Sunday, January 5, 2014

Mile High City, Indeed

So, as you have no doubt heard by now, as of this week recreational marijuana is legal in Colorado. This is different from the medicinal weed which was already legal in the state in that you don't need a phony health card from someone claiming to be a doctor to buy this pot - just be over 21 and a resident of the state and you are allowed to carry a small amount of pot for personal use. Now, from the comments on the internet it appears I am one of the few people on the planet who is not overjoyed at this news, probably because I have never smoked pot, don't intend to take it up as a hobby at this point in my life and don't live in Colorado. That being said, I actually agree with the idea of legalizing small amounts of marijuana because studies have proven it is no more harmful to your body that any number of substances which are legal and there are fewer reports of people flying off the handle and attacking people while high than there are of people who are drunk. Also, making it legal would allow it to be regulated, which is good for both the buyers and the sellers and it would clean up the heathcare offices currently full of people looking for a flimsy excuse for a prescription for medicinal marijuana. Thus, my position is the same for all the activities or substances which are not good for you that I don't partake in - go ahead and legalize it and then tax the ever-loving hell out it. (When they won't to put a heavy tax on Diet Pepsi that is when you will read my impassioned speech.) Considering the number of states where medicinal marijuana is already legal and not very hard to acquire it could be viewed as already being quasi-legal, so you may as well get it over with.

Still, what I really find funny is watching all the potheads across the internet take this whole thing so seriously. There are currently a number of states toying with the idea of de-criminalizing small amounts of pot and legislatures in those areas are looking at Colorado as a test state. If there is no huge spike in crime than those law-makers will be able to point to Colorado and say that it would be ok for their state to fall in line as well, but if there is suddenly a rise in convenience store robberies because people need their weed than we won't hear the idea brought up ever again. Thus, many potheads across the nation are looking to Colorado with a very simple message - don't screw this up for us. Of course, I can't help but laugh because there is nothing quite as funny as a stoner trying to act serious about an issue. Look, I have known some very productive potheads in my day but I refused to take them seriously when they started waxing philosophically while high. And in my opinion that is the biggest benefit to making pot legal - it will shut up so many hippies. There are few things in life as exhausting as getting cornered by a stoner who wants to tell you how the world really works, so anything which will get me out of that conversation even two minutes  faster is fine in my book. In fact, that was probably where the hippies went wrong - they were staging sit-ins and drum circles trying to get pot legalized when what they should have just tried getting these state Senators in one-on-one meetings. Just scheduling one hippy to meet with a different state rep every afternoon and I guarantee they could have had their pot years ago. Either that or they could simply point out how much the state would make in the sale of snack food.

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