I see that stoners are lighting up in Washington, as the state referendum legalizing marijuana has taken effect. This should be an interesting experiment in Washington, and soon in Colorado. I understand that their new law takes effect on January 5th.
As a police officer, I have been asked many times what I felt about the legalization of marijuana. My thoughts are simple. I am sworn to uphold the law, whatever that law might be. If the good citizens of a state decide to de-criminalize a particular thing, or to criminalize a particular thing, then I try to uphold the law. I don't make the laws, I am simply tasked with enforcing them.
I support freedom in all its forms, and the good citizens of Washington and Colorado have decided that the recreational use of marijuana is a good thing. Time will tell if their decision is best for them, and the proponents of marijuana are rightly celebrating their political victory. It'll be interesting to watch how this plays out. The police have a lot of work to do, and they've got to adapt to the changing times. I'm sure, in time, they'll arrest folks for driving intoxicated under the influence of marijuana. Just as we arrest folks now for driving intoxicated under the influence of alcohol. Time will also tell what the social costs of this expansion of freedom will be. That's for the social scientists and the legislators to argue about. Not the police. We're here to enforce the laws, not make them.
Good for the citizens of Washington. You've just launched a great and noble experiment in the percolator of freedom. It'll be interesting to see what you have brewed.
2 comments:
What they have brewed is a firestorm. The new Washington law set a defined standard for cannabiniods in blood as being Under the Influence. The new law did NOT exempt "Medical Marijuana" users. It's quite possible that most, if not all, medical cannabis users will be operating vehicles illegally, if they drive at all.
Here in Orygun, we watched as the stoners sold "medical" MJ as beneficial for just four exact medical conditions, then the good citizens ignored a bad "mission creep" in that program, resulting in "prescriptions" for smoking dope being now written for any "medical" reason at all. In Oregon, the issue of patient intoxication was never addressed, but with legalization, which Oregon just rejected at the ballot box, ought to come an intoxication standard and enforcement. The Washington experience ought to provide that impetus.
The science issue is settled: smoking the herb, with it's uncontrolled THC levels, give zero control to the amount of THC in the body. When you take a pill, it's a measured dose. When you light a joint, it's not. MJ is the only intoxicating "medicine" allowed to be taken this way. All of medical science was ignored when the States that adopted the program did so.
BTW, I am eagerly awaiting the Mothers Against Drunk Driving group to take up their fierce cudgels against driving stoned, but, curiously, I see or hear nothing from them on the subject.
Many Socialist academicians have said, in low voices, that having an easy path to intoxication makes it easier to squelch dissent in the proletatiat.
Soros generously funded the medical marijuana campaigns a decade ago.
Soros' and the Socialist's hand will be on the wheel in every stoner car wreck, never forget that. If the MADD Mothers don't rise up nowagainst stoner driving like they did against drunk driving, it's an excellent bet that they have been given a cup of Soros' kool-aid, and they willingly quaffed it.
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