Measure 33 will help the state get into promoting yet more vice.
Already the state government is the sole hard alcohol pusher in Oregon.
The state and Indian tribes are the only entities permitted to promote gambling.
Now, the backers of Measure 33 would like local governments and a state agency to deal marijuana.
Worse yet, the measure will create a pot welfare system. Those poor who qualify for the medicinal use of marijuana will get their pot for free.
I am as in favor of legalizing pot as the next guy. Okay, well maybe not the next guy. I’m in favor of legalizing pot and all drugs, including prescription drugs. Those drugs need not be regulated or taxed any more than any other consumer item. Adults should be free to make stupid choices and deal with the consequences.
If they cannot hold a job, so be it. We have no obligation to support them or keep them from starving. If they can do it responsibly, holding a job and making their own way in life, then we have no legitimate beef with their drug use; and if they steal, we cut their fingers and hands off for the crime.
This medical marijuana business is only cover for legalizing pot in general. Instead of going for the gold and legalization, conniving pot smokers and their buddies try to convince us that putting smoke in our lungs can possibly be good for the human body.
Instead of trying to convince us of the medical value of smoking pot, they should concentrate on logical reasons to allow adults the freedom to choose their own paths without the coercion of the people, our government.
Instead, they give us tripe about how it makes the sick feel better. Maybe it can, but that’s not what the whole thing is about. On top of trying to get pot legalized incrementally, they want to expand the welfare state.
The measure will allow the creation of licensed pot dispensaries. If no dispensaries, which will be nonprofit, form to deal the drug within six months of passage, the county health departments shall pick up the program and supply so-called medical marijuana.
The measure requires the Department of Human Services to regulate the state marijuana program and grant licenses to dispensaries, including county health departments.
As if expanding the government bureaucracy isn’t good enough, the measure will require dispensaries to distribute 20 percent of the dollar amount sold each month to go to medical marijuana card holders who are to poor to buy their pot.
Our welfare system already permits such behavior when some pot smokers spend their food stamps on food and cash on pot. We have no reason to expand the pot giveaway.
The pot handout supposedly will pay for itself from fees paid by other pot smokers for their permission to legally smoke it; but that’s not the point. Government shouldn’t be involved in something that could and should function normally in a free market system.
Beyond that, this same government has decided repeatedly to intervene on hehalf of keeping its citizens healthy. It has continually attacked tobacco smokers and companies in an effort to get us to choose more healthy behavior, like quitting. At the same time, the state props up more welfare on the backs of those pariahs of society.
Also at the same time, state continues to promote other potentially unhealthy behavior problems, including alcohol and gambling. Now druggies and their sympathizers want it to promote the use of pot, which is arguably far more unhealthy than tobacco.
The way things are going now, tobacco will be illegal while pot eventually becomes completely legal under the supervision of the state.
Let’s get out of the way of citizens to make their own decisions and legalize drugs; but let’s vote no on this stupid, hypocritical measure and keep the state from making another welfare stream out of yet more vice.