CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Saturday was April 20th… or 4-20 day. It’s the day the supporters of legalized marijuana show their support for a more mellow, dumbed-down society. I look around and can’t imagine why we’d want people to be less than they already are.
“But we can tax it!” scream the people who’ve already won the legalization debate in neighboring Illinois and Michigan. All they’ve succeeded in doing is giving their states more money to spend. You will never, ever, ever see – for instance – a tax cut because pot is such a cash crop. What’s happening in Illinois is instructive: marijuana brought in $420-million in state taxes to a state that had a budget deficit of $800-million. Pot revenue didn’t even cover the level that the state overspends in a $53-billion budget. Taxing pot is less than 1-percent of what the state spends.
In California, state revenue for pot has almost dried up. Potheads there prefer the more potent type of weed that street sellers offer rather than what’s sold and taxed at state dispensaries. And illegal pot on the street corner costs less.
Here’s the truth about pot: the societal costs are huge. People with a marijuana habit are less ambitious, less productive, and are a safety risk to the rest of us. Imagine the next time you go to a hospital – hypothetically for a routine medical procedure. Certain you’d expect that the doctor working on you wasn’t high last night. But what about the nurse who checked your vitals before the procedure? Or the anesthesiologist? Of the operating assistant who, you assume, hands the surgeon the right scalpel. Or the person who reads your x-rays, or the pharmacist you assume gives you the right medicine, to the orderly who brings you your meal before you go home? I don’t want any of these people making mistakes because they have a marijuana habit. Nor do I want the person who does my taxes, the construction worker who puts the new roof on my home, or the person who operates heavy machinery or a forklift at a factory to be high. If you say I exaggerate, imagine the truck driver in the lane next to you was blazing away last night ‘to relax’. I find all of that unacceptable.
The truth about marijuana in Wisconsin is this: there are no circumstances where police get a warrant, storm your house, and arrest you if you’re a casual user. That level of marijuana enforcement is non-existent. If you have a medical problem, and you think pot helps you, you’re not going to be arrested. If you’re a grower or a dealer, you’re in a different category. If you make money off marijuana, indeed you are a criminal.
We also hear on 4-20 day that Wisconsin is becoming a prohibition island, since Illinois and Michigan and Minnesota have already legalized. Why are we obligated to follow the wrong policies of our stupid neighbors? If Marijuana plays that big a role in your life, move to Rockford or Escanaba and blaze away to your heart’s content. Why should Wisconsin suffer because of your bad habit?
Chris Conley
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