A Friend Stopped By | 11/03/2009 4:00 am
Legalize It, by Allegra Huston
What could we do with an extra $2.88 billion of public revenue right now?
Image via Flickr by wallyg
Editor’s Note: Allegra Huston’s new book, Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found, hit bookstores last spring. Allegra is the youngest daughter of film director John Huston and sister of Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston. She was born in London, raised in Ireland and Los Angeles, and now lives in Taos, NM. She was a publisher in London for nine years and has been a freelance writer and editor since 1994.
It’s dark. You’re walking to your car, the subway or just home. You spot a gang of youths out for a night of fun. Your heart races. Then you see what they’re doing: smoking dope. Oh, no! You might trip over one of them. Maybe they’ll philosophize you to death.
Good thing they’re not doing something legal, like drinking, which might get you a broken bottle in the face.
| Reefer madness was a fantasy; if everyone took up pot, we’d have a nation of chilled-out people committing way less violent crime. |
I’m not such a libertarian that I’m arguing for the legalization of all drugs — I’ve seen what hard drugs can do. But let’s be sensible. Why do we criminalize more than a quarter of the population for enjoying a substance whose primary effects are relaxation, the munchies and an overuse of the word "dude"? I don’t use cannabis, but I also don’t jump out of airplanes, go on ten-day fasts, eat peanut butter or engage in masochistic sex; and as people who enjoy those things aren’t hurting anybody but themselves, I don’t see the point of banning them. In fact, I think we should mandate cannabis use for politicians; then they might actually tell the truth, as Al Capone’s henchman did when the FBI gave him a joint to loosen him up for interrogation.
But it’s a Drug — that dreaded word. OK, what’s a drug? "A substance other than food intended to affect the structure or function of the body." Too broad. "Something and often an illegal substance that causes addiction, habituation or a marked change in consciousness." That covers coffee, video games and iPhones, not to mention alcohol and tobacco. OK, I’m queen for a day, and I say they’re bad for people. Now they’re illegal. You’ll call them drugs.
Full disclosure: I have tried, twice, to smoke a joint. I couldn’t; my throat burned, it hurt. I tried hash brownies too, but uttering a sentence was like hauling on ropes to put my brain back together. I ate too many. I couldn’t resist: I’m addicted to chocolate.
That’s my point: A drug would be a medicine, or just a vice, or merely an indulgence, if it weren’t illegal. So why is cannabis illegal?
It’s virtually impossible to figure out why some drugs and not others were made illegal in the first place. The history of criminalization is piecemeal and murky. The first ban on cannabis was a specifically anti-Muslim act, propagated by those guardians of all that is right and good, the Spanish Inquisition — who, when they came to the New World, instantly concluded that the hallucinogenic drugs used in native religion must be tools of the devil. It’s hard not to see racism and power politics at work in all this, especially when you look at old propaganda images of black men high on cocaine raping white women, and sinister Chinese luring the flower of white youth into their opium dens.
Read more about: A Friend Stopped By, Allegra Huston, Drugs, Economy, Health, Marijuana, Medicine, Politics
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142 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
Deber B,
Isn’t it interesting how the pro legalization is mostly made up of the libs while the anti legalization is mostly conservatives? I see it as the lib’s lives are so depressed right now with what is happening with the dems, that maybe living in La La Land is much easier than to face facts. I will be on the side of the conservatives and want to keep my head on straight and eyes and ears wide open so we can keep this Country on the right path. I do not have buyer’s remorse, so I don’t need to live in a fantasy land smoking dope to get through the day. JMHO!
Deber B,
I totally am against legalizing pot. If this ever happens, then we will have taken a "giant step" back. I will never understand why anyone, especially with children of their own would even think of doing such an insane thing. I will stick to my glass of white wine and keep my head on straight. Here is a toast to you for keeping pot illegal.
Belinda, isn’t that the same kind of argument as the people who howl that allowing teenaged girls to take birth control or giving them condoms is going to somehow "force" them to run around having sex with everyone they see? Neither premise is even close to true. In fact educating teens and giving them access to birth control REDUCES the rates of teen pregnancy and STDs.
It sounds like you may have taken "Reefer Madness" too much to heart.
I have no idea what you are talking about, because I support Planned Parenthood financially, and believe 100% in educating teens about safe sex. When I was a teen my father taught me "our" family moral code of conduct which was to abstain from sex until we were of legal age. I respected my father and didn’t have sex. I kissed and fondled, but I never went beyond what my father had instructed his kids to engage in. It wasn’t difficult for me, nor any of the girls I hung out with. None of us ended up pregnant or with STD’s. We went to school, socialized afterward and on the weekends and enjoyed being young. To be blunt,
I believe it is the teens who ARE well educated about sex that don’t engage in it as teens. In my opinion it is the ones raised in permissive households, unfortunately those abused and those who believe they are 25 year olds stuck inside a 15 year old body - that engage in sex.
I’m baffled by the fact that so many teens and young people can’t live like that. Either their parents aren’t instilling family values and morals OR they simply lack respect for what their parents have to say and have decided to act on their hormonal impulses.
