Quid Est Veritas: Letting Mary Jane Be Mary Jane

By Patrick Weadon

Blair Lee, the conservative columnist for the Montgomery Country Gazette recently referred to the just completed Maryland General Assembly Legislative session as “ The almost session.” Lee was correct. So much was accomplished but there were several major initiatives that either didn’t make it or were watered down. One of the most important proposals that didn’t quite make it was an effort to allow patients with serious health issues to take advantage of the healing properties of “medical marijuana.” In the end, the legislature succeeded in further decriminalizing the use of cannabis for health purposes, but failed to settle the issue for good.

To this writer’s mind, allowing sick people to relive their suffering via the use of marijuana is a no brainer. And, to go one better, not only should marijuana be made available for medical use, but I believe that society would be doing itself a huge favor by allowing responsible adults who are of age ( I would say 18, but there are good arguments for 21) to use the drug for recreational purposes. It’s high time for our lords temporal and spiritual to stop perpetrating the false notion that the drug is addictive and dangerous. Let Mary Jane be Mary Jane!

Full disclosure is in order. In college, I used the stuff half a dozen times. Unlike a former U.S. President, I did indeed inhale, but I never could see the fascination. I got much more comfort out of a bottle of National Bohemian Beer than a joint. However, many of my good friends in both high school and college, smoked “left handed cigars” on a regular basis, and save for one poor soul who ended up resembling the character Jim on the old sitcom Taxi, all of them went on to become responsible and productive members of society.

Exhibit A, during high school I had a good friend who regularly used the stuff. We’ll call him Jerry G. “Jerry” always did well academically. He ended up winning a scholarship to a prestigious Catholic College and is today an accomplished professional. I mention him because my mother, due to my less than sterling academic performance, at times would often comment, “Why can’t you be more like Jerry? He is such a good student!” What my mother didn’t know was that between periods, Jerry regularly sprinted to his car so he could indulge his “reefer madness.” Jerry was indeed an excellent student but he was also, clearly, a confirmed pothead.

The other day I was running by Dawson’s Liquor and noticed the large sign on the side of their establishment noting that inside their store they had over 800 beers and 1,500 wines in stock (impressive to say the least). All of those products are legal and the fact is many liquor store customers buy their products and then go on to drive drunk, beat their wives, neglect their children and in general, become menaces to society. But, we also know that most of those who pass through their doors, use their products responsibly (I know I do!).

My larger point is this, marijuana like sugar, Oxycodine, Percocet and tobacco, can be abused, but no more or less than other currently legal substances. In fact, research has shown that “pot has very few severe withdrawal symptoms and that most people can quit rather easily… 32% of tobacco users will become addicted, 23% of heroin users, 17% of cocaine users, and 15% of alcohol users. Only 9% of marijuana users become seriously addicted, less than alcohol, yet the drug is illegal.

But perhaps the most practical reason to legalize marijuana is that the taxes from the sale of the drug would raise substantial revenue. It’s estimated that anywhere from 25 to 60 million U.S. consumers use the stuff. To quote from a report issued by the Fraser Institute, a conservative Canadian think tank, “If the cost of retailing and distribution is the same as for legal tobacco cigarettes, then selling the (legal) product at exactly the same prices as on the street today ($10 per gram) could raise $40 billion to $100 billion in new revenue… Government would simply be transferring revenue from organized crime to the public purse.”

It’s true that legalizing cannabis would be complicated and would likely generate new challenges and problems, but again, those challenges would be no more or less than those posed by alcohol. Huge numbers of our citizens want marijuana; some need it for health reasons, some simply because they want to mellow out at the end of a long day. As noted, the substance is no more dangerous than booze, with this in mind it makes little sense to continue to keep it illegal.

"Abusus non tollit usum.”