We mark the 250th year of the American experiment from the date of our Declaration of Independence, but the Constitution was our Founders’ more important gift to the country and western civilization. Because they wisely allowed the states sufficient autonomy, we are able to learn from each other’s successes and failures in a system we somewhat ironically call “federalism.”
Twenty-five states have now experimented with “recreational” marijuana legalization with disastrous consequences, as everyone from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Times has now acknowledged. Now, it appears that Virginia may make a 26th attempt. Like socialism, maybe we just haven’t tried the right kind of marijuana legalization yet.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts voters are considering ending their 10-year legalization experiment now that there is growing recognition that the cost-benefit analysis looks quite different in practice than it did in theory. Wouldn’t that be a shot heard around the world against a seemingly invincible empire?
The promise of a safe, taxed, and regulated market which would replace the black market without creating more addiction, mental and physical illnesses, or car crashes has failed on all counts. From small-government Oklahoma to big-government California, legalization schemes have only fueled the black markets with new customers. Tragically, many of them are developing addiction, education failures, serious psychotic illnesses, heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes from this supposedly “harmless plant” which has now been industrialized into a powerfully addictive and impairing drug. One recent study of dead drivers found 42% of them had high levels of THC in their system, and it’s a safe bet that many didn’t kill only themselves.
That’s why congressional leaders and President Donald Trump were right to close the hemp THC loophole being cynically exploited in the 2018 federal Farm Bill. At the time, supporters of the bill repeatedly assured their colleagues and the public that this was for “rope, not dope”. But an unscrupulous industry was quickly pushing dope on every street corner by converting the natural hemp CBD into a chemical alphabet soup of THC molecules, thus imposing a “gray market” for weed even in half of the states that never voted for it.
Now, some with industry ties, including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, are apparently advising the president to reward these bad actors by federally legalizing the entire scheme through “regulations”. He should listen to Ronald Reagan on this issue, not Joe Rogan, and just say, “no.” He should continue to stand up to the addiction industry and stand with principled Republicans like Sen. Tedd Budd (R-NC).
Privatized profits with socialized costs are not how the free market is supposed to work. But Colorado is now facing a massive budget deficit due to lower-than-projected tax revenues and higher-than-anticipated Medicaid spending, which is exactly what was predicted for that state in a marijuana impact study published 8 years ago.
THEY PACKAGED POTENT THC TO LOOK LIKE CHILDREN’S CANDY — AND FOUGHT TO KEEP IT THAT WAY
There’s a reason red China is promoting a thriving marijuana industry in most of our 50 states, while not a single one of Asia’s 48 countries allows such. We will never make America healthy again, much less great, with more marijuana — and this federal mistake requires a federal fix. The president and Congress should not legalize a THC industry where it was never wanted in something resembling an Opium War declared against our own red states.
Led by younger Republicans, polls are turning against marijuana in its many insidious forms. Here in Texas, with the courageous leadership of Lt Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX), we just had state Senate hearings that documented the many mental, physical, and fiscal harms that THC has already imposed on us, and we are moving to protect our state from further damage. Trump should defend all such states from an addiction-for-profit industry, which our adversaries know will only hinder our greatness, and he should ignore any advice that will only tarnish his legacy. The next 250 years of this experiment may depend on it.
Matt Poling is a family physician, USAF veteran, and medical advisor for Citizens for a Safe and Healthy Texas. [email protected]