Pubdate: Sat, 24 Mar 2012
Source: Marblehead Reporter (MA)
Copyright: 2012 GateHouse Media, Inc.
Contact: http://www.wickedlocal.com/marblehead/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3395
Author: Stephen Sloss
Referenced : http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v12/n182/a07.html
MARIJUANA WON'T SATISFY
Marblehead - Why does Marblehead need legalized marijuana? ("Bill to
legalize marijuana gets local boost," Marblehead Reporter, March 15-21)
If the main goal for most users is to get high, why is Marblehead,
with all its advantages, its fine homes, high salaries, beautiful
scenery, so lacking in fulfillment that a majority of its voting
residents and their local rep think we need to be artificially
induced to be fleetingly happy in an acrid smoke-filled haze?
And don't forget the "revenue upside." When the state needs money, we
get a state-sponsored lottery and, when then that's not enough,
state-licensed gambling casinos. We're maxing out the sin taxes on
cigarettes and alcohol, so let's legalize grass and tax that, too. Is
there anything the least bit cynical in the state making money the
more we smoke, drink, gamble and toke?
To sooth our consciences, we are falsely told in both the story and
related editorial that our children will not be impacted. Aside from
the obvious bad example that adults deal with their problems or
worries by getting high, children are directly affected by smoking in
their homes and cars. This is a no-brainer. If their parents smoke
pot around them then they will smoke pot, too. In our brave new
world, even babies could be stoned because Mom was tokin' while
changing the diaper. But we want our pot, so let's not worry about that.
And what are we to make of the accomplished scientist's facetious
analogy that marijuana is no more likely to lead to broader drug use
than drinking milk is to lead to alcohol consumption? Perhaps the
slogan for our new legal marijuana should be "Got Grass?"
As I write this, the morning news tells the tragic story of a Salem
mother who has slit the throats of her two children and set their
apartment on fire. A pregnant Melrose woman has been killed in a
Florida cabana by an errant driver. It can be harsh world, and the
temptation to seek respite in artificial escape and temporary relief
can be understood in that context. Is it the government's highest
role to offer us a taxed drug to take our minds off the pain of a
broken world? Is that all we can look forward to when the world falls
short of expectations?
Back in 1969, my generation camped out in Woodstock, smoked pot and
sang, "We've got to get ourselves back to the garden" and for a few
days dreamed of a better, simpler life, one of "peace and love."
Thirty years later at Woodstock 1999, their descendents burned 12
truck trailers and pelted responding firefighters with stones. Where
is the love?
Why did the majority of voters in a 2010 nonbinding referendum
instruct our rep to vote to legalize the use of pot? What haven't
they found in their nice homes, cars, jobs, club memberships, boats,
vacations, marriages, gifted children and several fine alcohol
outlets that would make pot superfluous? Beyond the beautiful facade,
is something missing? Are we looking for love in all the wrong places?
Perhaps the approaching high Jewish and Christian holidays of
Passover and Easter offer a chance for reflection on a better way to
a satisfying life than legalizing and taxing more and more "vices."
It is doubtful that we can legalize, tax and drug our way to true
happiness. One need only consider the government in Aldous Huxley's
"Brave New World," which provides the drug Soma to all its citizens
to suppress questions about the quality of their empty lives.
In the Passover story, God calls to his people living a harsh life of
slavery in Egypt to mark their doorframes with the blood of a lamb so
that the angel of death will "pass over" their homes.
Many years later, that same God, in love, sends his son as a similar
sacrificial lamb so that that his death on a wooden cross would pay
the price for and lift the judgment from a believer's previously
self-focused life.
Maybe this craving for marijuana is just the ache of a people who
have lost their place in a beautiful garden, Eden, where there was
only peace and harmony and who have been waylaid by a world that all
too frequently offers war, want, pain and disappointment and an
illusory promise of happiness by choking on the smoke of a plant.
The Woodstock Generation had it partially right when they sang,
"We've got to get ourselves back to the garden." But the ancient
wisdom says you can't get yourself back to the garden. You have to
depend on the Easter story and the one who paid the price and stands
waiting at the door for you to open it by faith so that he may come
in. This is the Easter Story. It is not bitter and temporary like
marijuana. It is enduring and true. Don't be fooled into accepting
false substitutes.
Stephen Sloss, Haley Road
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom