Six of the burgeoning crowd of Democrats want a stoned America. They want your kids to be stoned. They probably would even want your dogs and cats to be stoned, too. We are talking about cannabis, of course, a.k.a. “pot”, “marijuana”, “weed”, and it is significant who supports this, because some of them are leading in the candidate polls right now.
These candidates are:
- Sen. Kamala Harris
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren
- Sen. Cory Booker
- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
- Sen. Tusli Gabbard
- Sen. Bernie Sanders
These people are not outliers. They represent the “mainstream” of the Democrat field. They are all widely known to the entirety of the American public, especially Bernie Sanders, who was cheated out of the nomination for Democrat candidate for President by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign in 2016.
While the claim of the headline may seem sensational, it really is not. Kamala Harris is on record for saying marijuana brings people joy. She leaned into the issue so strongly on a radio interview that she actually noted that “half my family is from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?” – of course, teasing the Bob Marley loving crowd.
This earned her a sharp rebuke from her own father, Donald J. Harris, who made a statement to Kingston, Jamaica’s Global Online, in which he was unequivocal in his criticism:
“My dear departed grandmothers (whose extraordinary legacy I described in a recent essay on this website), as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics.
Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty.”
This earned silence from his daughter’s campaign, understandably so.
Many people may think that the times are changing, so the idea of legalizing marijuana for recreational use or even just totally making it legal is at least inevitable. For the Democrats, it is a sign of progress.
But for what purpose? Alex Titus and Alex Entz, writing for Fox News, gave their take on this issue, and it is instructive. We have added emphasis in our aggregate of points from their piece:
Four Democratic presidential hopefuls have signed onto a marijuana legalization bill that Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., also a presidential contender, introduced last month. In explaining the bill, Booker assailed marijuana prohibition as an “unfair, unjust and failed policy.”
The aim of these candidates is misguided. Legalizing marijuana will only further undermine poor communities and foster addiction. It is time for progressives to choose between social justice and legalizing marijuana.Proponents of legalization are correct to point out the racial and socioeconomic discrepancies in enforcement of marijuana arrests. And yet, that is an argument for decriminalization or changing policing tactics – not for legalization. In fact, statistics collected from states that have already legalized marijuana disprove the beliefs of those who think legalization is a cause célèbre for social justice.
Consider Washington state, where legalization did not decrease racial disparities in marijuana-related arrests. A University of Washington report noted that such “criminal justice rhetoric” had “yet to be supported by data.” In Colorado, the number of Hispanic and African-American youth arrested for marijuana-related crimes has risen after legalization.
Furthermore, marijuana companies target the most vulnerable communities. Nearly one-third of marijuana is consumed by people in homes with incomes below $20,000, and marijuana dispensaries overwhelmingly locate in low-income communities. Marketing tactics target children by offering THC-infused gummy bears, brownies and other treats.
Advocates frequently argue that marijuana should be legalized as a source of new tax revenue. But considering that most marijuana is smoked by low-income individuals, such a tax would be regressive in nature. Increasing harmful consumption taxes on poor communities does little to advance social equity.
Legalization would also contribute to poverty by hindering a user’s ability to gain meaningful employment. Business owners simply do not want to hire individuals who fail their drug tests. Research backs up this point by showing that marijuana legalization has negatively impacted labor productivity by nearly $1,300 per worker.
Legalization’s social impacts are damning, too. In Pueblo, Colorado, the percentage of newborns testing positive for marijuana increased 17-fold from 2013-2017.
Perhaps even more concerning for the state of our communities is that marijuana is extremely habit-forming. “Adults who use fewer than 10 times per month and who suffer no problems with substance abuse or dependence account for less than 5 percent of consumption. More than half of marijuana is consumed by someone who is under the influence more than half of all their waking hours,” according to drug policy expert Jonathan Caulkins.
By this measure, marijuana creates significantly more dependence than alcohol. Given the number of Americans who suffer from marijuana addiction, it is remarkable that Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., would advocate for legalization on the grounds that marijuana brings people “joy.”
Easy access to pot would harmfully impact young people too. Studies show that nearly 25 percent of high school seniors would smoke marijuana if it was legalized. In addition to negatively impacting the teenage brain, evidence from Colorado shows that youth emergency room visits would likely spike. Worse still, one recent meta-analysis showed that, across 11 studies, the use of marijuana in adolescence was linked to “increased risk of depression and suicidal thoughts.”
Research has also continued to show marijuana’s connection to psychosis. In January 2017, the National Academy of Medicine declared that “Cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses.” Higher rates of psychosis will likely lead to higher rates of violent crime.
So, why do progressive politicians continue to ignore the facts behind marijuana legalization?
While the authors make one correct conclusion – that “supporting legalization” is a play to win the support of a segment of the voting population that wants this, it is perhaps more sinister.
From the facts elicited in the Fox piece, marijuana is shown to impair thinking, create psychosis, render people unemployable, make poor people even more poor, and to foment and increase addiction. In other words, to numb as many people as possible.
The fact that these retail outlets in states that legalized pot sell THC-infused products to children indicates something thoroughly evil – they want to get our kids stoned from youth.
And, here is the rub: Do you not notice that people who get high all the time seem remarkably astute at not taking responsibility for their lives? Who will they look to to take care of them?
Probably not conservatives and Republicans, who uphold personal liberty and responsibility as of extreme value.
This is a play to create a dependent class unlike anything the world has ever seen. And having a nation of psychotic idiots, armed with nuclear weapons to boot, just cannot possibly be good. We already have examples of this madness. Just consider Russiagate.
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