Pro-marijuana
legalization-activists will get a chance to question candidates for governor,
Saturday, July 5 at the Sedgwick County Park, Shelter #4. The day’s events will
include a debate and cookout. The meet will run from 12 pm - 5:00 pm and the
debate will start at 2 pm. Four governor candidates have been invited to debate
the issue and present their stands on marijuana.
Back in my
high school days, 30 years ago, my friends and I really thought that marijuana
would be legal by the time we turned 30. The prevailing ideology was liberalism
and society seemed to be moving in a more progressive and sane direction. We
imagined that we would be living under a more enlightened and advanced society
where throwing people in jail for something as petty as marijuana possession
would be a thing of the past. We were dead wrong.
Thirty years
ago, most marijuana use was among younger people and hippie types who had a
certain look to them. Today the users have become more mainstream. Now many
older people use it and most of its users look like anyone else.
Then came the
election of 1980—and the most backward and reactionary forces in the country
came together to back Ronald Reagan for president. Once elected he pushed back
abortion rights, labor union rights, and he put this country on a cold
war/imperialist direction. Reagan came down hard on all drugs including
marijuana.
Reagan, with
the help of his wife Nancy, convinced many parents that smoking or possessing
small amounts of marijuana contribute to big-time-drug dealers and the
murderous activities they used to conduct their business. In the 1980s this
country had a crack cocaine epidemic and it was used to scare a lot of people
away from legalizing marijuana.
In the last
few years there have been plenty of efforts to finally legalize marijuana in
some places and decriminalize it in others.
As a young
high school student I really liked to smoke marijuana. Today I don’t like it as
well as I used to. For most of my life I have felt that punishing drug users
with jail time made no sense. It becomes a matter of personal freedom. Why do
government officials get to decide what I can put in my own body? I can see the
government having the right to regulate products that are sold to us, but if a
person has something they want to use, it should be a matter of personal
choice. Our government and many of our leaders struggle to keep poor people
from getting badly needed medical care. Why should these same leaders stop
those of us who want to use some type of self medication?
The history of
marijuana prohibition has been fraught with racism and hypocrisy. La Cucaracha, is a song about a
pot smoking cockroach. It is evidence that marijuana smoking was prevalent
among Mexican workers before the drug was banned here in the US.
Marijuana has
become a part of US culture. There are songs about it. Many of our nations’
artists and writers have been influenced by it. From
Cheech & Chong to David Peel and The Lower East Side marijuana is
everywhere. Some celebrities, such as Louis Armstrong, used to smoked marijuana
discretely.
It is my hope
that marijuana will be legalized nation-wide and eventually the war on drugs
will die out and get buried.
-សតិវ អតុ
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