Will marijuana benefit or harm our community?

The sky is still holding up in Washington and Colorado, the two states that legalized recreational marijuana in 2012. What’s to say it will fall in Oregon? It’s too early to tell what could happen. Since marijuana was voted through this November, we at the Advocate believe things are not likely to change for the worst. The hope is that Mary Jane will be a low-key cousin to liquor and that dangerous or fatal accidents will not increase.

Come to think about it, is it really too early to tell?

Colorado’s Department of Transportation (CDOT) website reports that 5.7 percent of drivers involved in fatal acccidents during 2013 (and in 2012) tested positive for cannabis. That’s a significant decrease from the 8.9 percent reported in 2011.

However this works, no one knows, but the important thing is that since legalization took place in Colorado, statistics appear to be favorable.

Aside from impairing the individual psychologically, pot can cause lung disease, heart problems, immune deficiency, and a number of side effects we have yet to discover; but, we believe that it should not be grouped with the more severe drugs. According to the CDC, and DrugWarFacts.org, there have been zero deaths related to marijuana overdoses. You would need to smoke a shopping cart full to kick the can, maybe.

Alcohol damages the liver and can impair individuals to the point where they have no clue what they are doing. Waking up from a blackout, a person will not remember any events that took place during that point of alcohol consumption. Though marijuana slows cognitive performance and – as new studies have found – can even lower IQ, users who get high can stay aware and adjust accordingly to their situation.

The main idea here is that if marijuana is similar to alcohol, but doesn’t surpass alcohol’s negative consequences, it doesn’t seem reasonable that marijuana is going to wreak more havoc on society.

People who smoke marijuana will smoke marijuana, just like they always have. People who don’t fancy the joint (as with alcohol) will continue merrily on the sober path.

Not only do we believe marijuana will cause negligible damage, it should prove to do more good to society, fiscally. A thriving economy in Colorado and Washington is budding. According to the Washington Post, recreational marijuana is set to be taxed more than medicinal marijuana, and rightly so. Those who need medical marijuana shouldn’t be punished for their ailments.

The major con is that new regulation – and taxes – could still fuel the black market and drug cartels. Before legalization, marijuana has been relatively cheap. People will want to purchase it for the same price. The black market’s hands are still unbound to do its dirty work in gangs and in targeting minors.

According to the Washington Post newspaper, recreational sales have surpassed medical sales in Colorado, bringing in $29.7 million since January 2014. It’s not enough dough to compensate for the billions of tax dollars that have been spent on incarcerating marijuana users, but it is a start.

Legalizing marijuana hasn’t been a senseless act on Oregon’s part.

However, deep at the core, laws aren’t about statistics. They are about morals.

The Advocate agrees with the alarming number of facts that support marijuana reforms, but they don’t make it moral, in some eyes.

Even if pot is less damaging than alcohol or other hard drugs, smoking is not necessarily healthy, obviously. Since our early years of education, we are taught to eat healthy, exercise, practice safe sex or abstinence, and avoid alcohol and drugs of all kinds. To some, these practices are still important. Whether because of our faith, ideologies or our well-being, not supporting marijuana breaks down to a moral complex that goes beyond how much new tax revenue marijuana can rake in.

The question boils down to what is most important: recreational use, economic impact, or moral perspective?

Regardless of the morality or the unhealthy repercussions, we at The Advocate believe that marijuana will not cause any new significant damage from a public health and safety standpoint, except the sickly aroma that will linger everywhere now.