OPINION: Laws on marijuana use are imperfect by nature
Last week an article in The Statesman covered the hike in marijuana arrests during the 2011 school year. This topic infuriated me — not because I’m particularly adamant on marijuana legalization, but because legal adults who choose to smoke weed are arrested and treated as criminals, often after peers turn them in.
The bottom line is marijuana is illegal in Utah, but that doesn’t make arresting and prosecuting otherwise innocent users a correct or effective strategy for preventing its use.
At various times and in various places, ridiculous — and sometimes beneficial — things have been illegal such as alcohol, eating ice cream in public and interracial marriage. Being a Latter-day Saint was considered illegal in Missouri at one point. Just because something is illegal does not make it morally wrong, and just because something is a law does not make it correct.
Our laws are made by people, which means by default they are flawed and subject to scrutiny. America’s legal system is powerful, partially because it does have the potential to change and adjust along with cultural developments.
Thankfully, a societal evolution is accepting marijuana use, which hopefully means peaceful smokers will no longer be legally harassed over an issue that may decrease crime rates, rather than raise them. But it’s not happening fast enough, and more than 40 students this semester have suffered the consequences.
Everyone has heard the tragic stories resulting in the stupid actions of drunk individuals. These individuals may have caused property damage, personal injury and even the loss of another person’s life, but I haven’t heard one story of someone getting really high, starting a fight or dying of marijuana poisoning.
Not to say there aren’t rare instances someone does something reckless after smoking pot — but you’re better off starting a food fight if you’re looking to cause personal injury. A few college kids sitting at home flying high don’t do much of anything.
Marijuana is also supposedly a gateway drug. Anyone who takes English 2010 knows the logical fallacy of the “slippery slope,” a term referring to the cause and effect of one’s actions, which is only used to create a sense of fear and urgency.
If marijuana is a gateway drug, what is a gateway to marijuana? Smoking cigarettes? If so, is inhaling campfire smoke a gateway to that? Of course, not. Individual choice solely determines the recreational activities one pursues, and marijuana isn’t a gateway to harder drugs any more than watching porn is a gateway to acting out violently or committing sexual crimes.
Though marijuana isn’t addictive or dangerous, those who choose to use it are arrested, jailed, fined and humiliated. Great individuals who get good grades and work hard in school are forced to put their education on hold to deal with criminal charges. Their faces are plastered on the newspapers, their names thrown around like cannabis pollen in the wind by peers who break the law as much as anyone else.
To those who tattle on your smoker friends by calling the police, I view your decision with utter contempt. You’re not calling the police because weed is illegal. If that were the cause, you’d turn yourself in every time you committed a minor traffic violation, which coincidentally can be more dangerous than getting baked on your couch.
No, the police are called out of vainglorious self-righteousness — the same kind of sanctimonious behavior that led angry, unjustified whites to protest integration, and the same kind that led angry Missourians to kill Mormons in the 1800s.
You may choose not to smoke weed, but the conferral of your morals onto others is superfluous. If you don’t like the smell, talk to the smokers. They’ll probably acquiesce your request and seek out another venue, obliging politely.
Think more than twice before you dial 9-1-1 on your roommate, who deserves harsh legal action just as much as you do when you’re speeding on your way to work every day. Smoking weed isn’t going to ruin their life, but getting charged with drug possession will.
Although they are ultimately responsible for their actions, they’ll have you to thank — the individual who turned them in — for the unreasonable consequences.
— Liz Emery is a senior majoring in English creative writing. Her column appears every Wednesday. Comments can be sent to her at liz.emery@yahoo.com.