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MINOT — I don’t think marijuana is good for you.
That’s probably a controversial statement, given the many people who ardently believe in the drug’s salubrious properties. North Dakotans have had legal access to marijuana for medicinal purposes since they approved it on the 2016 ballot.
Many people, including those with painful afflictions, will tell you that marijuana brings them relief. I don’t doubt it. That’s how inebriants work. People don’t seek out drugs and alcohol because those substances make them feel bad (at least not in the moment). Marijuana, at least, seems to have fewer deleterious repercussions than alcohol or other drugs.
I’m not interested in telling a cancer patient they can’t have a joint to help them cope with chemotherapy. If they say it helps, I’m willing to accept that, though I’d add that most of the people buying marijuana at North Dakota’s dispensaries aren’t cancer patients.
I’d argue that most of the people buying medical marijuana in our state are healthy and that their prescription is a pretense. The whole thing is a bit of a canard.
This is why I think North Dakotans should approve Measure 5, a ballot measure that would legalize access to marijuana for recreational purposes.
This isn’t much of a sales pitch, I know, but I grow weary of pot proponents filling our ears with a lot of pablum about the wonderous medicinal properties of cannabis and the public goods (lower incarceration rates! more tax revenues!) that would redound to our state if we would only end the prohibition.
It won’t surprise you to learn that the Measure 5 campaign is being
financed almost exclusively by our state’s existing medical marijuana industry.
Per the campaign finance reports released last month, they have contributed more than a quarter million to the cause, and will probably have spent multiples of that figure by the time the election is over.
Their motivation is a return on that investment. They’d like to drop the “medicinal marijuana” pretense and get down to business, but they aren’t going to say that part out loud.
Which is too bad, because it’s a persuasive argument. After all, the North Dakotans who want marijuana are already getting it. Maybe they have a prescription written by a pliable doctor. Maybe they have a friend making purchases for them in a place where weed is already legal. Or maybe they’re doing it the old-fashioned way and buying from a dealer on the black market, which sounds scary, but it really isn’t.
I have a friend who deals. I’m not sure they know that I know (maybe they will now), but it’s not hard to figure out. This person is a real teddy bear. Their clients are upstanding citizens with careers, retirement savings, kids in school and up-to-date mortgages.
This goes to show that a lot of what marijuana prohibitionists tell us about the crime wave that awaits us if we approve recreational access to marijuana is bunk, too.
Legalizing recreational access to marijuana isn’t some panacea, but it also wouldn’t be a disaster. Not much would change, I think, because the only thing marijuana prohibition prohibits is entry into the market by law-abiding business people.
“}]] The only thing marijuana prohibition prohibits is entry into the market by law-abiding business people. Read More