Thursday, November 3, 2016

Massachusetts Ballot Questions: Question Four

Question Four on the Massachusetts ballot concerns the legalization of marijuana.

I'm voting yes on question four.

I don't smoke marijuana.  I smoked it a couple times between high school and college and that was over twenty years ago.  So I do have some basis of understanding marijuana.  I've also smoked tobacco a few times over the years.  Single cigarettes here and there and the last time I tried one was when it was still legal to smoke in bars in Massachusetts.  My memories of smoking marijuana area about the same as smoking a cigarette.  I got about the same impact from smoking marijuana as I did a cigarette.  If tobacco hadn't of been big business when marijuana was made illegal you can bet tobacco would have gone that path too.  And then there's alcohol.  I don't see much difference between the impacts of alcohol and marijuana either.  The new law would only make marijuana legal for people over twenty-one, just like alcohol and tobacco.  I don't see any big difference between marijuana, tobacco and alcohol.  Alcohol and tobacco are legal.  Marijuana should be too.

I'm also a believer in the legalize it and tax it approach.  Right now we have a pretty big black market for marijuana.  None of that is taxed.  Legalize it and tax it.  Bring in new revenue to the state.

Lastly I'm a fan of personal rights.  Adults over twenty-one are fully capable of making their own decision to smoke marijuana or not.  We can put the same curbs on it as we do alcohol.

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