Believe it or not, I approve of legal medical marijuana. I would be equally in favor of legal heroin, cocaine or moonshine if I thought a person needed it for legitimate medical reasons.
And, if there is a place within the Commerce City limits for a dispensary for medical marijuana, I have no dispute with putting a dispensary there. Though, to this day, I do not know why it is not simply sold at the drug store where I get my diabetes medicines.
So, why do I oppose the general idea of legalizing recreational drugs? Because I see nothing to be gained by that — and quite a bit too lose.
In California I worked as a nightclub promoter for quite a few years. One evening walking through the parking lot, I smelled marijuana coming from a car and went over and asked the young kids (obviously under 21) to please take the drugs off our property. The bright young man said to me, “If you can drink whisky, why can’t I smoke marijuana?”
I responded, “I don’t drink whisky.” Dead silence from the young man.
Like most Jewish people, I was introduced to alcoholic beverages at a very young age. Wine was common at the table when we celebrated Jewish holy days and also if we wanted it, at any time. My father had a liquor cabinet that would rival some bars I’ve been in. And he didn’t drink.
But, he always told my brother and me, there is all the liquor you could want. If you want a drink, take one. I didn’t take a lot, but enough to realize that the stuff tasted awful.
Today, I wonder if any parents tell their kids to help themselves to their drug stash — believe me, I have known many a parent who had one.
So, the reader is wondering, “OK. You tried booze, and didn’t like it. Did you try marijuana?” Yes. The advantage of marijuana is that it did not taste as bad as liquor. But, as I don’t smoke, I coughed my head off and got high as a kite.
I have always had but one question for all of the people that I know who use recreational drugs and want them all to be legalized:
Assume, for the sake of argument, and for this discussion, that all of those recreational drugs you use — be it alcohol, marijuana, cocaine or LSD or something I haven’t even heard of — had absolutely no bad effects. Assume they are completely harmless, and you can use them in perpetuity with no ill effects on your brain or body. Now, with that assumption, tell me please: What good do they do you?
I have asked that question quite often. And the answer is always the same: “They make me high, man.”
In a world desperate for reason, I have never found that a reasonable answer. It never convinced me that the “war on drugs” should be stopped. We are told that we should end the war on drugs due its being so hard to fight. Lots of people are doing it, so make it legal. In fact, we could say the same for speeding, jaywalking, and practically every traffic law on the books. Perhaps, bank robberies and sexual assaults, as well.
I have no resistance to making any and all drugs that can ease pain and illness legal. But the young man hanging out near the nightclub wanted to compare the whisky he thought I was drinking to his marijuana cigarette.
Like so many, he has heard that, “Marijuana is not as bad as whisky.” And, in some regards it might not be. It does not leave you with a hangover the next day, it does not have effects that last as long as whisky, and they tell you that there are no “pot-aholics.”
Anyone who believes that has never been to a 12-step meeting.
Some say marijuana is only half as bad as alcohol.
Sgt. Joe Friday of “Dragnet” put it best: “When you look at the homes, lives and families destroyed every year by alcohol. If you want to believe that marijuana is only half as bad — do we really need it?”
By Al Jacobson
Al Jacobson is a homeowner in Commerce City. He writes children’s stories.