Marijuana should not be legalized in Oregon

Today was my first day as a paid journalist. This opinion piece appeared in The Daily Astorian today. You can also read it by clicking on the link below (Check out the Bio on the left of the page.):

Marijuana should not be legalized in Oregon

Mind altering drugs don’t discriminate, they don’t care if your family is on the surface a tight one or not or has a deep faith in God. Drugs don’t discriminate by the color of your skin, what religion you are or if you’re wealthy or poor. They don’t care how well educated you might be, what your sexual orientation is or your political ideology. Drugs can lay waste to any or every human being that has an addiction problem. I know because I’ve seen the devastation firsthand personally and professionally.

This is the reason I believe marijuana should never be legalized in Oregon. I also believe it shouldn’t be legalized for medical purposes either but if it is it must be tightly regulated to people who are terminally ill and/or have severe chronic pain that can be documented to the letter. Accountability and responsibility must be maintained a very high level.

Many regularly prescribed drugs, specifically painkillers, are just as big a problem but they’ve passed new laws recently regulating how you get prescriptions so that’s being addressed today. What happens when drug abusers can’t get painkillers legally? They turn to illegal marijuana and if they can’t get marijuana it’s onto heroin or worse meth (all are equally bad for you in my opinion). It’s happening right here in Astoria, black tar heroin is becoming the new drug of choice instead of meth because it’s cheaper and easier to produce. Heroin dealers are everywhere in NW Oregon, it’s an epidemic.

I don’t care what apologists say it’s a hard cold fact that MARIJUANA IS A GATEWAY DRUG for far too many. You could interview all of the poor souls that are addicted to heroin or meth and I’d bet the farm that all of them began with “harmless” pot, or so they would claim.

These drugs are the social scourge of our society not just in big cities but right here in small town America like Astoria. The attitude, the opinions but specifically the laws must change about their use and abuse just as they have with cigarettes. If not, it’s going to destroy countless lives and the lives connected to the abusers. The financial cost is enormous but by far the worst part is the human toll, especially to innocent children. It’s a guarantee that there will be more high school drop outs becoming dependents of the State.

Adults who do not graduate from high school tend to have lower paying jobs than those who do and thus are at greater risk for living in poverty, lacking health insurance, and suffering from poor health. Moreover, high school dropouts typically have higher rates of substance use than high school graduates. There will also be more domestic violence cases and the number of child abuse victims will increase as a result. As a consequence they will be more arrests, court costs, more detention costs, rehab costs etc. etc.

In a 2009 UC Santa Barbara Study it was determined that “marijuana use was a contributing factor in California’s alarming high school drop-out rate which costs taxpayers $45.4 billion dollars each year ($492,000 per drop-out).” Imagine what the cost is in Oregon today?

Something that seems to get lose here is currently Federal Law states that: “Possession of marijuana is punishable by up to one year in jail and a minimum fine of $1,000 for a first conviction. For a second conviction, the penalties increase to a 15-day mandatory minimum sentence with a maximum of two years in prison and a fine of up to $2,500. Subsequent convictions carry a 90-day mandatory minimum sentence and a maximum of up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000."

So then my question is how can Colorado and the State of Washington have the authority to have their own set of laws on marijuana? They can’t and the federal law should supersede theirs. A federal court case must be introduced and won to repeal their laws.

I’m positive the Oregon State Police, the Clatsop County Sheriffs Dept. and the Astoria PD are furious about the new legalization laws in Washington. They’re just across the river from us and less than an hour car ride away for enterprising drug dealers. So now Oregon Law Enforcement must not only response to home grown dealers but the ones from Washington who can buy it legally and sell it illegally here. The long term cost to Oregon taxpayer’s is going to be astronomical. Anyone that actually believes that the tax revenue from legalized marijuana is going to be a budget surplus for Washington, Colorado or in Oregon if legalized is in complete denial of what the addiction problem will cost long term.

The argument that we should legalize marijuana because alcohol is legal is the most insane justification of all. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Why in the name of God would we purposely expose our children and people born with addictive personalities to have yet another temptation to destroy their lives? The answer, we should not and must not.

Another myth the marijuana smokers would have you believe is that it’s not as addictive as alcohol, meth or heroin, that’s baloney. I’ve had family and friends who have wrecked their marriages, their kid’s lives and lost their jobs because they’re addicted to it so that argument is an insulting falsehood.

The other argument pot apologists would have you believe is that it’s a “liberty” issue or “freedom” issue. If we allow pot to be legal any place at anytime does that really enhance freedom or liberty? Hell no, it enhances human slavery and addictive bondage not freedom for far too many who can’t control themselves.

I don’t expect to change people’s minds that regularly smoke marijuana and can’t be reached it’s the people who don’t that need to fully understand the incredible damage it’s causing us as a State and a nation that I wish to influence. Whether you want to believe it or not one day directly or indirectly your life most likely will be affected by this problem personally and financially. Stiffer laws and arrests alone will not alleviate this problem, education at very early age is critical to get a handle on it; we must not surrender to it and legalize another bad behavior. If you’ve never tried marijuana don’t and if comes up as ballot measure in Oregon vote against it.

Nothing is ever going to convince me that legalizing pot or any other kind of drug that’s sole purpose it is to alter the mind or check out on life is an OK or HARMLESS thing to do.