Just Say Now

Tony Newman and Stephen Gutwillig have a really nice OpEd in today’s Santa Cruz Sentinel: California’s marijuana legalization initiative is already a winner

Basically, the point of the OpEd is that, regardless of the outcome, Prop 19 is already a winner because it is contributed to a major national and international discussion on the importance of legalizing marijuana (and not just medical marijuana). Excellent point, and well argued. It’s a good, quick read.

Marijuana is a dangerous drug. It may have treatment value for some conditions, but as with most pharmaceuticals, dangerous side-effects are possible. The fourth-leading cause of death in America today results from reaction to prescription drugs. Recreational use of marijuana will make this situation worse.

On the other side, we have a really ignorant (or perhaps willfully deceptive) OpEd in the Palm Springs Desert Sun by Donald S. Karvelis: No, legalizing marijuana would cause more problems than it would cure . The unsupported claims in this are truly amazing, but here’s the one that made me laugh out loud.

Pharmaceuticals? Marijuana is a natural plant.

This is like saying “Chicken soup has verified medical benefits. Therefore, if we legalize it, we will have additional deaths from chicken soup since pharmaceuticals (of which chicken soup is one by nature of its medical value) can cause death.”

What a brilliantly twisted mind it takes to reach that leap of logic.