Opinion Columnist
The debate for marijuana is not medical.
As a justification for its use, medicine may play a prominent role, but that is not what is going to drive its push to legalization.
Unfortunately, some in the medical and prevention community fail to recognize this. After the first month of sales brought in $2.1 million in taxes, the second month’s reports recorded a spike in sales to $3.1 million.
The legalization of marijuana is working, and it’s not soon to leave, partly because of how Colorado is paving the way. The opposition fails to recognize a few things. First, prevention has been a waste of resources. There is a lack of a structure in Washington that makes it a proverbial anarchy of drug dealing.
“It is ludicrous, absurd, crazy to have marijuana in the same level as heroin. Ask the late Philip Seymour Hoffman if you could. Nobody dies from marijuana. People die from heroin.” These are the words of Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) in his confrontation of Michael Botticelli, the Director of National Drug Control Policy.
“The truth is, the drug war has failed,” he said. “People die from heroin. Every minute we spend enforcing marijuana laws is a second we aren’t enforcing heroin or meth laws. And heroin and meth are the two drugs that are ravishing our country. Every death, including Mr. Hoffman’s, is part in hand of the federal government’s drug priorities. Heroin and meth are where all your priorities should be.”
The policies have not changed since a 1971 congressional commission on federal marijuana policy that came back in favor of decriminalization and regulation, according to Cohen. Yet the solution has been to throw more money at the wall and see what sticks rather focusing resources on prevention of the drugs that do the most harm.
In last week’s issue of the Crite, I included comments from Doctor David Gordon, student health-center director at Community Hospital. His responses, stereotypical in nature, credited parallels between the lives of habitual alcohol users and marijuana users and similarly for recreational uses for each substance.
Yet, he seemed out of touch with the benefits of its standing.
“I understand alcohol has been legalized, but I’m against any substance to control or alter the mind,” he said.
The black market, though, doesn’t discriminate against its product because of health risks or age, nor are they in the business of recommended dosages.
When Colorado got word that there were marijuana shops in Denver tied to the Colombian cartel and selling in the streets, they called the DEA on them. You can’t float your books (even though credit cards are prohibited in the industry, making it ridiculously easy) and sell weed in Colorado.
This is not an industry of stoner-stands. It is an industry of legitimate business.
brjthomp@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
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