One negative destroys a thousand positives. I'm witnessing this first hand. Our movement is damaged by every incident like this
Both sides of the issue of legalized cannabis like to spout statistics as facts. But in all honesty, both sides will twist statistics to their point of view. I read a book once called how to lie with statistics and have remained skeptical every since, of the value of any stated statistics. When we bring real world positive results to the table, then we move forward. But for every step forward, it takes only one tragedy to push us back a thousand step. I'm a first hand witness to this right now, as I watch a very sad series of events unfold that will do great damage to the lives of many, and it will affect you and me as well
My lady's son and his significant other of 3 years, are about 23 years of age. They are both nice young people, well liked by all. The young man is loved by his lady's mother and family. These two young people, like many like to party. they drink a little and smoke marijuana. Her mom babysits their 18 month old daughter so that they can have their relaxation time. Nothing unusual in this
BUT..... stupidity rears its head. They decided it would be fun to snort a little heroin. Nothing serious, just a little now and then...
Well, three days ago, they snorted a little. The young man goes off and is spending time with his lady's family and his child. While he is doing this, the young lady decides to do another snort or two. The young man doesn't know she has done this. He goes back to their room ( they live with her mother ) to get her to come join him. She tells him she needs to take a nap and will join him later. He comes back an hour later and finds her lying face down on the bed, foaming at the mouth and appearing to not be breathing.
Today they are running the final neurological tests, but all results up to this point have been negative for any sign of function. She is brain dead. They will run the tests one more time this afternoon, then pull the plug.
The conversations of the friends and family go like this "If they had never done that God damn pot, they would have never touched that heroin...."
Do you think, you will EVER be able to convince these people otherwise? Or the people they tell this story to?They only know what they see. They only know that this young woman is dead, and the lives of the young man and both families are in shambles. And the news papers, facebook, etc, will have a field day with this. Yet, this to me is all the more reason to legalize. To disassociate cannabis from the people who sell these other life destroying drugs.
Yet legalizing cannabis is not going to make the impact that it could. Why? Money and greed. People and politicians see so many dollars signs connected to legal cannabis, that they want to maintain the criminal level prices! If the tremendous profit in selling cannabis isn't reduced, people will continue to buy on the street. And why wouldn't they? First. its the culture that's has been developed over many years. Second, if legal cannabis is maintained at the current outrageous prices, all street dealers have to do is cut their prices a bit to stay in business. Want to end the illegal traffic in cannabis? the price needs to be down to around $100/oz. That's not going to happen sadly. Already states are drooling and have implemented or are proposing taxes of $50/oz, or even 30% of the selling price. what's 30% of 400....?? Booze isn't taxed that high! So at thirty percent, you think the governments want to see $100 weed?
So we must continues our uphill battle against, greed and ignorance. Incidents like this make our job much, much, harder.
Both sides of the issue of legalized cannabis like to spout statistics as facts. But in all honesty, both sides will twist statistics to their point of view. I read a book once called how to lie with statistics and have remained skeptical every since, of the value of any stated statistics. When we bring real world positive results to the table, then we move forward. But for every step forward, it takes only one tragedy to push us back a thousand step. I'm a first hand witness to this right now, as I watch a very sad series of events unfold that will do great damage to the lives of many, and it will affect you and me as well
My lady's son and his significant other of 3 years, are about 23 years of age. They are both nice young people, well liked by all. The young man is loved by his lady's mother and family. These two young people, like many like to party. they drink a little and smoke marijuana. Her mom babysits their 18 month old daughter so that they can have their relaxation time. Nothing unusual in this
BUT..... stupidity rears its head. They decided it would be fun to snort a little heroin. Nothing serious, just a little now and then...
Well, three days ago, they snorted a little. The young man goes off and is spending time with his lady's family and his child. While he is doing this, the young lady decides to do another snort or two. The young man doesn't know she has done this. He goes back to their room ( they live with her mother ) to get her to come join him. She tells him she needs to take a nap and will join him later. He comes back an hour later and finds her lying face down on the bed, foaming at the mouth and appearing to not be breathing.
Today they are running the final neurological tests, but all results up to this point have been negative for any sign of function. She is brain dead. They will run the tests one more time this afternoon, then pull the plug.
The conversations of the friends and family go like this "If they had never done that God damn pot, they would have never touched that heroin...."
Do you think, you will EVER be able to convince these people otherwise? Or the people they tell this story to?They only know what they see. They only know that this young woman is dead, and the lives of the young man and both families are in shambles. And the news papers, facebook, etc, will have a field day with this. Yet, this to me is all the more reason to legalize. To disassociate cannabis from the people who sell these other life destroying drugs.
Yet legalizing cannabis is not going to make the impact that it could. Why? Money and greed. People and politicians see so many dollars signs connected to legal cannabis, that they want to maintain the criminal level prices! If the tremendous profit in selling cannabis isn't reduced, people will continue to buy on the street. And why wouldn't they? First. its the culture that's has been developed over many years. Second, if legal cannabis is maintained at the current outrageous prices, all street dealers have to do is cut their prices a bit to stay in business. Want to end the illegal traffic in cannabis? the price needs to be down to around $100/oz. That's not going to happen sadly. Already states are drooling and have implemented or are proposing taxes of $50/oz, or even 30% of the selling price. what's 30% of 400....?? Booze isn't taxed that high! So at thirty percent, you think the governments want to see $100 weed?
So we must continues our uphill battle against, greed and ignorance. Incidents like this make our job much, much, harder.
so very sad. 
