POT

 

Roger C. Kostmayer

 

 

Exhibit 1 is the arrest of 64 year old Michael Davis for growing marijuana on Big Coppitt Key. Exhibit 2 is “Morning Joe” Scarborough, the conservative TV sage from Alabama who proclaimed “Pot makes you stupid” – but failed to mention booze, beer, tobacco, assault rifles, iphones, dessert and other things that should be used in moderation if intelligent behavior is the goal. Exhibit 3 is a NY Times opinion piece (“Weed”) by a sanctimonious David Brooks. Brooks is a conservative, anti-government columnist and commentator who, in my opinion, is bright, well informed and occasionally reasonable. The “Weed” column was not one of those occasions.

 

After reciting his youthful indiscretions (“Been there. Done that.”), Brooks condemns the States of Washington and Colorado for legalizing pot and asks “What sort of individuals and behaviors do our governments want …?” And then answers his own question with “… temperate, prudent, self-governing” (which phrase I think Wikipedia should define as “terminally boring.”) My question is, did we learn nothing from Prohibition and other failed attempts by government to legislate morality?

 

The victimless act of consuming cannibis is way down my list of terrible things a police state must stamp out. The war on drugs was lost many decades ago and our society is still paying a terrible price in lives and communities destroyed and the creation of a prison industry driven by special interests. Legalizing pot, if that’s what the voters decide, can: insure product safety and quality, create price controls, eliminate criminal involvement, restrict use by minors, help the sick, generate jobs and produce substantial tax revenue to help pay for education, health care and the essential safety net.

 

It might also keep folks like entrepreneur Mike Davis out of the trade and out of jail. If Florida (or the Conch Republic) legalized pot, it could provide Key West with a local Conch industry to replace the poisoned revenue from cruise ships.

 

Roger C. Kostmayer

KW

Jan. 4, 2014

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