MARIJUANA: Opposing legalization
The news article supporting legalization of marijuana in ID equates resistance to the idea as old bad ideas related to a "reefer madness" understanding of the issue.
There is a lot of modern experience with legal pot in its modern form to reckon that legalization is a bad idea, not due to misinformation.
As a recent escapee from Los Angeles County, Calif., I have seen and read extensively of the degradation of life in CA and elsewhere that legal pot helps induce. I will cite the grotty smell of burning weed, which even permeated the air at the US Open Tennis Tournament in spiffy New York. Modern weed contains far more THC than it used to. Friends started with weed and went on to other, "more interesting" highs, and lost badly. Intelligent people made useless if their exploration wasn't fatal. People with all the "privileges" and I saw both outcomes.
The American College of Surgeons, 10.5.2025: Summary: Over 40% of fatal crash victims had THC levels far above legal limits, showing cannabis use before driving remains widespread. The rate didn’t drop after legalization, suggesting policy changes haven’t altered risky habits.
As in CA, OK has experienced considerable new criminal activity related to the black market for weed, which always can undercut pricing by the legal market, for the taxes, regulations and other government ideas of running a business. Relatedly, the boom in state revenue expected fails to appear or goes into decline when the criminals move in.
So, more criminality, no mitigation of abuse by users, no or minimal state revenues, and a smelly gateway drug is now "mainstreamed".
Legalization of pot is a provably bad idea.
I came here to escape (as much as possible) the mistakes that made CA untenable, not to repeat bad decisions and pretend they are progressive toward a better future.
I was born in CA, spent 55 years living within a 20-mile radius in LA County. I know what CA was and what it is. You really don't want to go there if you value ID and its culture. If you don't, Spokane is quite close by.
GH SCHIRTZINGER
Hayden