Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jul 2016
Source: Saratogian, The (NY)
Column: Capitol Connection
Copyright: 2016 The Saratogian
Contact:  http://www.saratogian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2100
Author: Alan Chartock
Note: Dr. Alan Chartock is professor emeritus at the State University 
of New York, publisher of the Legislative Gazette and president and 
CEO of the WAMC Northeast Public Radio Network.

PROS AND CONS OF LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

The legalization of marijuana is inevitable. The most we can hope for 
is that people are educated about the potential downsides of the 
so-called weed. We can hope that pot smoking will not give rise to 
the kind of alcohol fueled traffic fatalities we see now. Of course, 
we all know that people have been known to smoke and drive and have 
been involved in accidents but once it is legalized, there will 
doubtless be more pot users who will drive "under the influence."

Some very distinguished psychiatrists and epidemiologists will tell 
you that marijuana is indeed a gateway drug that will lead some users 
to try other, more dangerous substances. One of the great advantages 
of legalization is that we will take the lucrative side of the 
business away from organized (or not so organized) crime.

Not only that, when we take the pot industry away from the criminals 
and give it to the state to regulate we will, of course, tax the stuff.

Those who want to legalize pot seem to hold a vigorous majority.

In Massachusetts, tens of thousands of signatures have been collected 
to put the question before the people.

Once all the risks are explained to them they will and should have 
the final say. Many politicians want to deny the people the right to 
make the decision.

Unlike Massachusetts, New York will never have initiative and 
referendum, a mechanism that allows the people to make crucial 
decisions. The politicians who themselves are under intense scrutiny 
for legal and ethical wrongdoings will not let go of one iota of 
power if they can help it.

Every time the subject of legalization comes up, people raise the 
examples of tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption and prostitution, 
all of which offer us cautionary lessons.

Smoking is responsible for killing more people in this and other 
countries than virtually any other causative agent.

There is so much data on the dangers of smoking that government and 
other authorities have done everything in their power to get people to quit.

So it seems counter intuitive to allow yet another form of smoking 
that will inevitably be proven to have negative side effects and 
consequences. People smoke pot for many of the same reasons they 
smoke cigarettes. It helps some people to bond and others to relax. 
Unfortunately, it also helps some folks to escape their realities. 
Just as legalizing prostitution offers some people access to sex and 
others the opportunity to make money but has negative connotations 
for women, pot has a similar mixed bag of consequences and benefits. 
Some people suspect that the legalization of marijuana will divert 
our attention away from the people who are the real exploiters - the 
one percenters who keep people economically marginalized. Put another 
way, there are politicians who would prefer that the citizens be high 
on pot if that will keep them from confronting some huge political 
and economic realities such as paying off impossibly difficult 
college loans and giving up on pensions that our parents and their 
parents depended on.

People also raise the idea of alcohol when they discuss making the 
legalization of marijuana politically acceptable. Alcohol is a very 
bad drug that has enormous social consequences for our population. It 
has led to divorces, fiscal ruin, untold medical problems and has so 
many other downsides that it is almost impossible to list them all. 
When debating the legalization of marijuana, advocates inevitably 
raise the subject of alcohol.

Somehow they argue that two wrongs make a right.

The basic premise is that since alcohol is worse (more addictive and 
more poisonous) we should not worry about marijuana.

Of course, we really don't know what the social ramifications of 
widespread use of pot will be but we do know that a lot of people 
manage to get and use it now and like it or not, it is here to stay.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom