Whoa There

So I found this fun story off NPR's twitter page today about medical marijuana in California. California was the first state to legalize it and my home state (well, where I grew up anyway) eventually followed suit. I will be very honest here. I don't smoke pot - never even tried it. I've known enough people through the years who have tried it. As someone with a chronic pain ailment, I've looked at reasons for legalizing the drug for those of us in terrible pain. After all, it's really a lot less harmful than alcohol, which causes thousands of deaths on our roads and other places every year.

Back to the story. A federal drug agent in San Francisco thinks... Well, I'll just let you read his words:

"I think 215 was a complete sham. I think this was a hoax," says Ron Brooks, a federal drug agent in San Francisco.

"And I would encourage any citizen to do this. Stand near a dispensary and watch who goes in," Brooks said.

"And tell me how many people look sick and dying. How many people look like they are suffering from catastrophic illness, and how many kids are standing around the corner where people buy marijuana inside the dispensary — and resell it to the kids outside for a profit," he adds.

Earlier in the article, it talks about the history of legalizing the drug. It was to help those with HIV/AIDS, cancers, etc. You cannot tell by looking at people how close to death they are or how sick they are or even if they are in pain. People think that I am just lazy (which is partially true, but I do have medical reasons for a lot of what I do/don't do) and don't care to know anything about what is going on in my life. I don't look like someone who has a debilitating disease that has constantly made me want to chop off limbs. You just can't see something like that by looking at a person and it's ridiculous to think that anyone could tell that.

I can see why people might get mad at how easy it is to get pot. Hello, have you never walked down the street and been approached to buy pot? Do these people not walk around normal parts of town? Even in states where it is illegal, access to pot is not difficult to get.

Why not make pot legal and easier to monitor than continue to put drug dealers in jail for longer than pedophiles? Do we not ever learn anything from Europe? You can tax pot, you know - make some more money for the government, maybe help out people who have morals too high to do things that are illegal but might benefit from it?