Marijuana legalization is one more snake oil deal offered to the people of Colorado. Pot possession has been decriminalized in Colorado since 1975, carrying a $100 fine, yet a recent poll to gauge support for Amendment 64 asked voters about decriminalization, not legalization. Legalization efforts flopped in California, so this time out-of-state billionaires and pot lobby groups have waged their bets on Colorado. If voters pass Colorado’s ballot measure to legalize marijuana, Amendment 64 would become part of the state Constitution, making for a situation that would be hard to change.
Marijuana activists have conspiracy theories about those who don’t agree with them, and so make the conspiracy theories part of their activism. Their websites reveal three-fold process to full legalization that is the agenda.
Step 1: Decriminalize it, which began in 1973 and continues in cities and states today.
Step 2: Medical Marijuana, state-by-state in a checkerboard pattern. Adjacent states will eventually get it until it is available everywhere. (There are referendums on the November ballot in Arkansas and Massachusetts.)
Step 3: States with medical marijuana will legalize it, one by one, and pressure on politicians will force the government (DEA) to reschedule it from a Schedule I to a Schedule II drug. (Hearings begin today.)
In the past, the marijuana advocates succeeded in getting ballot propositions passed when those who may have opposed it did not realize it was on the ballot. In 2000, Colorado voters passed Amendment 20 to permit medical marijuana, which has since been hijacked from those for whom it was intended. No wonder 58% of Americans polled about medical marijuana have said that if it is allowed, it should be only be available in pharmacies. This response recognizes of the underhandedness of the pot industry.
In Colorado many marijuana dispensaries have located near schools, trying to lure students, although these shops have been shut down over the past year. Colorado high school students routinely obtain pot from the state’s medical marijuana “cardholders,” while more than 70 instances of marijuana grown in Colorado have been shipped to other states.
The cult-like “weed blogs” give insight into their thinking, when they say those who don’t agree with them have a financial stake in keeping pot illegal. In their fantasies, they’ve concocted a a conspiracy theory as the reason marijuana is illegal in the US. These advocates are fueled not only by greed, but also by the power to control the minds of others. The bloggers know that it is very rare for people to be jailed for marijuana only in the US, but repeatedly say otherwise.
Opposition to Measure 80 in Oregon is well-organized, getting out a message of how legalization could impact the state. In Washington, the opposition is mainly in the medical marijuana community, which has had conflicts within itself and doesn’t like having a DUI limit on marijuana users. Yesterday, Denver’s Mayor Hancock and civic leaders spoke out against legalizing marijuana, joining the governor, attorney general, addiction specialists, pediatricians, county boards and the state’s largest teachers’ association.
The new snake oil sales pitch of marijuana advocates is that full legalization with regulation will bring Colorado and Oregon enormous tax income. However, the Rand Institute did studies for the state of California which show otherwise, and the Cato Institute’s studies show that marijuana would have to be taxed at the rate of cigarettes and alcohol to have any effect. (The measure in CO has only a 15% the maximum tax rate.) Another marketing ploy claims that legalization would put drug cartels out of business, using comparison with alcohol prohibition, even though marijuana is one of the many drugs trafficked by cartels.
They can’t acknowledge that some of us have seen the result of marijuana smoking and don’t like it. They won’t acknowledge the connection of marijuana to the onset of schizophrenia. They mock the Colorado teachers’ organization which has come out against it, even though their tax money would go to schools.
Marijuana industry is really fighting for addiction equality, the right to be equal with alcohol, tobacco and prescription medications in their hold on the American consumer. Their advantage is that they have consistently denied marijuana’s addictive qualities, another sales pitch. Cocaine advocates used the same “spin” in the early 80s, and it brought us the crack epidemic. (Marijuana is the major drug of choice for teens in addiction treatment.)
If medical marijuana is about compassion, one wonders why, in the states that have medical marijuana, it is not used primarily by cancer patients or those with terminal illness? Although pot can relieve the intraocular pressure of those with glaucoma, the American Glaucoma Society doesn’t recommend it. The society has noted the short duration of action, side effects and the fact that use does not alter the course of glaucoma. A new, expanded list of illnesses include many things that can be treated by diet changes such as arthritis, Crohn’s disease. The pitch for medical marijuana encourages medical practices that treat the symptoms rather than the roots or causes of the particular illness.
Billboards in Pompano Beach, FL, appeal to viewer sympathy, while trying to expand the market for marijuana.
Recent propaganda of the marijuana community includes the Silver Tour through Florida this year. Robert Platshorn, who was formerly incarcerated for drug dealing goes to senior centers to talk up the benefits of medical marijuana. Two marijuana billboards aimed at seniors (and the sympathy voters) popped up in Pompano Beach.
Cancer, as a leading cause of death in the United States, would be expected to be the primarily illness for which patients get medical marijuana. It’s curious that medical marijuana is not used by cancer patients as much as expected. Have their doctors have found other medicines to treat them? Marinol, a drug which encapsulates the THC of marijuana has FDA approval and has been prescribed since 1996.
There are plenty of prescription pain medications and marijuana is one more substance that can be used to relieve pain. Shots of 100-proof alcohol can also kill pain quickly, with few side effects. There is an epidemic of pain killer addiction in the US and and epidemic of teen use of these substances. Promoting marijuana for pain exacerbates the problem of addictions in this country, and fosters our national addiction to medicating everything.