I refer to the new reefer laws.
How many times have we heard it? “We can regulate this!” Laws get passed, and put into the records. Our taxes go up to pay for the law enforcement to cover the new rules. We define a whole new class of criminal. Build jails to house them. Then spend time and money trying to change the morality, perceptions, and judgments of the consuming public, and historically we completely fail. It can’t be done.
My point? Yes, I do have at least one. Anything that can be made in one’s bathroom in one’s home cannot be successfully regulated, taxed, or policed. The first three on my short list are booze, weed, and prostitution. All easily homegrown. All easily hidden from law enforcement.
We gave up on the illegality of booze, and still continue enacting new legislation in an attempt to put it into safe parameters, so the rest of us don’t get hurt by it. But even if a drunk driver doesn’t run you over personally with a car, when he or she dies from alcohol poisoning or liver disease, your insurance costs go up, and you pay more for medical care. To me, that also hurts. We can’t stop it.
The oldest profession. Hooking. Jails and penitentiaries are full of prostitutes and pimps. With a few “Johns” thrown in to sweeten the pot. So after all of this, do you suppose there’s a shortage of “working girls”, (and boys)? I don’t think so. We can’t stop it.
Now the weed. Let’s fill grandma’s medicine cabinet with marijuana instead of medicine, so when our teenagers go looking for a quick high, at least we will be able to smell it, whereas pills don’t smell. Or will that just be one of the unintended consequences we will be lamenting later?
So let’s make any and all of it legal. Let’s make it more handy and accessible and less smelly, by cooking with it! Good! Don’t tell me I’m the only one who sees it.
A big effect of marijane consumption is hunger. The “munchies” if you will. Let’s be sure to have plenty of THC-laden pastries and candies, etc., so when a consumer needs a snack, one is available with more pot in it, so there will be overdoses. Are we ready for this?
Oh. So we’re not supposed to be able to look that far into the future? Just because marijuana is not a habit-forming drug, doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous in the wrong hands. Or have we forgotten that our two year olds always know where to find every morsel of cake and cookies in our homes?
One more thought: Do we imagine the street-corner pot vendors we are trying to replace with these legalized ones will just disappear? I suggest that no, they will not. In fact, I don’t see them going quietly. They will just up the ante.
Just you watch and see.
Esther Ramos
