Joan Ball is a business professor at St. John’s University in New York and the author of Flirting with Faith: My Spiritual Journey from Atheism to a Faith-Filled Life.
The Justice Department has laid out new guidelines stating that, in states where marijuana is legal for medical use, neither suppliers nor patients should be targeted for prosecution.
What’s really new about this? Well, contrary to Bush era tactics, which continued to enforce federal laws against mary jane usage despite what states decided (interesting, considering the Bushies’ general stance on state’s rights), now it’s apparently not worth the feds’ time to go after those who use or supply pot for medical purposes, so long as they’re complying with the laws in their own states.
So… what do we think? Are these groovy new times, or…
…are we opening the door for all sorts of immorality to start flooding into our otherwise upstanding nation?
Some of what I read suggests that the potential drawbacks of laxer prosecution aren’t simply “OMG, our kids will think we’re OK with them smoking weed!” but also that we’re encouraging drug cartels’ business by not pursuing as many cases under the new guidelines.
Me? I think marijuana should be subject to the same laws as alcohol. The way I see it, they’re similarly dangerous–so regulate pot, make it aboveboard, (or, if that’s too radical, available by prescription only in every state), remove the stigma, take the drug cartels out of the equation. Oh, and also, how about making alcohol a bit harder for kids to get, while we’re at it? Or at least educating them better about its dangers?
However, for the sake of argument, I’ll point out that the Christian Science Monitor thinks folks like me have rather insidious beliefs and disagrees about how slippery that slope of legalizing marijuana really is.
On the whole, the mercy being done seems to outweigh, in my mind, the dangers to society. Marijuana has proven medical benefits that 14 states have agreed make it the best option for patients with no other recourse. Even if we never legalize the drug for any other purpose, I think the Justice Department took a step in the right direction by dialing down the hysteria over medical marijuana.
What do you think? I’m admittedly a little naive about this issue, as I neither smoke nor drink.
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posted October 21, 2009 at 10:25 pm
I had never done drugs (except taking a puff of pot in Switzerland), but at age 33 I got a condition that resulted in terrible pain and nausea. The nausea was so overwhelming and it hit me so often that it was really ruining my life. I tried over-the-counter medications, went to doctors, tried meditation…nothing worked!
Then I tried marijuana and the nausea just disappeared. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t like the idea of smoking it, so I started with eating it (chocolate chips that I bought from a dispensary). I now have a vaporizor, which provides the benefits of smoking pot without hurting your lungs.
The bottom line is that it has been a huge life-changer because I finally have some relief. I would really like it to be legal nationwide so that I can go to another state and have my “medicine” with me. I’d also like it to be a little more legitimate so that there would be better direction on how much to take and how often (I was really confused about that in the beginning).
posted October 25, 2009 at 4:26 pm
It is absurd to withold comfort medications to those in pain.
Especially when we unthinkingly prescribe powerful narcotics, psychoactives and psychotropic drugs to alleviate all sorts of minor and imaginary discomforts.
Why would it be preferable to administer morphine than marijuana to cancer patients?
The only “slippery slope” is ignorance, arrogance and intolerance.