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The Poetry Of Drug Politics
Rick Swart | Lahontan Valley News | 06/23/2006

Sometimes life’s little contradictions are, well, poetic.

Take the case of Churchill County Ordinance #13, which governs the sale of alcohol at special events.

After years of allowing civic groups to dispense liquor at fund-raising events, county officials stumbled over a disturbing problem with the law. It allows civic groups to obtain a special permit for the sale of beer, but not wine or hard liquor.

It appears the Cantaloupe Festival broke the law by serving cantaloupe daiquiris at its VIP tent and even Commissioner Norm Frey may have stepped over the line by pouring cold ones for his supporters at Republican fund-raising events.

Now Frey and his colleagues on the Board of Commissioners have asked District Attorney Art Mallory and his staff to re-write the law, with expanding the “beer only” provision to include wine and hard liquor as one possible outcome.

It’s hard to fathom why the law was written with the exclusion on wine and liquor in the first place. In my book, there isn’t a nickel’s worth of difference between beer, wine, whiskey or rum, other than possibly the number of trips the consumer has to make to the bathroom. If a person wants to drink irresponsibly, they can get just as drunk on beer as on a fine merlot or rotgut vodka. People who are so inclined are still going to get drunk, experience health problems and broken relationships, get in their cars and run over people, commit crimes, go to prison and die terrible, lonely deaths.

The dilemma for commissioners is to decide whether to leave the law unchanged and direct the sheriff to start arresting people for distributing the hard stuff or change it to reflect recent practices.

It’s a tricky proposition for the district attorney, who is an outspoken critic of the proposed statewide initiative decriminalizing marijuana. How do you reconcile writing a law to expand the use of one drug (alcohol) while opposing a law expanding the use of another drug (marijuana)?

“Alcohol has a different place in our social structure than marijuana,” said Mallory. “For the most part our society has determined that the individual will determine what’s an acceptable use of alcohol. I’m opposed to the legalization of marijuana because I think it leads to other drug use and criminal activity.”

Mallory doesn’t see any conflict between opposing legalization of marijuana while helping the county writing a new ordinance expanding the use of wine and liquor at charity events and political fund-raisers. Besides, he said, he is not advocating the county expand its liquor law. His office is merely acting as legal technicians at the bequest of the Board of Commissioners. They are the ones who are proposing legalizing booze at the Cantaloupe Festival.

One can only speculate how the marijuana initiative would play at one of Frey’s Republican fund-raising events, but likely not well.

It probably doesn’t make sense to allow only beer at the Cantaloupe Festival and not cantaloupe wine or cantaloupe daiquiris. Doing crazy things with cantaloupes is all part of the fun, and most people who partake of these beverages drink responsibly. At the same time there is something just a little bit hypocritical about standing around the VIP tent drinking cantaloupe margaritas and espousing the ills of “gateway” drugs. Mind-altering drugs are like lawyers — your own is the greatest thing since sliced bread, it’s the other guy’s that’s all screwed up.

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TehUberGeeK

...I’m opposed to the legalization of marijuana because I think it leads to other drug use and criminal activity.”

If it was legal it wouldn't be criminal activity now would it? Marijuana is no more of a gateway to actual criminal activity then alcohol is.


The marijuana is a gateway argument is so stupid.

LuvAmDam

The first drug that most people have experience with is alcohol and then progress from there. Therfore, shouldn't alcohol be considered a "gateway" drug? Hypocrisy rules our political system.

dedbr

there will be three sections devoted to smokes, coffee and beer. Oh, and let's not forget over the counter's.

Our society is horsepoop when it comes to this issue, and this article is a perfect example of them having no answer for it, and blatently thumbing their nose at us anyway. Screw 'em.


Some Where In Ded Land..........

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