Welcome to the wide world of drugs

Ken Johnson

We are faced with a Faustian bargain on our local November ballot. We somehow were able to get pro-marijuana initiatives on both the state and local ballots. The initiative that bans commercial cultivation was rejected and sent packing, only to be reapplied for on a special ballot in March. Funny how the big money pot cartels are having success at the state and county levels, isn’t it?

So as we wind our merry way toward a choice between unregulated pot growing and the pro-pot grower initiative supporting their druggy bonanza, the average voter has to wonder what to do.
Just say no. No on California state Proposition 64. No on the Calaveras pot grower scheme.

At the state level, who knows what will happen. At the county level we have the right to override the four county supervisors who decided Calaveras should be transformed into cannabis county in 2016.
Here are some facts to consider if you find yourself on the fence. On the Enterprise website I will include all my reference material and footnotes.

Pot potency is 10 to 40 times stronger than the pot smoked in the ’70s. Imagine any over-the-counter drug used at 40 times the dosage prescribed in the ’70s! The psychoactive chemical, THC accounted for about a 2 percent concentration level in the ’70s. An average pot bud from your neighbor’s marijuana farm today has 20 percent THC. The concentrated versions, aka kief, wax or butane hash oil, is 70 to 90 percent THC. If you want to keep telling yourself this is harmless, you have to ignore a mountain of evidence.

Then there are the crime statistics. Nine out of 11 homicide cases in Calaveras County are now determined to be pot related. We have also just experienced a situation in which a couple of women were arrested for an illegal grow, but the other nasty little crime they are accused of is human trafficking. If you want a vision of the future, use the link I included on the website from this month’s Vanity Fair magazine article on human trafficking. Also, ask our local police and sherrif departments about the linkage between marijuana use, the drug culture, and their customer base.

Teen usage of pot increases dramatically everywhere the drug is legalized. Check out drugabuse.gov for the statistics. An average of about 35 pecent of 12 to 17 year olds use pot, and that percentage is growing steadily. Melbourne University did a study on IQ loss in teens from heavy pot usage and found an average of an 8-point drop in IQ. One in six teens that use pot will form an addiction (psychological or chemical) to the drug. I’ve experienced how pot made guys I know unbelievably lazy. Clinicians have actually defined a pot-related lazy person syndrome now called amotivational syndrome.

Pot usage in teens also causes memory problems that are irreversible. Consider what this does to our kids who need to compete with the best and brightest teens who are first or second generation immigrants. Those immigrants’ cultures and families strictly forbid drug use and regularly enforce the anti-drug message. Pot-addled teens may have a blast in high school but will not be able to compete the rest of their lives as they have destroyed their critical thinking skills from pot usage.

The kids who will do well in the next 50 years will be math and science aficionados, not vapers getting blasted on hash oil.

I do agree I am spitting into the wind by rallying against pot, and I do know people do get medical benefits from pot. I even know of daily smokers who function fine in everyday life. I get it. It’s not reefer madness time in 2016. Yet for every few legitimate medical patient benefits you have dozens of young Americans starting on their long path to loser-dom, and all because they were able to get high-potency pot from Calaveras County!

Consider the sheer volume of high-grade uber-potent pot that has come from the 2016 harvest just here in Calaveras. The county received permit fees for 750 grow sites. The actual number of grow sites though, just in Calaveras County, may exceed 2,000. Assuming a low yield of 4 pounds per plant, and an average of 200 plants per site equals 1.6 million pounds of pot just from Calaveras County. Of the billions that will be realized from this crop, how much of it remains in Calaveras?

So what to do? Log on to BanCommercialCultivation.com today and donate to the only organization that is doing what is needed to get this on the March ballot so we can stop the misery that is consuming what’s left of Calaveras County.