by Robert M. Traxler
Our esteemed editor penned an editorial, “American politicians don’t care what we want.“ In it he sang the praises of legalizing marijuana and abortion at the national level. He also wrote that the corporations, not the people, rule our nation, but forgot the existence of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and that we are a constitutional republic, not a democracy. Let me provide a counter point.
In the last four national elections, the Democrats have been paid off by corporations more than Republicans. Strange how the editorial forgets that. American corporations are polluting more than they did several decades ago, a good bit more — they are just doing it in China, and the progressives just do not give a damn, as they are paid off by the corporations with money laundered through the environmental corporations.
Please google ‘pollution in China’ and count the dead, but the American progressives/socialists tell themselves they are saving the world by banning oil production in our nation, indeed on our continent. Oil shipped by tankers burning millions of gallons of diesel is better than a pipeline from Canada, and a pipeline is also an environmental threat to our existence? Go figure.
The Exxon Valdez supertanker sprung a leak, dumping 11 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound in Alaska, a disaster that would (according to the environmental movement at the time) destroy the planet. It is a disaster that is conveniently forgotten as we ship crude oil in by supertanker from around the world.
The American Lung Association stated: “Smoke is harmful to lung health. Whether from burning wood, tobacco or marijuana, toxins and carcinogens are released from the combustion of materials. Smoke from marijuana combustion has been shown to contain many of the same toxins, irritants and carcinogens as tobacco smoke. Beyond just what’s in the smoke alone, marijuana is typically smoked differently than tobacco. Marijuana smokers tend to inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than cigarette smokers, which leads to a greater exposure per breath to tar.”
Many of us smoked cigarettes and laughed at the warnings in the 1960s and into the ’70s. If we were not so stupid, we would have listened, but the government at least warned us; with marijuana not so much or not at all. Mark this, your grandchildren will suffer from the lack of caution in smoking/using marijuana, as our generation was with tobacco. If we add in the known brain damage tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) causes, and you need to keep telling yourself, it is healthy and a good thing to do cannabis in its various forms.
And don’t get me started on our government clandestinely working to censor only conservatives on Twitter. The open-source facts have been released by Twitter and are in black and white, in the emails from twitter, government officials and the democrats, all ignored by the socialist media.
The standard rebuttal to marijuana use is that it is not as bad as alcohol. OK, a rattlesnake bite is not as bad as a king cobra’s bite, so is it good to be bitten by a rattler? The lame argument forgets that we do not need to use either drug. The medical use is another canard. It absolutely does help a very few folks; however, drugs are available that do the same thing and do not add to the risk of cancer and brain damage.
The United States of America is a constitutional republic, not a democracy. The elected officials need to do things the majority of people do not approve of, and a full-blown democracy would be an unworkable disaster. The founders developed a system of checks and balances to ensure big government did not act like a king and his court. A House of Representatives full of hotheads, but a Senate that was more deliberate and cautious — it has worked for centuries and has been imitated to some degree by nearly every nation on earth. Our system may not, indeed is not perfect, but it is the best in the world.
My Opinion.
Mr. Traxler,
I would like to offer a couple of my own observations to your response to the esteemed editor of Townbroadcast.
You claim that marijuana has benefits to “a very few folks.” I’d like to know by what standard you make that claim. Do you have specific numbers to support it? I doubt that there are such numbers, for the simple reason that THC hasn’t been studied much for the medical benefits across the board, from pain relief to mental health disorders, probably because it’s not a legal drug that can be studied. I admit I have not done my own research to verify or deny your claim, but I think it’s worth a look before definitive claims are made on either side.
You also say that there are “other” drugs that do the same things as weed without risk of brain damage or cancer. I’d be curious what those other drugs are. I’ve tried a fair number of legally prescribed drugs for pain relief, most of which have been relatively ineffective against my sometimes debilitating, chronic back pain, whereas an occasional hit of legal pot has been far more effective. I am acquainted with a couple of other folks who are afflicted with far more intense, on-going pain (from other causes) than what I experience, and because of the “new” restrictions on opioids they cannot receive these drugs in adequate quantities or in strong enough dosages for their pain. Opioids are, indeed, more effective than marijuana, but they can’t legally get them through their doctors. Greed, both legal (corporate) and illegal (cartels), have caused legislative restrictions on available drugs like opioids. At the same time other drugs like pot and mushrooms are unavailable, even through medical exception, in many states. On a national level we don’t address these discrepancies. And we should, in my not-so-humble opinion.
Although this point is not germane to the issue of pot, per se, have you listened to the lists of side effects of newer drugs in general, as advertised on television for relief of a plethora of afflictions, to be aware of the horrific things they can and do to our bodies? The lists of organs compromised by them seem to go on forever. The cancers they can cause are numerous. I can’t prove it, but I doubt seriously that weed can have nearly the number of deleterious effects on the system that many modern drugs can and do have. But, then, have either been studied to the extent that they should have been? I don’t believe so. But I think they are all worthy of research and valid citations before we make absolute claims to their veracity.
The United States of America is, indeed, one of the greatest nations so far devised by humans.
But even with its checks and balances it is failing in many aspects of late. Specifically, the decision by the Supreme Court that corporations may be interpreted and given freedoms as individuals has been, in my opinion, a major mistake. The ability of corporations to donate to political causes and candidates as if they were individuals is the primary example.
The politicization of the Supreme Court since the Trump era has also had a deleterious effect on checks and balances. Theological biases of several Supremes have unconstitutionally affected the ruling regarding Roe v Wade. The failure of one Supreme in particular, because of perceived conflicts of interest, to recuse himself from certain cases has also had dangerous implications to the cause of justice. Clarence Thomas has, in my opinion, acted outside the bounds of ethics on issues where his spouse is involved.
I marvel at your ability to blind yourself to the reasons why ours is not, in 2022, the greatest nation in the world.
It is not.
But it could be.
Marinol is a prescribed medication that performs many tasks that pot smoker claim they desire. But for some reason many prefer to inhale smoke filled with who knows what. Much of the street pot is grown in the wonderful area of Latin America. We all know the high standards that represents. Sad that some keep promoting what many, many believe is a gateway drug. My opinion. My choice.
David, David,David
Once again your attempt to camouflage your dislike for certain ethnic groups has become apparent. Have you spent any time in Latin America? How are you able to judge the standards of the Latino peoples?
You may be too young to have ever heard about opinions. Opinions are like armpits some of them stink. But as you say, it’s your choice.
It’s possible a shower is in the future.
Sir,
There is a reason hordes of folks sneak across our southern border. They are coming here to escape corruption, lawlessness and extreme poverty. Perhaps you should read about the contents of pot from down there. Many pesticides and chemicals we have eliminated are widely used. Oh yes. My opinion, my choice.
Harry, Harry, Harry.
If you read closely you’d see that David wasn’t casting aspersions on the Latin people. He was referring to the questionable ways in which pot is grown and tainted before export to our country.
A wise man is careful about accusing someone of racism where there may be none.
By the way, the legal THC products that are available in states like AZ adhere to specific, reliable standards. They are grown, hybridized, and blended to achieve different effects for different ailments and desires. And not all “pot” is smoked like a cigarette. There are a variety of ways that marijuana can be ingested without inhaling the bud.
Not all users of marijuana products are promoters of marijuana use.