Later this week, I’ll be posting a complete list of my endorsements for the California general election to be held in just 29 days. Though I don’t overestimate my influence, I’m often asked by students and others for my views on ballot issues, and I’m happy to share — outside of the classroom setting, of course!
But this post deals with just one initiative on the state ballot next month: Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana and allow local agencies to tax and regulate it. After some careful consideration, I’m voting “yes.”
I haven’t smoked pot since sometime during the spring of 1990, when I was a first-year grad student at UCLA. I’d been a periodic marijuana user since my freshman year of high school, but my consumption level skyrocketed at Berkeley. While I knew that alcohol and other drugs were a source of trouble for me, I’d always felt that I could control my pot usage. But on one Tuesday evening in the UCLA co-ops, I smoked two joints that had been laced with PCP. I hadn’t been told the pot had been “enhanced”; I ended up having a nightmarish multi-hour battle with the worst paranoia I’d ever experienced. I ended up in the emergency room (not the first time, nor the last.) And though it would be another eight years before I got clean and sober “for good”, I never smoked pot again after that night more than twenty years ago.
But my experiences do not good public policy make. I’ve known countless people, including responsible colleagues and mentors, who have been casual pot users for years with no discernible ill effects. While I’m leery of some of the more extreme claims made by marijuana’s most zealous advocates, I’m even more leery of those who see it as a gateway to despair and addiction. At worst, marijuana’s impact is no more deleterious on either the individual or society than alcohol’s, and at best, it has genuine therapeutic potential. Thus it makes sense to me to legalize not only the consumption of marijuana, but its production and sale. And of course, once legalized, it can be taxed and regulated, resulting in greater revenue for state and local agencies, reduced law enforcement costs due to decriminalization, and greater oversight of quality.
When it comes to drugs, or animal agriculture, or pornography, or sex work, I tend to think that the focus should always be on gradually reducing demand while legalizing and regulating the production of the “supply.” I have huge problems with prostitution, but support the legalization of sex work so that those who work in that industry can organize for protection, better pay, and greater respect. I am a vegan who wants to see everyone stop eating meat — but until that blessed day arrives in the far-off future, I want to regulate farms to guarantee the most humane conditions possible. And I want to see pot legalized even as I hope that my daughter’s generation will use it (and other drugs) less frequently than those that came before it.
Let me clarify again: I am a clean and sober alcoholic who refuses to use the drugs which are permissible for him to buy (like vodka); I’m hardly going to start smoking pot merely as a result of a change in its legal status.
Bottom line: I’d like fewer people using drugs and alcohol, fewer people eating meat, fewer people buying pornography or engaging in prostitution. I think that the harm that these industries cause (be they legal or not) is real. But I’m interested in addressing that harm with a two-fold strategy of careful state regulation and public campaigns to change hearts and minds and behaviors. Many progressives (and some conservatives) talk about government as a social influencer; this was the point of the wonderful Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, written by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. Governments can encourage better choices even while refusing to ban the worse ones; using any number of techniques, we can subtly push people towards tofu while still permitting the consumption of beef. I think that holds true for pot — indeed, our best chance as a society for empowering people to make the right choices when it comes to drugs lies in spending our efforts on “nudging” rather than coercing through our draconian laws.
Proposition 19 is imperfect. It permits each city to establish its own regulatory framework for marijuana, which will be unnecessarily messy. In the minds of the most vehement pro-legalization advocates, it may even undermine or conflict with the state’s recent decision to permit cannabis production and sale for medical purposes. And of course, it puts California at odds with federal drug policy. (As for the last of these, we’d be following the example of Oregon and Washington, who successfully took on federal policy regarding drugs with their “right-to-die” initiatives. That bodes well for states’ rights.) But we shouldn’t let the best be the enemy of the good. As a reflection of evolving public attitudes, as evidence of our commitment to reduce the staggeringly high costs of the failed war on drugs, and as part of a broader campaign to encourage better public health through winsome nudgings rather than reflexive repression, Proposition 19 deserves to pass.
Please join me, Californians, in voting yes on 19.
From someone who suffers greatly from depression and other social disorders I would have to agree…it’s been an awful long time since I’ve smoked any pot, and I am or rather was on medication for depression (no insurance at the moment, and can’t afford the meds for bipolar disorder)…none of it seems to work for me anyway…other people on the meds have told me that they feel fake happy…I never even felt that, and often wished I could…just awfully tired, unmotivated, and even more brain fog. One of my friends who suffers from depression smokes pot illegally and she says it greatly reduces her symptoms and she doesn’t even feel unmotivated by her use of pot, like I did from my use of my meds…I really feel more in despair by taking the meds than I do when I’m off of them, and I feel if pot was an option it may be suitable for me…but I won’t do the illegal thing.
I’m all for that. Our courts have just overturned the legislation that allows police to arrest sex workers(we won’t know whether or not the new laws will stick for a few years yet–conservatives, appeal process, yadda yadda.) Decriminalizing marijuana has been an on again off again debate for a few decades now. Unfortunately, it’s less likely to pass up here because of the way our healthcare system works. Smokers are given more excuses about how they deserve to be refused certain types of care more often. Because the system’s “free” (BS!We pay 2-3x as much sales tax, as well as way higher smoke&liquor tax as Americans. Middle&high income taxpayers pay more than Americans too–and it’s almost impossible to sue negligent doctors for much more than legal fees up here.)It’s the same mentality as welfare, “free” stuff gives the stuffmeisters the right to throw around arbitrary oughts and guilt trips, or so the stuffmeisters claim. Everybody knows it’s really about being cost effective, so we learn how to pretend to Xtianize every behaviour we’re asked about, so the government won’t take our tax money AND our free stuff. In other words, we do a lot of lying to get our money’s worth out of our bureaucratic institutions.
