Starting with the limp, wanna-be-hip title, "
"Medical marijuana would be a downer,"
Rapid City Journal columnist and erstwhile city council candidate, Ron Sasso manages to make about several assertions about cannabis, some of which are false, some bearing a so-what truthfulness, some too funny not to share; the remaining are indecipherable.1. Sasso sez: "Medical marijuana may be on the ballot next year. Keep in mind that is the gateway to legalization of marijuana."
Decorum Forum says (under the "too funny not to share" category): Thanks for the plug, Ron.
2. Sasso sez: "The potency of marijuana has radically changed over the past 30 years. Growers have worked the genetics to make it far more potent."
Decorum Forum says (under the "so f*****g what?" category): Thanks for the plug, Ron. That makes it so people don't need as much cannabis to achieve the goal of using cannabis.
3. Sasso sez: "The argument for legalization is basically hinged on the idea that marijuana is relatively safe."
Decorum Forum says (under the "so f*****g what?" category): Thanks for the plug, Ron. That's exactly what we say. And we're right. There are no known deaths in medical history from ingestion of cannabis.
4. Sasso sez: "Marijuana has more tar than cigarettes and is unfiltered. It will cause cancer."
Decorum Forum says (under the "false" category): There is no evidence that cannabis smoke ingestion (or any other form of cannabis ingestion) causes cancer. There is evidence that cannabis might be a cancer controvertive. Click here to see Washington Post story supporting that assertion.
5. Sasso sez: "Studies have shown that marijuana use causes long-term damage that leads to a reduction in IQ — on average, an eight-point reduction. That is a huge change in cognitive functioning. Is this what we want for our country? This could truly be the dumbing down of America."
Decorum Forum says (under the "false" category): We get all laughing-out-loud reading that paragraph from the same guy who wrote the rest of the editorial.
We mentioned good intentions up top. We don't have much patience for people who refuse to look at the evidence before they condemn others to persecution by prosecution. Ron Sasso's intentions are not at issue; I believe he believes something that is obviously not true. That makes him, at the very least, uninformed (for which there is no excuse when the subject is cannabis). There are other possibilities. He might be crazy. Or malicious. Maybe he's just plain stupid. But he has to fit one of those four characterizations. There are no other choices.
Ron Sasso's errant opinion--with no credible support--on cannabis typifies the reasoning used to have ruined the lives of tens of millions of people around the world, and to have left a swath of bodies killed by law enforcement and by the criminals created by the price-support program called "prohibition." The benefit? Cannabis is cheaper, better, and more-readily-available than at any time in the last 45 years.
There are no benefits to criminalization of the attempt to feel better. The evil consequences are plain to see.