Guest Author
The other day I heard Jim Stafford’s seminal 1974 song “Wildwood Weed” while listening to the radio.
About the same time, the Florida House subcommittee on Criminal Justice was debating the merits of medical marijuana. This is a Republican-led House and a very conservative committee chairman.
Many were shocked to see it happening, but I was pleased. It shows that the Tea Party ideals of limited government are slowly but surely finding their way into the Legislature.
Most Tea Partiers believe that adults can be adults, and less government is generally better government. Sure, there’s plenty of self-described conservatives who believe marijuana is wrong, and to them I say – “don’t use it.”
It’s like alcohol, many medications, and the highly addictive Nutella — no one forces you to consume it, and there are consequences if you abuse it. But the right to use them should be OUR choice, not the government’s choice.
Many of us Tea Partiers are small “L” libertarians who simply believe that government has gone far beyond its sensible role.
But what does it mean to believe in limited government?
There is a natural role of government — public safety, infrastructure, and per the Florida Constitution, education. We don’t look to the government to create jobs. Businesspeople create jobs. Government can set the conditions for industry to thrive, or die.
Unfortunately, our Republican-led Legislature feels it must jump in at the behest of its donors and attempt to micromanage the state’s economy, which is why this issue actually came as a shock. This might actually help some regular citizens.
Florida’s Democrats are not innocent in government’s desire to control behavior. They somehow introduced a bill to restrict teenagers from using tanning beds (SB 572). So, teens are free to seek abortions, but they can’t use tanning beds.
SB 0450 was filed to extend Florida’s “Do Not Call” list to texting. When the original law was passed, it conveniently excluded politicians. And you wonder why we advocate for limited government? The law should be good enough for all, or it’s bad law.
It’s time we started accepting adult responsibility — sometimes people do things we don’t like, and if it doesn’t harm us, then get over it. Or, more elegantly put in the words of Thomas Jefferson, “But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
We believe that the “free market” works for the majority. The “free market” assumes that adults conduct their transactions without undue government influence. As soon as texting from businesses became feasible, the feature to block a text became available. Do we really need that law?
Concerns over tanning beds have led to a spike in “self-tanning” lotions, which my college-age nieces tell me are “dope” – meaning very effective.
I wasn’t inspired to smoke weed as a kid when Jim Stafford sang that song. And while I know we are only at the “medical” stage, it’s clear marijuana will be fully legal in the U.S. before long.
It’s time we all take a hard look at what we expect from our government, and what we should leave to our own discretion.
That is what “limited government” actually looks like, and I hope the Legislature approves the use of medical marijuana and continues to increase our freedoms.
