliveries, which is beyond surreal. And let’s not forget pizza delivery potential.
I suggest that the main reason to legalise to a certain degree the production, sale, and use of cannabis products is not that they are perfectly harmless, but that criminalisation does far more harm….
Henri
“The cure is worse than the disease”
It only took us 14 years to figure that out with Alcohol. MJ prohibition has been going on 77 years.
Alcohol prohibition gave birth to Organized Crime in the US. Drug prohibition has made the Mafia into a multibillion dollar multinational, while creating murderous cartels to the south of us.
Just how many times do we have to shoot ourselves in the foot before we figure out we’re doing something wrong?
I will never be convinced that the U.S. government isn’t complicit with the cartels’ importation of drugs. There is a lot of money involved for both sides, and the People have to be drugged out of their minds (and watching “Reality TV”) in order to distract them from what’s going on out there.
If you think pot makes you stupid, you’re stupid. Pot affects everyone differently but many people think more creatively and critically after smoking pot. Why do you think the government has fought it so hard for so long, and pushed alcohol instead. Alcohol makes you stupid, and so does mindlessly believing propaganda about pot without trying it.