Just say no thank you

‘Medical’ marijuana back in the news

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

“The people of Arkansas gave medical marijuana a thumbs down. But just barely. The measure got 49 percent of the vote. The state might have dodged that bullet, but there’s no telling when medical marijuana will be back on the ballot in this sometimes all too Natural State.”

-Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 12, 2013 WHO COULD have known that what supporters call “medical” marijuana would have come so close to being available in Arkansas? Back in the fall of 2012, a measure to make medical marijuana legal in this state got 49 percent of the vote.

The good news is that 51 percent was enough to kill the idea. Or at least wound it.

Imagine so slim a margin of victory in a state where you could drive from the Louisiana state line to Missouri without ever going through a wet county. (Note to the curious with a road map: You’d have to drive some back roads, start south of Magnolia and end up somewhere in southeast Missouri, but you could do it.)

And that oh-so-close vote for, and against, medical marijuana came in an election in which Mitt Romney overwhelmingly carried the state. So a lot of Romney voters cast ballots FOR medical marijuana? How ‘bout that? Arkansas’ll fool the experts-and the rest of us-every time.

There’s just no telling with this state’s voters. The classic example: Back in 1968, Arkansas went for a Republican governor (Rockefeller, W.), a Democratic U.S. senator (Fulbright, J.W.) and an independent for president (Wallace, G.). The moral of the story: Watch out if you try to pigeonhole the Arkansas voter.

Those who supported a medical marijuana law last year said they were encouraged by the vote. And they said they’d be back.

They are.

The attorney general of Arkansas, one Dustin McDaniel, certified a ballot title for an outfit called Arkansans for Compassionate Care last week. That means the group can start collecting signatures for another medical marijuana vote. It has until July to collect more than 62,000 signatures from registered voters.

That makes two outfits looking to make medical marijuana legal in this state. Just so far. Another group got its certification a few months back. It may be a little confusing about which is which, and which bunch wants folks to be able to grow their own weed, and which doesn’t. But there’s an easy way to keep everything straight if you don’t want so-called medical marijuana laws in Arkansas: Don’t sign any petition on the subject just now. Just Say No.

Or, better yet, No Thank You. We’re still polite in Arkansas.

NOBODY wants sick folks to suffer even more than they do. Which is no doubt why Arkansans for Compassionate Care gave itself that name. As if the rest of us were Arkansans for Cruel Care.

But please note: Anybody in need of pain relief from the drug in marijuana should be able to get that relief in a pill distributed by a legal, above-the-board pharmacist without the need to have little marijuana farms sprouting all over the Natural State. And we’ve never heard anybody explain, not convincingly anyway, how to keep the medical marijuana in Aunt Sally’s purse out of Little Jenny’s hands.

Colorado passed a medical marijuana law back in 2000. It was only a dozen years later that it went ahead and passed a law allowing for the recreational use of pot, too. Now it’s smoke ’em if you got ‘em in Colorado. Talk about your Rocky Mountain high.

They call marijuana a gateway drug. These medical-marijuana measures are gateway laws. If medical marijuana passes here in Arkansas, how long will it be before recreational use is perfectly legal, too?

Oh, it’s just psychologically addictive, defenders of Mary Jane will say. Though scientists may not. Either way, whether marijuana is psychologically or physically addictive-why can’t it be both?-it can be just as addictive.

Here’s a simple way to avoid all such questions, complications and dangers: Just keep all such laws off the books in Arkansas. So don’t sign those petitions floating around Arkansas. Just say no thank you.

Editorial, Pages 14 on 10/08/2013