Blogging for Freedom

How many of these deaths are due to marijuana overdose?  NONE.  ZERO.

In the last several months, overdoses of heroin laced with the painkiller fentanyl have claimed over 400 lives in the United States.  Alcohol is still the number one drug of choice among young people.  Meth has taken hold in our communities, ravaging users and their families and our neighborhoods.  Crack cocaine and heroin are easier to find than marijuana. Prescription and over-the-counter pills are being abused by kids as young as ten. Teens huffing chemicals and gas are not as rare as as you might believe.  

The answer to drug addiction and the problems it causes society is not more punitive laws and longer prison time.  Drug abuse and addiction are medical issues that need to be addressed much like alcoholism is. It took a long time to recognize and accept that alcoholics are not evil people, they have a disease that requires treatment, support, social resources and behavior modification to heal.  

Every day I read in our local newspaper about court case decisions.  Particulary of interest are the jail terms given out for different offenses.  More often than not, for example, simple drug possession gets more time than domestic violence or receiving stolen property..  Drunk drivers, who put put us all in danger, get maybe one or two days in jail while the hippie kid who was stopped and searched while walking down the street minding his own business gets 30 days in County for possession of a joint.

The DEA claims marijuana is the primary culprit, the source of funds for terrorism, the destroyer of our young.  When my own kids were growing up, I made sure they knew which drugs kill and which don't.  If they were going to a party in college, I told them "If you feel the need to consume something, I'd rather you smoke marijuana than drink alcohol."  At least then I'd know they weren't going to end up dead at some kegger from acute alcohol toxicity.