POT SPAT HAS BEEN RESOLVED

The Underwhelming Reality of Medical Marijuana Laws

 

 

 

Legalizing pot will not bring about the end of civilization!

 

 

By Steve Chapman

 

 

In 1996, as California voters considered whether to make theirs the first state to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes, they were warned that they were on the verge of creating a grim wasteland from which they might never escape.

 

Brad Gates, sheriff of Orange County and head of a group opposing the ballot measure, called it an "irresponsible" change that would unleash uncontrollable drug use and produce a "nightmare for law enforcement." President Bill Clinton opposed it, and his drug czar called it a "cruel hoax." But the measure won anyway.

That was 17 years ago, and today, it's clear that the critics were under the influence of some hallucinogenic substance. As a way of destroying the California way of life, Proposition 215 has been a bust.

In one respect, the opponents were right: The program is so lenient that getting medical marijuana is easy for anyone claiming a medical need, from chronic pain to insomnia to anxiety. A CNN reporter said it took him 20 minutes to get the required card and recommendation from a doctor, with no physical exam. Some physicians advertise their willingness to certify patients for cannabis.

So the effect is pretty close to legalizing pot for all adults who want it. But the apparent consequences of this outwardly drastic change amount to a non-event.

As The New York Times reported Sunday, "Warnings voiced against partial legalization -- of civic disorder, increased lawlessness and a drastic rise in other drug use -- have proved unfounded." By now, there's a stack of research indicating that allowing therapeutic use of cannabis has had no notable ill effects.

One fear was that the law would encourage kids to smoke weed by suggesting it's not dangerous. But a study of California and other states by D. Mark Anderson of Montana State University, Benjamin Hansen of the University of Oregon and Daniel Rees of the University of Colorado Denver reached the conclusion that "the legalization of medical marijuana was not accompanied by increases in the use of marijuana or other substances such as alcohol and cocaine among high school students.

Interestingly, several of our estimates suggest that marijuana use actually declined."

Another risk was that the state would be overrun with stoned motorists weaving randomly down the highways, wreaking death and destruction. But the same scholars, in a separate investigation of medical marijuana states, detected just the opposite effect: a reduction in overall traffic fatalities of at least 8 percent in the first year.

They suspect that some people switch from alcohol to cannabis -- and that pot smokers are either less likely to drive while impaired or, if they do drive, are less likely to crash.

The epidemic of crime that cops expected failed to materialize. The state's crime rate has fallen by nearly 40 percent since 1996, and violent crime has been cut in half. Crime fell nationally as well, but not quite as much as in California. The same pattern holds even if you look solely at the period after 2004, when dispensaries became common.

None of this has changed the tune of those who were against it all along. In 2009, the California Police Chiefs Association put out a report repeating the litany of horrors, including the allegation that "minors who are exposed to marijuana at dispensaries or residences where marijuana plants are grown may be subtly influenced to regard it as a generally legal drug, and inclined to sample it." Or they may not.

The group says that "many violent crimes have been committed that can be traced to the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries" and that "criminals in search of prey" are "commonly encountered outside" them. Yet somehow the Golden State has gotten dramatically safer.

Some areas have more such shops and the resulting traffic than neighbors prefer, which also happens with liquor stores and convenience stores. But even alongside the dens of iniquity, trouble is not the norm. A study by UCLA professors Nancy Kepple and Bridget Freisthler found no evidence that marijuana outlets generate crime in the surrounding areas.

All this news is a good omen for states that are considering legalization of recreational use of cannabis, something Colorado and Washington embraced last year. It's also reassuring for residents of Illinois, which will allow medical use starting Jan. 1. But if you're expecting a more liberal policy to be a big deal, you're in for a letdown.

Would you blow your whistle on kleptocrats? Do you have a news tip, firsthand account of political corruption, or reliable information about a government foul-up? Please send your scoop to Basil Venitis at venitis@gmail.com for publication in http://themostsearched.blogspot.com

 

 

A dozen years ago, Portugal eliminated criminal penalties for drug users. Since then, those caught with small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, or heroin are not indicted, and possession is a misdemeanor on par with illegal parking. Experts are very pleased with the results.

The European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction has its headquarters in Lisbon and can observe the greatest innovation in this field right outside its door. No drug policy can genuinely prevent people from taking drugs, but the Portuguese experiment is working. Drug consumption has not increased. There is a very good outcome.

Prohibition is simply driving commerce underground, creating enormous black-market profits that attract the most ruthless criminal elements.  Illegal drugs constitute a trillion-euro-a-year global industry. Those vast revenues enable the cartels to bribe, intimidate, or kill their opponents at will. Prohibition strategies have never worked. People should consider relegalization, as a strategy to break the economic structure that allows gangs to generate huge profits in their trade, which feeds corruption and increases their areas of power. 

Approved in 1919, alcohol prohibition led to a steady rise in both alcohol usage and violent crime. Al Capone and myriad mafiosi showed up. The murder rate rose 50% between 1919 and 1933, peaking at 10 murders per 100,000 population in 1933, when the country finally decided enough was enough. Immediately after the repeal of alcohol prohibition, gangsterism went into a swift decline, with all of the major gangs disappearing within 18 months, and the murder rate dropping every single year for more than a decade.

Now, the drug prohibition is another tragedy. Millions of people are arrested each year, trillions of euros are spent each year, and drug gangsterism is at a level that dwarfs its alcohol equivalent and which has led to bloodbaths, not because of drugs, but because of drug laws. Over 40% of Westerners have used drugs.  Most people think marijuana should be legalized.

This tragedy is the result of kleptocrats' refusal to allow people to engage in peaceful choices as to what they consume. Even if drug use were to rise upon a return to the tradition of tolerance, our streets would be safer, innocent people would not have their homes raided and pets killed by narcotics agents entering the wrong house, victims of asset forfeiture laws wouldn't have their houses and other assets seized without due process, and resources would be freed to spend on improving peoples' lives instead of destroying them.

 

 

Zoniana, near Rethymno of Crete, is a village which produces the best marijuana in the world.  Zonianers are very proud about their illicit crop. Zoniana is an oasis of anarchy in the desert of Graecokleptocracy. Police and army would not dare set foot in the last bastion of freedom in Greece, a village protected by Zeus himself!

Those who take the trouble to go to Zoniana can enjoy fine views, eat the best goat's cheese, drink ouzo, smoke the best marijuana, dance like Zorba the Greek, and hear proud tales of how rebellious local herdsmen resisted first Ottoman rule, then Nazi occupation, and now Graecokleptocracy.  Police and politicians are just on the dealers' payroll. Zonianers follow the rule of omerta, not the rule of Greek law.

Crete is not that different from Sicily. Both islands have a reputation for feisty, independent people, and both have remote, clan-dominated areas, where the first loyalty is to family. The area has many mountainous regions which are difficult to patrol by car or on foot, and this enables people to cultivate marijuana easily because it is hard to spot. But the temperament of the mountain people is also a difficulty. Their remoteness from the rest of Crete and the traditional toughness of their way of life makes them distinctive. They have a heroic character that resists authority. Marijuana of Zoniana is exported all over Europe at four thousand euros per kilo.

There is plenty of machismo in Zoniana. The sign to the village is ridden with bullet holes. Most of the menfolk, young and old, strut around in black open-neck shirts, a sign of independence and defiance to Graecokleptocracy.  The spirit of rebellion has bound Zonianers together. They fight for freedom and independence. Marijuana is just a symbol of their heroism. A nearby cave is where the young Zeus hid from his murderous father Kronos.  Now Zeus, the father of all gods, protects Zonianers from piggish Graecokleptocrats!