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NORML.ORG US: OPED: Why I Would Vote No On Pot

Why do I care? As Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, puts it, “Numerous deleterious health consequences are associated with [marijuana's] short- and long-term use, including the possibility of becoming addicted.”

What are other health consequences? Frequent marijuana use can seriously affect your short-term memory. It can impair your cognitive ability ( why do you think people call it dope? ) and lead to long-lasting depression or anxiety. While many people smoke marijuana to relax, it can have the opposite effect on frequent users. And smoking anything, whether it’s tobacco or marijuana, can seriously damage your lung tissue.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes the typical prohibitionist route by oversimplifying a complex issue and stating that advocates of reform are merely potheads that want to get stoned legally. I think the main point of legalization is purely the fact that The War on Drugs is failing miserably and it’s time a different approach is taking. As much as I hate to advocate more government control of anything, a system of taxation and regulation seems like the only solution comprehensive enough to grip the problem at hand. The problem being that we’ve got organized crime, guns and prostitution running rampant in our neighborhoods with a monopoly on vice. Prohibition is a draconian institution dreamed up in a day when a black man wasn’t allowed to look at a white woman twice and it’s been helping the criminal element develop an international ring of trade completely beyond the control of law enforcement. Give people laws to break, and they’ll break them. Give people laws to break that help them turn immense profits? Forget about it.

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