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This November, Maine voters will decide if they want to become the fifth state to allow legal dispensaries for patients prescribed medical marijuana. The amount of diseases that qualify for the use of medical marijuana would increase as well.
According to a recent article in the Kennebec Journal, there is no organized opposition to Question 5. Only two state officials have offered a negative stance on the referendum question.
It seems that with issues like gay marriage and TABOR II on the ballot, no one cares about a medical marijuana law. The public’s back is turned because of the economy. Everyone is too worried about paying their bills, being able to retire or even just being able to heat their home this winter. They don’t have time to be bothered with where a glaucoma patient will fill their marijuana prescription.
So with attitudes changing, why stop with legislation affecting medical marijuana users? Let’s go for gusto — I am talking about legalizing marijuana.
The stigma associated with marijuana use has far from faded in our society; yet even pre-occupation could be a step in the right direction. It seems conservative parents are more concerned their son might start experimenting with men rather than experimenting with drugs. This year, during its 40th anniversary, Woodstock was revered as a cultural pinnacle, while forty years ago it was looked down on by adults as a muddy, drug-ridden orgy in the woods.
Even though voters seem to be relaxed about medical marijuana legislation, it is no doubt that people would still be up in arms about the legalization of marijuana for recreational use. Marijuana is still seen as a drug that is abused — not used responsibly. In reality, countless citizens use marijuana maturely every day.
It’s not just high school burnouts and college kids that smoke. Recreational marijuana users are scholars and professors, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, business leaders and presidents. Making these people purchase drugs illegally adds unnecessary danger to one of the most harmless illegal substances.
Legal distribution will create safe environments for patients to purchase marijuana. But why should only the safety of medical users be guaranteed? Forcing recreational marijuana users to buy on the black market puts innocent citizens in harms way — not to mention makes them lawbreakers.
All citizens, regardless of their reason for using the drug, should be able to purchase it safely. Creating a secure method for patients to acquire the drug is a step in the right direction, but this privilege should not be reserved strictly for medical users.
Likening marijuana use to alcohol is an argument countless advocates have made because it makes so much sense. To make one form of mind-numbing social stimulant not only legal but an integral part of culture while another is completely banned is hypocrisy in every sense of the word.
It is unlikely that alcohol and marijuana will ever achieve the same status, but the idea is just so tantalizing. Imagine walking safely into a store full of marijuana guaranteed to be safe, fairly priced and high quality.
Some like-minded individuals are working to put this dream in motion. According to the state of Maine’s Web site, a citizen initiative petition titled “An Act to Repeal the Prohibition on Cannabis, Hemp and Marijuana” is currently approved for circulation for the 2010 ballot. It is doubtful they will gather enough signatures, but if Maine’s voters remain as preoccupied as they have been, perhaps the outlook isn’t so grim for law-abiding citizens who just happen to get high.
Kegan Zema is style editor for The Maine Campus.
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