Editor’s note: This commentary is by Norm Etkind of South Woodbury. The views expressed are his own.
“After the chronic use of Marihuana ‘Cannabinomania’ develops …
If continued the inevitable result is insanity, …
absolutely incurable, and, without exception ending in death.”
[S]ounds foolish today but this quote is from an article that was published in the highly regarded Journal of Law and Criminology (Vol. 23, No. 6, page 1086). The year was 1933 and the alcohol lobby, fearing competition, had pulled out all the stops in its effort to outlaw the use of marijuana. They succeeded in accomplishing their goal when national laws prohibiting marijuana use were put in place in 1937.
Fast forward to Vermont in 2016. We know better. But we are still bombarded with misinformation from those opposed to legalization.
The question before us is not whether people should partake of this drug, people do. Actually, many people in Vermont do. There is little to no data to support the argument that marijuana use will increase with legalization. All the discussion about how to deal with people driving under the influence or workers using the drug are beside the point. To the extent those things are currently occurring, they are unlikely to change significantly with legalization.
Why should our children believe us when we tell them certain drugs are deadly when we lie to them about marijuana through our laws?
But let’s get real. By far, the biggest drug problem we have in Vermont does not come from marijuana, it comes from alcohol. Yet we do not take the reasonable legal steps that we could to reduce the problems that drug causes.
The key argument those opposed to legalization put forward is the effect that this will have on our youth. But have we thought about the harm being done to our youth by the perversion of our laws when we have severe penalties and make outlaws of our marijuana users and sellers while people that sell and use far more harmful drugs, like alcohol and tobacco, get a bye? What happened to the legal concepts of equal protection under the law and that punishment should be in relation to the severity of the crime?
Why should our children believe us when we tell them certain drugs are deadly when we lie to them about marijuana through our laws?
Meanwhile, we could be reducing the use of opiates if it were easier for people to get the marijuana they need to help control pain. Legalization would also allow for more research into the positive uses of this drug as well as improved means of detecting impaired driving.
We should stop making criminals of marijuana users by passing a reasonable legalization, regulation and taxation law this year.
