Rational people instead of repressive rules

Yes, we have the right to smoke marijuana for no reason other than we feel like it! But the resounding message Oregon voters sent during the most recent voting cycle is again in danger of being blunted by bureaucracy intent on regulating our rights.

Businesses will find more and more difficulty in obtaining premises to conduct their no-longer-illicit activities. The matter of permits and licensure will not be the issue, but the locations available and properly zoned promise to be very scarce. There are many issues with the implementation of new laws, but perhaps the most heinous is the curtailing of rights in the name of reasonableness.

We the voters decided that we have a specific right, but for some reason the government insists that they need to limit how free we can be about whatever issue is at hand – in this case, marijuana. Although voters approved a statewide measure, local municipalities are permitted to pass their own ordinances regarding time, place, and manner of use.

Such restrictions are honestly rather ridiculous. People who are grown up enough to pass laws are, by the same virtue, capable of governing themselves. Shouldn’t the appropriateness of time, place, and manner be left up to individual judgment, or should they instead be lumped in with existing laws? Does a business owner really need to be told not  to set up shop next to a school? What kind of business would he be expecting to get? You can’t buy anything when you’re under 21 anyway, right?

The point that I am trying to make is that we don’t need more laws and restrictions on the rights that we have expressed that we possess. Smoking marijuana recreationally is going to happen, it has happened, and it is happening right now. Those freedoms come, naturally, with built-in consequences. If you don’t behave responsibly, then negative things will happen. Don’t be a fool, and you won’t have any problems.

Why is it that the government always feels the need to express “reasonable restrictions” on the scope of our rights? The right to restrict ourselves can and must be derived from ourselves, for the same reason that our beliefs must also originate from within ourselves. No one can tell you what to believe and cause you to understand and embrace it as your own. You must question yourself and must find that answer, just as you must control yourself, because nothing else can control you as effectively. It is always in your best interest to control yourself and act responsibly. One of the many beauties of natural law is that the absoluteness of this law is unquestionable, while the intensity is variable.

If you make a little mistake, but learn from it, then you can move on and grow. If you make a large mistake, it could have large repercussions. Just use what was once called “common” sense. If it seems like a bad idea, then it probably is a bad idea. You don’t need Big Brother to tell you that; your mother should already have told you. If you didn’t listen to her then, you will not listen to anyone else now.

Be responsible and toke up smartly and safely! Remember the sage words of Dwight Schrute: “Whenever I am about to do something, I think, ‘Would an idiot do that?’ And if he would, I do not do that thing.”