This business looks like it might have a decent chance of passing in California, though. Arnold’s still governor, right?
Kristina, that sounds like a typical drug reaction of somebody who’s not actually chemically depressed. Some quack tried to prescribe that crap for me when I was 12 and my PMDD started–that’s a severe form of PMS, btw. Antidepressants mess me up too. What quack prescribed THAT for bipolar disorder?!? It’s not the same as wearing rayon instead of silk for pity’s sake! People actually kill themselves when doctors make mistakes like that. Talk to some poor people near you and find out if they have any shortcuts for getting adequate healthcare and correct diagnoses in spite of having to stand in one of those American doctor-breadline-type-thingies I see on tv all the time. I’m sure there’s a cheaper brand of meds that won’t wreck you like that.
And if smoking weed helps you, then do it. Better to make some hippie richer than to give your money to some already filthy rich bureaucrat who means you harm, right?
Well I have anti-depressants, and something for bipolar…I can’t take one without the other (as you mention it’s dangerous)…and they never helped anyway… as for smoking weed…I’m not sure where to go with that, it’s complicated, and not something I’m going to share here on the forum.
Legalisation of illicit substances = fantastic idea
Smoking weed has ‘cured’ my eating disorder, significantly helped with my ptsd, made me x10 more hilarious and makes the internet at least x100 times more hilarious.
drug users are only criminals because the law makes them so. drug users are only deviants because cultural construction of drug users makes it so.
i smoke weed, have a job & study at university.
anyone who hasn’t seen it should watch “THE UNION – the business behind getting high”, tis very good.
berryblade, I agree completely about the film, a bootleg copy of which made its way to me a year or two ago. An excellent argument for legalization, taxation, regulation — and for ending the sheer hypocrisy that undergirds our contemporary drug policy.
I’ll watch that, berry blade. Sounds good. I don’t toke or drink. A 2 pack/week nicotine addiction and 4 day/month chocolate binge (eases the PMDD symptoms somewhat) are my only habits. But I agree that weed is a much better party buzz than alcohol. Have you ever seen 2 potheads threatening to beat each other over a bag of chips?
I suffer from depression too and tried a course of different meds and treatments. It took awhile to find the right combination of what worked. Pot didn’t help, and in fact, made the depression worse. I’ve always thought of it as another depressant. I also experienced some paranoia episodes too, which was a very scary, horrible and frightening way to feel. Unfortunately, I’ve also had similar reactions to combinations of drugs. I don’t use pot and have mixed emotions about it given that most of the people who I knew who used it tried to push it on me, or they judge, label, etc.
As for use of pot, I’m certain a lot of people who use the stuff would like me better if I used it as well. I’ve come to the conclusion that those people didn’t want to deal with my emotions anyway, because they couldn’t deal with their own. I found that I needed to reduce my exposure to people like that as they couldn’t/wouldn’t support my process. When I reduced my exposure to people like that I also no longer felt manipulated into putting on a front of false/fake happiness, because they couldn’t deal with my expressing my emotions. The key for me was finding people who supported my process instead of coping with people who seemed so emotionally numb. The other key was finding a safe place to process and discuss my emotions, instead of being constantly exposed to people who not only judged my emotions, but couldn’t handle my honest expression of how I feel. After I found that I no longer needed the medication. I don’t run around acting happy when I am not and I don’t feel compelled too either. And when I feel sad about something I’ve found a safe place to discuss that and that more than anything else has helped me to feel happier.
I don’t know if that helps Kristina, but I would encourage her to find another doctor.
Karen, that’s unfortunate. Most of the potheads I know are too mellow to push anything on anybody. Like I said, I don’t smoke the stuff myself, but I don’t have a problem with other people’s harmless recreation as long as it IS harmless.
It’s good to hear you’ve found more supportive friends. That’s the difference between recreation and addiction. Do it if it feels good. If other people are trying to manipulate you into doing something that makes you feel bad, that’s a problem. You don’t need them and you don’t need to buy their crappy product; that goes for hippies and doctors alike.
Thank you Karen, sorry for derailing your thread Hugo.
kristina,
You’re welcome. I agree that it’s complicated and I don’t blame you for not feeling compelled to share either. I tend to be quite skeptical about most things, including the use of weed. I have a natural tendency towards skepticism and combined with my personal experiences I knew that weed isn’t the answer for me. It was more of a depressant, which didn’t bode well for someone who suffers from clinical depression. Aside from that our personal chemical/genetic make-up is individual and not everyone reacts the same to meds, etc. I didn’t like taking meds and was skeptical about that too, but I decided to give it time and the right combination worked. I will reiterate that I did try different kinds of treatments and meds. So, you really do need to find a good doctor who will listen and while I know it’s no fun to go through several different doctors, sometimes one needs to do that, if they can.
I also gravitate towards doing my own research as well as a means of problem-solving. It helps to make informed decisions about our health. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of NAMI (National Organization for the Mentally Ill), but they tend to be up on the latest research when it comes to mental illness and the brain. As I recall they did have resources which included the latest research about using weed. There are and will always be conflicting opinions about everything, so it boils down to doing what is right for you.