This week’s IJN editorial page presents two takes on our state’s new claim to fame: As of January 1, 2014, using marijuana for recreational purposes is legal.
From one perspective, one editorial poses the question: Who — or what — else could have benefited had the efforts put toward legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes been applied to a different cause? Say, as the editorial poses, we focused our energies on others, such as people suffering human rights abuses in China? Or what about Coltan mining in Central Africa, essential for our mobile phones, but devastating for the locals in Congo. “Idealism used to mean others. Now it means me,” states the editorial, “One take on marijuana: Marijuana won. Who lost?”
The other perspective, however, argues that addictive and mood-altering drugs are already legal, and that marijuana actually rarely leads to addiction and causes no serious illnesses such as cigarettes and alcohol do. The title of editorial says it all: “Acting responsibly.” The key is educating children the same way we’re meant to educate them about the dangers cigarettes and alcohol. Or is prohibition the only way of avoiding excess?
So which take to you agree with? Let us know in a comment!
