Want More Crime in Idaho? Legalize Marijuana!

One of our state’s leading marijuana proponents sent me a poison pen email.  It was early last week.  He demanded to know why I denounce pot smoking but not drag shows for kids.  I sent him a couple of links to stories I posted a few days earlier about drag shows.  I guess he missed them due to the haze, I told him.  He then wrote back and said I assumed he was a stoner, but possibly he isn’t.  Another reply was truly needed from me.  I suggested I didn’t know him, don’t have any interest in friendship, and suggested I could’ve been talking about wildfire smoke.  Haven’t heard from him since, but let me toss some bait on the water.

Here’s a link from the Washington Examiner.  The conservative website follows a story from the liberal Los Angeles Times, which looked at the impact of legalizing marijuana.  The liberal paper found crime and corruption on a grand scale.  Yes, we need more crime in Idaho!

I remember a conversation I had 30 years ago with a guy I knew who was a police officer and a lawyer.  The subjects were drugs, gambling, and prostitution.  He explained we would treat these as crimes as long as people wanted us to keep their streets clean.  He meant a majority, or if you like, a majority of voters.

You can tell me we still have all these things despite the laws.  True, and we still have drunk drivers.  Does that mean we should legalize driving under the influence?

I heard Governor Little on the most recent episode of Keep Idaho Red Radio.  He explained fentanyl is killing one-third of all users.  I’m all for cracking down on fentanyl trafficking, even if there are going to be people who still buy and sell the deadly drug.  It's the same with a wide assortment of other social ills.