Choice is good.
Unless you make bad choices.
A study out of the Harvard Medical School says 40 percent of all cancer and half of all cancer deaths could be prevented if people would make good choices.
Specifically, the study says, you should choose to stop smoking, choose to drink only in moderation, choose to maintain a healthy weight and choose to get in a half hour of moderate exercise daily.
Duh. People might not have known the degree to which these bad choices affect cancer rates and deaths. But people certainly know that smoking, benders, bingeing and sloth are bad choices. So why do we do it?
It feels good. And death is not immediate. And we're good at denial. "Others might get lung cancer, but I won't."
Plus, we're in love with the idea of free will and personal responsibility. "So what if I smoke, drink or stuff my face. I'm only hurting myself."
In many cases government only steps in to limit bad choices when that last claim no longer is true. It's legal to drink, for example, but illegal to drive drunk.
If Floridians can make bad choices about smoking, drinking and eating, shouldn't Floridians be allowed to make bad choices concerning marijuana?
That is — sort of, and incrementally — the decision facing state voters as they contemplate Amendment 2, which would legalize medical marijuana.
Supporters say this amendment is not offering Floridians any bad choices at all. To the contrary, supporters' central pitch is that legalizing medical marijuana finally will give people with painful and debilitating diseases the right to make a beneficial treatment choice.
That's not all. The state's economy would benefit as well, some say. Earlier this month, the Orlando area hosted the spring Marijuana Business Conference and Expo.
According to a report in the Orlando Sentinel, the conference featured products "including lights, irrigation systems, growing mediums, security packaging, odor eliminators, potency analyzers, quality testers, tracking software, humidity regulators, display cases and safes."
The overarching theme of the conference is that legalizing medical marijuana can provide an economic boom. Jobs, jobs, jobs.
(Speaking of jobs, I imagine many Floridians will be disappointed to learn that "potency analyzer" and "quality tester" are not jobs necessarily filled by a human.)
Of course opponents take the opposite viewpoint that legalizing medical marijuana in Florida only would make a bad choice more widely available. A doctor's permission would be required, but would be too easy to get.
And although minors would need a parent's permission, those 18 years old and above would not. That means, opponents contend, that high schools likely will be awash in marijuana (as if they aren't now.)
When medical marijuana was on the ballot in 2014, it fell just short of the 60 percent majority required to pass. I would not be surprised to see it pass this year.
Many people will vote for it because of the relief it will provide to those who are ill. But I'll bet many other people will vote for it precisely because they believe opponents' argument that it will make the drug easier to get for those who only have a nudge-nudge, wink-wink medical condition that justifies it.
This is, admit it, an incremental step toward approving recreational marijuana use. It is very hard, given that alcohol is legal, to justify continuing to treat smoking marijuana as a criminal offense.
America, as the Harvard study shows, is awash in legal bad choices. We know from experience that simply making bad choices illegal does not work.
Prohibition did not stop people from drinking. Its major benefit was to organized crime. The prohibition against marijuana has been just as ineffective and just as profitable for violent cartels.
Countless people, meanwhile, have seen their lives needlessly tainted or even ruined by pot-related charges. Yes, those people made bad choices even aside from breaking the law.
In general, smoking marijuana can't be good for you. But if you're only hurting yourself, how is that different from the many other bad choices people legally make every day?
People are people. We make bad choices. Criminalizing those bad choices is itself one of the worst choices we make.
Unless you make bad choices.
A study out of the Harvard Medical School says 40 percent of all cancer and half of all cancer deaths could be prevented if people would make good choices.
Specifically, the study says, you should choose to stop smoking, choose to drink only in moderation, choose to maintain a healthy weight and choose to get in a half hour of moderate exercise daily.
Duh. People might not have known the degree to which these bad choices affect cancer rates and deaths. But people certainly know that smoking, benders, bingeing and sloth are bad choices. So why do we do it?
It feels good. And death is not immediate. And we're good at denial. "Others might get lung cancer, but I won't."
Plus, we're in love with the idea of free will and personal responsibility. "So what if I smoke, drink or stuff my face. I'm only hurting myself."
In many cases government only steps in to limit bad choices when that last claim no longer is true. It's legal to drink, for example, but illegal to drive drunk.
If Floridians can make bad choices about smoking, drinking and eating, shouldn't Floridians be allowed to make bad choices concerning marijuana?
That is — sort of, and incrementally — the decision facing state voters as they contemplate Amendment 2, which would legalize medical marijuana.
Supporters say this amendment is not offering Floridians any bad choices at all. To the contrary, supporters' central pitch is that legalizing medical marijuana finally will give people with painful and debilitating diseases the right to make a beneficial treatment choice.
That's not all. The state's economy would benefit as well, some say. Earlier this month, the Orlando area hosted the spring Marijuana Business Conference and Expo.
According to a report in the Orlando Sentinel, the conference featured products "including lights, irrigation systems, growing mediums, security packaging, odor eliminators, potency analyzers, quality testers, tracking software, humidity regulators, display cases and safes."
The overarching theme of the conference is that legalizing medical marijuana can provide an economic boom. Jobs, jobs, jobs.
(Speaking of jobs, I imagine many Floridians will be disappointed to learn that "potency analyzer" and "quality tester" are not jobs necessarily filled by a human.)
Of course opponents take the opposite viewpoint that legalizing medical marijuana in Florida only would make a bad choice more widely available. A doctor's permission would be required, but would be too easy to get.
And although minors would need a parent's permission, those 18 years old and above would not. That means, opponents contend, that high schools likely will be awash in marijuana (as if they aren't now.)
When medical marijuana was on the ballot in 2014, it fell just short of the 60 percent majority required to pass. I would not be surprised to see it pass this year.
Many people will vote for it because of the relief it will provide to those who are ill. But I'll bet many other people will vote for it precisely because they believe opponents' argument that it will make the drug easier to get for those who only have a nudge-nudge, wink-wink medical condition that justifies it.
This is, admit it, an incremental step toward approving recreational marijuana use. It is very hard, given that alcohol is legal, to justify continuing to treat smoking marijuana as a criminal offense.
America, as the Harvard study shows, is awash in legal bad choices. We know from experience that simply making bad choices illegal does not work.
Prohibition did not stop people from drinking. Its major benefit was to organized crime. The prohibition against marijuana has been just as ineffective and just as profitable for violent cartels.
Countless people, meanwhile, have seen their lives needlessly tainted or even ruined by pot-related charges. Yes, those people made bad choices even aside from breaking the law.
In general, smoking marijuana can't be good for you. But if you're only hurting yourself, how is that different from the many other bad choices people legally make every day?
People are people. We make bad choices. Criminalizing those bad choices is itself one of the worst choices we make.
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