Oregon marijuana activists pursuing a ballot initiative that would legalize the drug have snagged a dream endorsement from one of the world’s most famous pot users: Willie Nelson. In an interview this week with The Oregonian, Nelson talked about his support for legalizing marijuana and revealed he’s an Oregon medical marijuana patient…. Nelson agreed to appear in a public service announcement in support of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act initiative or OCTA. Wearing a black baseball cap, Nelson urges Oregon voters to support the proposed ballot measure, which would legalize marijuana for people age 21 and older in Oregon, permit the sale of the drug through state-licensed stores, and allow commercial cultivation of marijuana and hemp plants.
Erin, being a nurse practioner, has some pretty strong feelings about Oregon’s Medical Marijuana program. She thinks it’s too easy to obtain a medical marijuana card and isn’t altogether sold on the medical benefits of ganja. We tend not to see eye to eye on this issue, but she’s the medical professional. I figure that as long as she doesn’t tell me how to write, I’ll stay out of the medical arena. It’s an agreement that seems to work pretty well.
That said, I do have some very strong feeling about our collective hypocrisy when it comes to marijuana vis a vis alcohol and cigarettes. There’s no logical reason why we criminalize only marijuana. It’s silly and we’re missing what could potentially be a huge revenue source for government if we had the foresight to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana.
I have a friend who has a medical marijuana card, and by all accounts obtaining one isn’t exactly difficult. My purely unscientific observations of our collective schizoid approach to marijuana has left me rather confused, though. If marijuana is the evil, nefarious gateway drug that those heavily invested in the war on drugs are convinced it is, then why aren’t marijuana users morphing into heartless, desperate criminals? Why do doctors prescribe it for pain relief? And what, really, is so wrong with having a heart-to-heart with Mary Jane?
Willie Nelson’s been a committed marijuana user for years, and yet he seems to be pretty normal, right? No Reefer Madness, no jonesing for harder drugs. OK, so maybe he gets the munchies now and again, but how is his, or anyone else’s use of marijuana significantly different from someone who puts away a few beers to unwind? Why not legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana in the same way we do alcohol and tobacco? I have no hard evidence to back this up, but I’d hazard a guess that alcohol and tobacco are responsible for far more damage than marijuana. The difference of course, is that alcohol is socially acceptable. Tobacco has been, but it’s becoming less so. Marijuana and its users have been the victim of years of hardcore propaganda designed to convince us that marijuana is evil and destructive. Right; like alcohol and tobacco are benign chemicals with no more inherent risk than a Diet Coke….
