Marijuana has been so demonized since it was restricted that folks don't seem to know how to think for themselves, especially when the talking point and misnomer known as "gateway drug" is brandied about. It is so insipid that our society is under the yolk of an ignorant law that is enforcing someone else's morality, or some groups morality, on supposedly free people.
Now, quick point of clarity here, I do not smoke pot. I tried it a couple of times when I was younger and it was okay, did about the same thing for me that beer did, so I did not see the need to risk using it when there was a legal alternative. But, I still think it should be legal, just as alcohol is legal, as well as cigarettes, as neither are all that good for you, yet you should still have the freedom, we should still have the freedom to choose our vice.
Marijuana is only a gateway drug because it is a low echelon, minor substance that is where most folk are introduced to a underground or counter culture environment, but you know what else is a gateway drug? Underage drinking and smoking, yet those are only minor when looked at, in comparison to the life changing event that getting caught with pot in some states can be.
It is bad enough that when pot was criminalized it was done so with ignorance and racism, as well as a pocket full of lies, and was attached to those most idiotic of political movements of the last century, which was prohibition. Not only did prohibition create a niche for an organized criminal element, it romanticised it, as some seemed to forget that our nation normally encourages the rebellious, independent spirit. We like to decide for ourselves, thus when all sort of things that were once legal became outlawed, due to a minority of opinion from some uptight fools, we rebelled and sought out what we could no longer have, right or wrong.
Yet, when the light was seen, only alcohol was decriminalized, which then created a market to keep organized crime alive, as they still had something to push. Billions, if not trillions, of dollars later, as well as tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, lives ruined over the past century because we decided to tell folks what they could legally intoxicate themselves with.
Stupid. Massively stupid.
Free adults in the United States of America should have the right to choose whether or not they want to drink or drug themselves and if they do something criminal while under the influence, then do what is done with drunk drivers, and prosecute them for negligent behavior. But, simply enough, quite shoving your moral thought down other peoples' throats, as it is our choice, nor your choice. Also, before anyone tries that lame duck of a canard about murder being enforced morality, too, you should notice that I'm talking about letting people do what they want to themselves, not to others.
Sheesh, get out of our bedrooms, or smoke rooms, out wine racks, and every other aspect of our personal life. It is damn annoying.
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