Blake Dowling
I have a radical idea. Make marijuana illegal everywhere.
For those who will see no ill effects, plenty more will see adverse consequences if recreational marijuana is made legal in Florida one day.
Ten-year minimums (and things of that nature) need to go away for weed crimes, but an inconvenient truth to all this hippie “legalize it” nonsense in our country: pot is a gateway drug.
Three people close to me died in 2018 from situations caused by former (or current) drug habits.
And guess what was the first drug they did when they were younger? (Hint: It wasn’t crack.)
As for most young Floridians back in the day, I saw they were not heading to the beach with a case of Milwaukee’s Best and a big fat rock of crack.
(Well, unless you’re Charlie Sheen … beach days with Charlie were not included.)
For the aforementioned young people, it usually was beer and weed. Some moved on; others advanced to worse behavior.
A few became stoned vegetables their entire lives.
Either way, neuroscience says chronic exposure to “the chronic” impairs the ability to see value or importance in life.
In other words — it makes you stupid. This website agrees.
I remember our family talking to kids at a local high school about the subject of legal weed; they rambled on about how it was right and “cool, bro.”
I asked if they would want their doctor operating on them while stoned? ERRRRR. Silence. Nope.
Kids today, I tell ya.
I also recall youngsters arguing that marijuana is legal other places, so it must not be all that bad.
Florida needs to “Just Say No” to talk of recreational weed.
We need to say something more profound like “I did not inhale” when accused of getting caught doing such things.
Drugs are bad. This is what I was taught when I was young.
So to be clear, laws around this type of crime should be less harsh, but in my opinion illegal (with medical marijuana being OK).
Let’s bust out some science.
Also, an old Washington Post article claims that heavy dope smokers are 60 percent less likely to graduate high school.
You might counter with an argument that someone has to be 21 years old to buy it.
Really?
Have you heard of the car full of teenagers that slip a 20 to some random person at the SING store to pick up a 12-pack of Keystone Light?
This year, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York became the first leader of either party to support decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level.
President Donald Trump made a loose promise to a Republican Senator from Colorado that he would not intervene with states that have legalized weed, this according to The Washington Post.
So, I might be going against the grain here, but getting on the weed train is neither good business or government. That is unless you are selling it or lobbying for it to be sold.
What happens in 20 years, when half our workforce is stoned, and we can’t compete on the worldwide economic stage?
These are people who might not have ever tried weed, but if it’s legal, bring it on.
Did you see the lines at the stores in Canada recently when they started selling the “devil’s grass?” Those hosers haven’t been this excited since Slapshot was in theaters.
(What a movie. Paul Newman was really talented.)
There is also the fact that if we continue toward widespread legalization in Florida, neighboring states will have to build a “weed wall” to stop the threat of it spilling into their borders.
That’s just what we need, Alabama Law Enforcement getting tough on weed. Wow.
Unless Clemson is there to stop ‘em, people are going to get whooped on for even thinking about weed.
Just look at what’s going on in Nebraska since Colorado legalized weed.
There is a thought-provoking study from the Netherlands found when students were cut off from weed (due changes in local law) grades went up.
Hmmmm.
So, to add to my gross simplification — weed makes you dumb — it is really bad for kids, especially as their brains are not fully developed.
And, of course, the gateway drug reason.
Those are my intentions. Get angry, even disagree; more power to you.
It seems very popular to be a weeder these days, so I will most likely be on the losing side here. To clarify once again, I am all for decimalization and for anyone that might need medical marijuana. I am all for the ease of suffering.
However, in my opinion, I think legalized recreational pot is a bad idea.
Who knows where Florida is going to take the conversation in the coming years?
With have a new Sheriff in town (Governor actually), we can start watching the situation unfold sooner rather than later.
Speaking of which, congrats to all involved in what looked like a spectacular evening at the Inaugural Ball. Looking good on stage, Nick! Excellent.
Happy New Year everyone.
12 comments
Duke
January 12, 2019 at 6:51 am
Blake I totally agree with you however you shouldn’t of called it Devils Grass! That took all your credibility away! MJ helps and in some cases saves lives!!
I hope the Governor is with us on this!! Keep it 100% medical to include NO SMOKE!! Address the criminality.
Happy New Year👊✌💙
Blake Dowling
January 12, 2019 at 10:45 am
Thank you for sharing your feedback. Have a great day.
Thomas Ettorre
January 12, 2019 at 7:17 am
Blake when writing your articles you should probably use more recent articles as references not old articles that are no longer relevant. Over all your outlook on this medication is higly disturbing. You would rather have the pharmaceutical companies pumping our citizens with harmful substances.if this was as harmful as you are suggesting the feds would not have this studied. https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AT-19-008.html
This information is about if the plat is a gateway drug. Per our agencies https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/marijuana-gateway-drug
These findings are consistent with the idea of marijuana as a “gateway drug.” However, the majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, “harder” substances. Also, cross-sensitization is not unique to marijuana. Alcohol and nicotine also prime the brain for a heightened response to other drugs52 and are, like marijuana, also typically used before a person progresses to other, more harmful substances.
Blake
January 12, 2019 at 10:53 am
Thank you Thomas for checking out the column and the feedback, have a great day.
Thomas Ettorre
January 12, 2019 at 7:19 am
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/marijuana-gateway-drug
Here is just one published article that our government posted that debunks your antiquated thought of the gateway drug theory.
Ted Brown
January 12, 2019 at 8:04 am
Nope, sorry, Mr Dowling, you do not have exclusivity to the facts..
Nor can you draw ANY conclusion about marijuana being a gateway drug any more than MILK can be, which I am almost positive that your 3 friends drank..
Probably alcohol as well, but, NOPE, it HAS to be the weed that is the gateway, just because YOU don’t like it, for whatever reason…..
“Ohh the children!”. While backing it up with “It’s a gateway drug”, which has been proven time and time again to be WRONG!
SO I guess it’s only the experts that you politically agree with that form your “scientific viewpoints”, right?
Which provides us with all the information we need to understand your biased antiquated viewpoint…
We are glad that you listened when you were a youth and did not do drugs. SO???
Do you want a cookie??
I am an adult and I am older than you are, I quit smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol thanks to weed… I don’t even drink coffee…
Some gateway drug that is, homey.
Blake
January 12, 2019 at 10:48 am
Thanks for checking out the column Ted and for your feedback. Have a good weekend.
JCain
January 12, 2019 at 1:48 pm
Everyone I know who started down a path of addiction with alcohol and cigarettes. Might want to realize those are the killers, not cannabis which is actually less addicting than your morning coffee.
Blake
January 12, 2019 at 2:54 pm
Thank you for checking out my column and for your feedback. Have a great weekend.
Todd crane
January 13, 2019 at 9:22 am
This guy calling for the ban of weed, but won’t speak a word about cigarettes on every store which kills people and it’s a fact. But u will talk about weed. Lol this is a joke, speak up on banning the cancer causing cigarettes before u speak about earths gift weed.
Blake
January 13, 2019 at 11:44 am
Good point Todd, thanks for checking out the column and for your feedback, I will put a no smoking column on the list for future articles.
Bill Monroe
January 13, 2019 at 7:19 pm
It would certainly be nice if advocates for cannabis were given the same political forum as Blake Dowling. How about it Jim Rosica?
Comments are closed.