Noah Williams
Weed. Dope. Ganja. Everyone’s heard about it, most of the populous has tried it, and lots of people from 15-year-old kids to 70-year-old cancer patients think marijuana is pretty great.
Whether or not marijuana should be a recreational drug made radially available is a relatively complex and personal decision, and the intention of this article is not to convince the reader either way. The intention, more or less, is to inform you of the potential lesser known problems that legalizing marijuana in this state could have.
Unbeknownst to the majority of the Mainers who doesn’t blaze on a regular basis, Maine has a thriving “cottage industry” surrounding the production of marijuana. Basically this means that most of the dope grown in this state is grown by small time growers producing drugs for medical usage for individual patients. These people are generally pretty nice humans growing a safe and quality agricultural product for patients to consume to relieve pain, stress, or induce appetite. It is not difficult to become eligible for medical marijuana in case you’re wondering. All you need is a qualifying ailment (anything from HIV to irritable bowels) and a doctor’s note.
If the government sticks its grubby little hands into the weed world, weed is going to be a lot more expensive and a lot less potent. Currently the actual cultivation of the drug for recreational and medical use has minimal governmental oversight, however, if it’s made available to the general public, then there has to be some form of regulation. We can expect potency testing, impairment parameters, legal levels of intoxication, propriety wars over strains of the plant.
On top regulatory woes, how on earth are police going to enforce these restrictions? How will police officers administer roadside sobriety tests, seeing as you need a blood test to indicate the level of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in your blood? Must we submit to being jabbed by some ill trained police officer if he or she suspects that we are driving under the influence of good ol’ mary jane? Marijuana stays in the body even after the user is no longer impaired, so how can a police officer know if someone used recently or not?
Even if we decide to pass Question 1, possession of marijuana will still be considered a federal offense, which means that if you get busted moving dope across state lines (perhaps to attend a concert in Boston for example).
So friends, if you want to keep Maine drug money in Maine, still not go to jail for possession of less than 2.5 ounces, and in general keep Maine weed the way it should be, than vote no on Question 1 this November.
Categories: Calendar
The SMCC Beacon 