Good luck to the people of Colorado. They’ve made it easier for drug cartels to tap into their children’s latent desire to experiment with marijuana.
Adults 21 and older now can buy marijuana legally for recreational use in Colorado. As of Thursday, residents and visitors can go to a state-regulated pot center, ask for an ounce or less, and pay the over-the-counter price. Just like the Obamacare rollout, no one knows exactly what they’re getting; Colorado hasn’t established a price structure, leading one Denver shop to sell one-eighth of an ounce of “high-quality” marijuana for $70. That’s in sharp contrast to state-licensed pot centers filling medical prescriptions at $25 an ounce.
It also creates a new governmental bureaucracy of state-paid pot shop inspectors, and all the expenses that come with it. Anyone who thinks tax revenue from pot sales will pay for Colorado’s new schools and roads is seriously deluding themselves.
So while the adults turn to pot for recreational purposes, what are the kids to think? In this case, they might be just as confused as their pot-smoking parents.
No doubt, kids below the age of 21 will be out to experiment with marijuana, knowing the worst that can happen is a civil penalty and small fine.
And since they can’t buy it legally like their parents, they’ll get it from drug dealers who now have a better mass market than previously when pot was outlawed. Why’s that? First, drug dealers will set prices that undercut the Colorado-regulated market. Second, the drug dealers probably will be kids themselves, taking advantage of a loosey-goosey situation to make a few bucks. Third, there will be parents who, believing they are protecting the children, will insist that the kids smoke pot at home under adult supervision.
This is a Colorado crisis in waiting. Over time the legalized use of a drug that impairs judgment will lead to dangerous consequences and have a deleterious impact on society. It’s too bad the children are caught in the middle of the adults’ urge for getting high for fun.
Massachusetts must resist the temptation to follow Colorado’s delusion. We’ve already legalized medicinal marijuana and that should be the extent of it.
Source: www.sentinelandenterprise.com 5th Jan.2014
