Friday, March 29, 2024 -
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Two takes on legalizing marijuana

co_mjThis 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!




2 thoughts on “Two takes on legalizing marijuana

  1. Yaakov Watkins

    How about maximizing freedom?

    One of the things we do in the us is spend money on clothing. Single women spend 2.5 times as much on clothing as men do. Objectively speaking it should cost the same amount to clothe a woman as a man. But women spend more. Is is a waste of money? Should it be regulated? Remember that 200 years ago people had perhaps two changes of clothing. Why can’t we live that way now? Should we require that women give part of what they now spend on clothing to the poor or the environment?

    The fact is that Americans, particularly American women, make the choice to spend more on clothing. Some Americans make the choice to smoke grass. Other Americans make the choice to spend money on dead trees in the form of books. It’s a civil rights issue. Let people be.

    Reply
  2. Richard

    For me it’s more about the seediness of it all which started with the medical marijuana shops cropping up across town. But is that a good enough reason not to legalize the substance?

    Reply

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