By M.D. Harmon
So, a judge has ruled that Mainers will get to vote Nov. 8 on a citizen-initiated bill to legalize marijuana for everyday use.
If the referendum, sponsored by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana
Like Alcohol, passes, adults could possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana
and grow a “limited number” of plants, according to news accounts.
Retail sales and social clubs would be allowed, with approval from
communities. Public use would be banned, punishable by a $100 fine.
Finally, retail sales would be taxed at 10 percent.
Maine would join four other states and the District of Columbia if
this vote succeeds. Several other states are reportedly considering such
laws as well.
I’ve supported medicinal pot, but retain strong doubts about it as a
legal recreational drug. (Notice I refrained from saying the issue has
its highs and lows.)
Still, some of the conservatives I admire most, notably the late
William F. Buckley Jr. (whom I had the very great pleasure of dining
with at the Black Point Inn several years ago) were strong supporters of
legalization.
Liberals and libertarians have long said that a society that accepts
one legal intoxicant, alcohol, for widespread but regulated sales,
doesn’t really have much of a rationale to prohibit a similar intoxicant
simply because the first one is imbibed and the other smoked.
Well, yes and no.
Why, for example, does the acceptance of one substance, used since
hunter-gatherers turned to farming grain and grapes and turning them
into alcoholic beverages, automatically justify adding another to the
list?
It’s logical to argue that the problems we have with alcohol are
quite enough to occupy our police, judiciary, counseling centers and
social service agencies without adding some unknown but certainly
substantial number to their caseloads.
This is not a call for a return to Prohibition. It didn’t work — but a
big part of the reason was that alcohol use has a history that goes
back at least 6,000 years. Pot, not so much.
And if you like the argument that our current laws against its use
amount to a modern version of the 18th Amendment, then by the same
logic, so do our laws applying to other mind-bending narcotics such as
cocaine.
Once we have opened the box that releases new entries to the legal
public pharmacopoeia, we are likely to find it very difficult to shut it
again.
Remember, marijuana is not a “harmless” drug. As WebMD notes,
marijuana use can create “a distorted sense of time, random thinking,
paranoia, depression, anxiety and short-term forgetfulness.”
Further, “Though you may have heard otherwise,” it says, “marijuana
can be addictive: Nearly 10 percent of people who use it become
dependent on it.” And: “Marijuana can also cause more health problems if
you have a condition like liver disease, low blood pressure, or
diabetes.”
And ponder this: A bill to codify the blood levels of THC
(marijuana’s psychoactive component) that would render a driver in
violation of operating under the influence standards passed the Maine
Senate but was rejected in the House — by a unanimous vote.
As this paper noted April 1, “According to the National Conference of
State Legislatures, 17 states have laws setting limits on THC in the
bloodstream of someone operating a vehicle. Several of those states have
set the amount between 1 and 5 nanograms per milliliter. The Maine bill
sought to impose a 5 nanogram limit — the same as in Colorado and
Washington state, where recreational marijuana use is legal.”
But opponents said no reliable standard exists. So, do we want to
legalize something that can result in the impaired operation of
dangerous machinery without any standard for holding someone accountable
for such actions?
As the anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana wrote in an op-ed
on these pages, “Many issues have arisen in Colorado since marijuana
was legalized and commercialized. Discharges from ERs for marijuana have
more than doubled. There has been a frightening trend in young children
admitted to ERs for accidental marijuana poisonings.
Children as young
as fourth-graders are selling or exchanging marijuana on school
property. Fatal car crashes involving drivers who test positive for
marijuana have also been on the rise.”
The group added, “Legalization would bring ‘Big Marijuana’
(out-of-state large-scale entrepreneurs) to Maine and with it the
kid-friendly marketing seen in Colorado. Legalization would further
normalize marijuana and increase youth access to the drug. Legalization
would harm our growing and rebuilding economies, increasing already
significant substance abuse costs borne by all Mainers.”
Finally, the referendum could potentially permit uses that are
illegal under federal statutes. While those prohibitions are not now
widely or uniformly enforced, that could change without warning.
Thus, a “no” vote in November seems the prudent course.
OH, AND HERE’S a brief addendum on the presidential race:
Winter is coming.
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