Monday, January 17, 2011

Arizona Massacre: The New Reefer Madness






What is it with everyone’s obsession to try to find someone or something to blame for the Tucson shootout other than the evil nutcase himself, Jared Loughner?

Sure there are plenty of would have, could have, should have’s, but excuse the cliché, hindsight is always 20-20.

Now, in part due to Barack Obama’s wonderful address, the blame is sliding away from feeble attempts in the media to pin the murders on conservatives and talk radio. Now it’s time for the conservatives to play the blame game along with the believers in the “drug free America” crows to take their stab at it.

Marijuana caused Loughner to go nuts and kill. Common sense alone would tell a right minded person, this is preposterous. If Marijuana were capable of causing such an extreme degree of drug induced psychosis there would be many more episodes of pot smokers gone berzerko and blasting innocent citizens.

It’s probably not too surprising that folks who engage in dangerous anti-social behavior would smoke weed. The way they see the world laws have no meaning so if society admonishes against pot smoking, it must be pretty cool to puff.

Just as there is a rush to create new gun laws, now there’s some who want to create new drug/gun laws. Gun owners should have to take drug tests to own a firearm and if one is convicted of drug possession, that person would forfeit his right to own guns. Okay, we probably don’t want folks stoned out of their mind carrying guns – but ditto for those who had a bad day at the office, drank a few beers, or had a bad argument with the wife.

The issue is mental illness and our society is doing a terrible job dealing with such unfortunate people.

By the 21st century, it’s hard to believe that so many still seek to continue marijuana possession. There’s nothing Washington, DC or in statehouses around the country can do that will keep people from smoking pot. The consequences of illegal marijuana are obvious. The horrors along our southern border and below it have much to do with the value of the cash crop marijuana represents and the huge profits satisfying its high demand in US society.

Legalize marijuana, tax it, put the tax money toward bailing out the debt and perhaps also helping to finance medical reform. Doing so would dry up the black market. If the black market were eliminated, perhaps laws could be enacted that would make it illegal for the mentally ill with certain conditions to purchase marijuana – such could be recorded on their driver’s license or suitable ID required to buy marijuana and alcohol.

Marijuana reform requires a little bit of bold thinking out of the box and one hell of a lot of common sense. In the meantime, what went wrong with Jared Loughner will become clearer for all to see. The left will never let a good crisis go to waist. Everything that appears to threaten public safety becomes another excuse to enact more laws to micromanage everything, and we must always look for boogy men beside the real culprits.

The blame game is as insane.


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