This editorial was published March 27:
"LET'S DO this the right way and work with the coalition across the state. If people don't like that and don't want to vote for it, they don't have to. We can't sit here and keep it criminalized with no policy at all instead of supporting incremental change."
The above comment was made back in 2016 as a national group was trying to legalize medical marijuana in these several states. The spokesman for the group let it slip that medical marijuana was just the first step, and incremental change was the way to get the group's goals past the American voter.
After medical marijuana was legalized, of course recreational marijuana would be the next logical step, and it was. And the steps keep coming. Sometimes nearer the edge of the cliff.
A growing minority of states (including some big ones) have already legalized weed for those over 21. According to a recent story in Politico: "Oregon led the nation when voters approved a ballot measure in 2020 to legalize and regulate psilocybin therapy, alongside another decriminalizing drug possession more broadly. Voters in cities such as Denver, Oakland and Washington, D.C., have also pulled back on enforcing laws against magic mushrooms and other plants that contain psychedelic compounds. Now, these ideas have spread to a politically disparate collection of states such as Utah, Missouri, Connecticut, New Jersey, Texas and California."
Ah, yes, Oregon. It "led" the nation.
We remember when voters there became the first state to "decriminalize" possession of all drugs in that state. (Many drugs are still illegal to sell, but being in possession isn't a state crime. Marijuana remains fully legal.) And now that the gateway is open, those pushing mushrooms want to walk through the turnstile.
There are some who think this stuff might help those with mental illness. There are people who say 'shrooms could help veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and others who suffer from anxiety and depression.
We scarcely know where to start. How about here: How is giving somebody a trip going to help their PTSD or depression? Could that be akin to throwing gasoline on a fire?
Again, according to the story in Politico: "While researchers focus on the benefits of psychedelic therapy, there's little analysis seeking to understand how to help people who have a difficult experience while taking these drugs--a significant minority based on the available data. 'This is a glaring hole in the research,' said Jules Evans, an honorary research fellow at Queen Mary University of London who is seeking funding to conduct empirical research on how to help people who experience difficult trips. 'Imagine if NASA spent all its money researching how to take people into space, and invested nothing on how to bring people back to Earth.'"
That's the word from somebody who is in favor of decriminalizing these drugs.
Bottom line: There isn't near enough research about these drugs to turn them loose on the country. If they "help" with a particular kind of mental condition, imagine all the ways these trips could inflame other kinds.
Some of us knew this debate would come. And we'd have to try to hold the door shut against magic mushrooms and heroin and cocaine and whatever comes next. But now that the door, or at least the gateway, has been pushed open, the pushers are trying to charge through.
And this time, the pushers aren't just pushing weed.