A few people over the years have asked what my stance is on legalizing marijuana; either for medical or recreational use. Maybe they wanted to know because of my law enforcement background. I’ve never responded because I find myself going back and forth in the marketplace of ideas. Here are my thoughts today. Remember, it’s ok to disagree with me. We can still be friends.
For medical purposes, I don’t know why it’s not already legal for people with certain pain that marijuana helps. For example, have you ever seen videos of some people with epilepsy use it? It’s actually amazing to see how quickly it works. Also, have you see what prescription pain meds do to people in the long and short run? To me, that’s truly painful. No pun intended.
For recreational use, and I want to be clear, I don’t believe any drug that alters our mind/body/spirit is good for us. I don’t condone any of it. I believe drugs are a way to dull our physical and spiritual senses and we can’t become our best selves with the talents we’ve been given.
However, let’s try this for an experiment. I would bet the farm that if marijuana and alcohol were switched for one week, meaning that if everyone who got drunk for the week, instead got stone-cold high, our crime rate across the country (especially violent crime) would fall by over 50% or more. Almost overnight. Especially including crimes like robbery, sex assault, aggravated assault, intimate partner violence (or DV), child abuse, and homicide (to name a few). Did you know that over 40% of convicted murderers had used alcohol before or during the crime?
When I was a police officer I remember dealing with A LOT of people who had been drinking the liquid courage and wanting to fight everyone who got in their way, including me. However, I don’t ever remember a fight between people who had been smoking pot. Not one.
I believe alcohol is THE worst drug on the planet (worse than most illegal drugs today) but somehow, it’s the only one that is legal. How does that make any amount of sense?
Everyone is talking about these “experiments” with marijuana to see if they medically help people. I get it. But I say we first start with my experiment. Switch the two for one week and watch what would happen. And because I not only believe crime rate would go down by 50%, I also believe 50% of law enforcement in our entire country would be twiddling their thumbs with not a lot to do at night. Would we need as many police? Think about that for a second.
So, if I were to be forced to “pick a poison” out of alcohol and marijuana for America, for me it would be marijuana no questions asked. I would vote tomorrow for the experiment. I believe I would be right.
Again, I’m not advocating any drug use. It’s all bad for society to be high for no other reason than being high. Just want to get a conversation going.
