Letter to the editor
The LA Times published an editorial regarding the status of legalized marijuana and how the law did not produce the outcomes the state lawmakers intended. The law did not work because the lawmakers did not and do not understand why the law against pot was needed in the first place. They wrote it to serve the purpose of creating profits, and not so much because it was a stupid idea from the start. However, in their attempt to serve the greedy nature of some, they did reduce the criminal imprisonment of the innocent partaking of marijuana.
The Times points out that illegal growing is still going on. Criminal elements are still getting rich off of pot. And it is true that these things will continue because of the way the lawmakers write the laws regarding a simple plant of nature. The new problem for lawmakers is one far more difficult than the one they thought they could regulate. That problem being that the widespread public use of one of nature’s remedies can’t now be easily changed back to the “evil weed” that the silly people of the past once believed in. For that, I am ever so grateful.
In fact, what was once seen as an evil of pot use is now touted as benefits for many people who need sleeping aids or sexual shortcomings or for mental depressions and other measures to control the human condition with the minimum of harm.Millions of dollars are now collected from taxing the plant instead of being spent on useless attempts to control it. People now have legal jobs supporting the use of the noble weed, and they all contribute to the betterment of our society.
If pot brought a few smiles in the past, it is now creating many more smiles for many more people. One other downside of the law the Times brought out is that pot growers are using water that could be used for other things. Everyone does that for everything they do not regarding pot. Washing cars so they can look shiny is a fine use of clean water, don’t you think? Mixing it with alcohol for some is a good use of fresh clean water. Creating a ‘water-feature’ to impress others and filling swimming polls for enjoyment during the heat of summer could be considered to be a waste of water.
I am glad the marijuana laws have freed people’s minds to think about things and stuff in different ways. Marijuana is nature’s way of saying HI! So, welcome to the brave new world of common sense.
James Ausmus
Susanville
