Cannabis is not a panacea. Reading about the plant, you might think that the call for its use and legalization would bring good things to a lot of people. Nope. Liquor is not a good thing and too many people have died as a result of the widespread use of alcohol. I fear that there will be those who overindulge in smoking pot. The fact that Great Barrington is hosting so many dispensaries is proof positive there is gold in these here hills. Of course, now that neighboring New York has finally joined the states that allow the stuff, there will be fewer people crossing the borders to buy their pot here. Not only that, New York is taxing at a lower rate than Massachusetts. Maybe the war is on to see who can bring in more money from selling the stuff.
We know that cannabis legalization is a good thing. It moves the marketplace out of the hands of illegal dealers and puts it into the hands of the government, which can make money, as the kids say, “off of it.” People are doing it anyway, so we might as well move it into the hands of government who can, for one, control exactly what is in it.
I will tell you now that there will be those who overdo it. Too many young people die in automobile crashes as it is. Unfortunately, we will not always know who was indulging since we really have not worked out quick and accurate ways of measuring the level of cannabis in one’s bloodstream. Yes, we can ask someone to walk a straight line, but that is hardly definitive, especially after a crash. There have already been too many disasters coming off Route 7.
For years, I would tell my college students that I had never smoked pot. They would always laugh at their then-bearded, banjo-playing professor, convinced he was lying to them. I wasn’t, but I could never hope to convince them. After all, it used to be illegal and if you wanted to be a Congressman in those days, you might not make it if someone discovered you had smoked. Too many people spent time behind bars because they possessed or sold the drug. In today’s modern times, that stigma has substantially changed.
Look, I don’t like to see the dispensaries on the main street of Great Barrington where kids walk by every day. We will have to see whether the legal sale of pot leads to bad things and whether it puts those who had been selling it outside the law into a new business of selling even more powerful drugs. That, of course, might lead to the legalization of the really bad stuff. Other countries have gone down that road, some with disastrous consequences. The fact that so many people feel the need to get high tells us a lot about the sociology of this country.
Look, the die is cast. It’s happening. We should remember that cannabis needs to be seen as a potential bad thing, just the way that alcohol is. I remember when Andrew Cuomo would tell me that it was a gateway drug. He has substantially changed his tune since those early conversations. Ever since the left ran primaries against him, he has been looking for issues that would show him to be a liberal. Legalization turned out to be perfect.
Weed has always shown just what a double standard we have in this country. Those of privilege have often smoked in the privacy of their own homes while the folks on the street were subject to arrest and incarceration. So, we take the good with the bad. My point here is that those who see this as a great victory had better rub their eyes and think about the potential problems. It ain’t all good.