I believe 100% if marijuana was legalized we would indeed "see" more people under the influence and "high" because they won’t have to hide behind closed doors any longer. They will openly get high and become what I call slack jaw. That does disturb me. Just as when prohibition was abolished, people took to the streets with liquor and as you can see almost every neighborhood corner in America has a bar or tavern. Some people drink responsibly and some don’t - they abuse it. The same will happen with marijuana. But the question I have and will forever have on this issue is Why - why do people want to get high?
You and no one else from this site can convince me that a person who knowingly sets out to get high, isn’t doing it to fill a void of some type. It’s escapism plain and simple, but done in what I define as a wreckless manner. Please allow me my opinion on this matter and accept we do not agree.
That’s simply not true. Certainly there is a correlation between sex ed and the age at which a person loses his or her virginity, however the majority of people in this country lose their virginity prior to their 20th birthday.
http://www.newstrategist.com/productdetails/Sex.SamplePgs.pdf
You sound really down on sex…. <sarcasm> Of course the only reason a teen would ever think of having sex is because he or she was abused. </sarcasm> I grew up in a fairly wealthy, liberal New England college town. Most of my peers had the sort of white bread upbringing that many can only dream about. And yet, most of us had sex. I know I did and I certainly was never abused nor were my parents overly permissive. (And with a mom who is an RN at a university, I had the sex ed discussion up the wazoo.) Oh, and none of us ended up pregnant or with an STD, either.
Probably true. I don’t see that this is a huge problem.Sure, but the results of Prohibition were pretty obvious. They repealed it because it caused crime to skyrocket due to black market alcohol sales, and it didn’t really limit people’s drinking. "When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before." - John D. Rockefeller Jr. This is I think a great parallel. Sure, people abuse alcohol now. But, people did when it was illegal. The only difference is that the illegality caused black market to form which leads to increased crime. So, by making alcohol illegal, not only did the US lose a lot of tax money (over $500 M/yr by some estimates) but it cost most due to property damage, law enforcement and the like.
And we see this with pot right now. Yes, if it’s legalized more people will smoke it openly … or at least they will in areas that allow smoking. But, after an initial surge as people go out to try it immediately following legalization, I doubt we’ll see any great difference in abuse numbers. But, there will be one less thing for the criminals to sell
It feels good. This isn’t really rocket science. Why do people have sex? It feels good.
You can say it all you want, and maybe that’s the reason you use alcohol, but that doesn’t make it true for everyone. You claim it is wreckless, yet the statistics do not agree unless you also define the simple activity of driving a car as wreckless.
While I’m not Messy, I could’ve accepted that we didn’t agree yesterday before you decided that I was some sort of deviant pedophile and launched the person attacks. Sorry, you’ve shown by your actions that you are not a person’s whose opinion should be respected because instead of discussing the issue in an adult and logical manner, you threw a temper tantrum. The emotional response indicates that you are not as stable and as happy with respect to these issues as you’d like people to believe, as you feel threatened by people who have a drastically different take on life whom aren’t emotional wrecks.
I am for legalizing it for medical purposes, nothing else.
Alcohol, drugs, what’s the difference? People are going to use whether its legal or not.
Alcoholics are violent, meth heads are violent, heroin addicts are violent, pot heads are easily contoled and non violent.
The war on drugs is a joke and clearly it’s a war we lost. But we continue to throw more money after bad.
It’s obvious when people are stoned. People who say this is not true obviously are not that familiar with the drug culture. But ask any child who has had family members of drug addicts or anyone who has taken any kind of narcotics class. If someone is smoking pot, it’s obvious when they are baked, so much more then when a life long alcoholic is drunk. You can even ask the alcoholics about this and they will tell you its true.
Not wanting to legalize is based on fear of the unknown and what could be and the "what ifs."
News flash, the gateway drug is not pot.. it’s alcohol.
Now, as someone who has lost many close family members to drug addiction and has been a punching bag for some of them during their meth, coke, steroid rages, I say legalize pot. And NO, I have never used it or any other illegal drug. And I say this after living with the experience AND educating myself through Al-non, narcotics classes in college (criminal justic degree), research on the war on drugs and prohibition.
Legalize it. And if you don’t want to use it, don’t.
I have seen accidents where those driving and caused the accident were high on marijuana and trust me it wasnt pretty…I have also seen accidents where those involved and caused the accident were drunk or high on another illegial drug.
I have seen people do some crazy stuff off of marijuana - so I am not sure why people say it mellows people out - I have seen it do the opposite to some. I have never tried it and I take pride in that!!
Yes it would be a very good way of making money but at what cost? Do I think it should be available medically - yes - but just b/c - I am leaning No.
More republican hypocrisy.
They want to keep government out of our lives, RIGHT!!
They want a substance more harmless to health than tobacco and less addictive than alcohol to be illegal.
BUT, they don’t want the semi-automatic weapons used by the dealers of illegal drugs to be illegal.
(Now what do you suppose kills more people, marijuana or the guns that the dealers use?)
If a woman who has lost every other means of support turns to prostitution it’s immoral and illegal and she should be arrested.
BUT, they don’t want any government services to be offered to that woman so that she doesn’t have to resort to that life.
(Now what do you suppose costs them more in the long run, the law enforcement and judicial process costs and correctional housing and medical care of that woman or a few months of social services to help her get out of the rough spot?)
Oh, they don’t want goverment in our lives if it’s to provide actual benifits to our country. They just want it to enforce their twisted "morality" on all of us.