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My Turn: Ease marijuana rules at own risk
3/8/08|Burlington Free Press| by John Hilferty - Opinion

Slowly but surely, the progressive forces that control the power in the Vermont Legislature are doing what they can to weaken the quality of life that makes Vermont a unique place to live.

With their support of the marijuana decriminalization bill, their attitude seems to be that smoking pot is such a casual indiscretion there is no harm in letting users have their way with it.

Perhaps this could be added to the legislation: The warning to teenagers that smoking pot is OK, but when your concentration levels fall to the point where your grades in school suffer, or if you are out on your own and can't keep a job, then you should know where your problems have originated.

One of the most persuasive arguments against marijuana use is that teenagers, in particular, learn to avoid stress through the calming benefits of pot. Thus they fail to cope with the challenges of gaining adulthood and become forever locked in arrested development --- inability to focus on school or an occupation.

Marijuana is the swamp where the drug culture breeds. An example of the insidiousness of the practice is Vancouver, British Columbia, a liberal-minded city where marijuana-growing and its use are winked at. The acceptance has led to an influx of criminal gangs competing to control what has become a $7 billion industry in British Columbia. The figures are not mine, but come from The Economist magazine (Feb. 9-15, Page 41), supported with studies by the British Columbia Organized Crime Agency and the Fraser Institute, a think tank.

British Columbia and Vermont have similar attributes of natural beauty. Both rely on tourism, except in the Canadian province, backpacking pot smokers and other drug seekers from all over the world will soon outnumber the skiers and other visitors.

The Economist stated that Vancouver has become Canada's new center for drug-related violence "thanks to its importance as a hub for the production and export of marijuana." Are we witnessing an identical movement in Rutland, where out-of-state drug dealers are flocking to take advantage of Vermont's increasing acceptance?

Here is what Narcanon Vancouver, a drug rehabilitation agency in British Columbia, says about the problem: Soft marijuana laws create fertile ground where "drug pushers produce more drug addicts because of an expanding market into which they can push drugs."

Vermont legislators favoring the soft approach toward marijuana should be made to consider who benefits the most from their actions. According to Narcanon Vancouver, "drug dealers, pot growers incapable of supporting their habit, criminals, pimps, pushers, organized crime, drug companies, opium traders, drug crop land owners are all financially gaining from a product (marijuana) that has but one true result: oblivion, forgetfulness, destroyed ambition, apathy, slow death of an entire future generation."

The Democrats and Progressives who hold the power in the state Legislature consistently ignore reforms central to the state's problems: the need to reduce taxes and promote business, jobs and affordable housing. They can't put aside their time-consuming fixations on laws that strengthen various lifestyle acceptance.

All of us as voters who love Vermont and wish it well should push the majority members of the Vermont Legislature to institute meaningful tax reform, to create jobs through nonpolluting industry and make housing affordable to working families. Focusing on marijuana legislation that can only lead to the destruction of lives is not the way to go.

John Hilferty lives in Moretown.

 

Buzzby

Could they be thinking that way because it's true? In a poll of Vermont voters, 55% want the decriminalization bill to pass, 38% want it to fail, and 7% were undecided. Half the adults in America have tried cannabis at some time in their lives. We know it's not the scary drug you're convinced that it is.

Under the proposed law, minors would not have access to any more marijuana than they have today. 87% of high school seniors polled tell us that marijuana is easier to obtain than beer or cigarettes. It's still illegal, but possession charges would no longer ruin a person's future.

And teenagers never drink alcohol to relieve stress? Some people will always seek crutches to help them over the rough spots. Would you prefer that they drink an organic poison that kills brain cells, is addictive, and leads to violence, or smoke an herb that has no toxicity, is non-addictive, and leads to giggling and snacking? Prohibition doesn't work. It has never worked. It will never work. If there is a market, someone will supply it.

An example of the insidiousness of prohibition is that, for basic economic reasons, illicit drug markets will always be supplied by criminal organizations. The only reason criminal gangs are so involved in the marijuana industry is that marijuana is illegal, in demand, and profitable.

And Vermont could "suffer" the same fate: more tourist dollars. What a shame!

There is no evidence that decriminalization has resulted in any significant increase in marijuana use. If the ONDCP is to be believed, while penalties have eased around the country, the use of marijuana by teenagers has decreased by 25%

Narcanon is known as the place to go if you want a nasty intervention for your "drug problem". They, of course, make their money by scaring people about drug use. While most hard drug users used marijuana first, they also drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes, and drank Coca-Cola first. An extremely small percentage of marijuana users go on to use hard drugs and there's no reason to believe that they wouldn't have gotten into them without marijuana. The "gateway drug" theory has been scientifically debunked. Repeatedly.

Everyone who enjoys a toke from time to time? The police, who will have more time to pursue real criminals? The courts, which won't have to waste time on trivial marijuana possession cases? The taxpayers, who won't have to pay for a lot of pointless law enforcement, courts, and incarceration?

There's no reason to believe that, since use doesn't go up with decriminalization, people in the marijuana industry would stand to profit any more than they do today. As for the rest - utter nonsense. Millions of people enjoy marijuana, just as millions of people enjoy beer. A small percentage of both (smaller with marijuana) develop a problem. Do we deny beer to everyone because a small percentage of users become alcoholics? The social fallout of drinking too much alcohol is violent, destructive, and often deadly. The social fallout of smoking too much pot is people falling asleep on the couch.

Decriminalization would decrease public spending on law enforcement, courts, and jails, increasing the monies available for other projects. And what's wrong with accepting diverse lifestyles? I thought that's what America is all about.

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disheartenedwamerica

For a completely presumptuous fool I suppose he's good at playing the 'fear' card. Think he works for the ONDCP/NIDA/DEA? Its probable.

BillieBudd

What a nincompoop that fellow is and, as with most of his ilk, taken to the woodshed by Buzzby with a little logic...
All I can say is that some people must believe that the fall of mankind will come about if an otherwise law abiding citizen is not shackled to a criminal record for choosing a recreational drug other than alcohol, or these nuts would not constantly trot out that argument...I wonder if this guy makes money off prohibition???