CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – I’m forever opposed to recreational marijuana, and I’m a skeptic about medical marijuana. Yet the Republican proposal unveiled this week gets more things right than wrong, and is something I could support.
The bill would allow for tightly regulated medical marijuana, with a doctor’s approval, distributed through state dispensaries, in non-smokable forms. Governor Evers says he would sign such a bill, so long as it contains no poison pills.
California’s experience with medical marijuana is a lesson to other states. Suddenly the state was filled with ‘doctor feelgoods’ and everyone had a backache that only marijuana could help with. There were even cases where the prescribing doctor would share an office with the dispensary. Call this number, we’ll fax over your prescription… it’ll be waiting for you when pick up your weed.
Wisconsin won’t allow such abuses. Politicians who support medical marijuana have an obligation to the rest of us that it won’t happen here.
I am still skeptical of doctors who would prescribe it. There’s no other alternative short of this magical herb to calm the nerves or help chemo patients keep their food down? And yet, people who use marijuana for medical purposes already have no fear or prosecution. Police nowhere are breaking down the doors of cancer patients to make marijuana arrests.
Such cases are never prosecuted. And that’s fine; overly aggressive enforcement is a waste of law enforcement resources.
What we cannot have is legalized recreational use. Are you comfortable with the driver in the car next to you being high? Or the person who drives a forklift and is a spot-welder at work lighting up during their breaks? What about the person who does your taxes? Or your lawyer or doctor? Marijuana doesn’t make anyone better. Not a better employee, not a better parent, not a better student.
The idea of taxing it is a red herring. Illinois had a spending increase in their budget of $1.7-billion this year. That is drawfed by the $451-million in tax revenue from pot. States that tax marijuana simply increase spending on other things.
The only thing marijuana does is dumbs down the population. And we have no shortage of those people.
Chris Conley
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