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Political Commentary>
Gangland Politics.
January 18, 2010
Colorado is in a battle. Ignoring warnings of what might happen if it passed, voters based on compassionate arguments approved an ordinance permitting medical use of marijuana. It was a measure intended to help those people with severe illnesses, primarily cancer, to manage pain and nausea. As with all “do good” ideas, it is now a disaster.
Our new president has decided not to enforce federal marijuana laws. How the president can do that when we are a nation that respects the “rule of law” is not clear to me, but he has put the kibosh on law enforcement agencies enforcing federal laws on the books.
Marijuana supporters are big supporters of the president, too. It looks like another payback to his constituency, and for Colorado dispensaries this has unleashed opportunity. With profits of $30,000 a month, it is no surprise that owning a dispensary has become a coveted line of work.
Denver has more pot dispensaries than liquor stores and Starbucks coffee shops. The University of Colorado in Boulder has 8 pot shops in its immediate vicinity. Who would have thought so many students needed medical marijuana? Has college become that “painful”? With its permanent population of 3500, Breckenridge — a ski town with an altitude of 10,000 feet and a place where sick people don’t congregate — has four. Clearly, those dispensaries are not aimed at the local citizenry.
20,000 applications for medical marijuana were processed in Denver for the month of September last year. There were 1650 last Tuesday alone. At that rate, we’ll see 30,000 more potheads in Colorado this month. The average age of applicants is 24-years old. We now know that fifteen doctors have prescribed medical marijuana for 11,000 patients.
Rumors abound in Denver that the suppliers for the dispensaries are none other than the Mexican drug cartels, who are killing each other for the privilege. So we in Colorado are now “inviting” with open arms the drug cartels to please collaborate with us to make these thousands of 24-year olds happy. This is gangland politics. The citizens of Colorado who patronize the dispensaries are paying for the weapons used by the cartels to kill the Mexican police trying to stop the flow of drugs into our state.
We were told that legalizing marijuana would take away the criminal element. Tell outspoken legislators receiving death threats for wanting to rein in the dispensaries how legalization of marijuana has removed the criminal element.
Death threats! Will it take someone getting beheaded in Colorado before people are willing to see what has been wrought?
This lunacy — no, let’s call it what it is: idiocy — of our politicians and our local newspaper here in Colorado Springs that have fought for this measure is inexcusable. Our Democratically controlled legislature of course has no problem with this new phenomenon. It would be interesting to know how many of them have been prescribed medical marijuana. On second thought, maybe it is better that we don’t know.
Denver Mayor Hickenlooper, the new candidate for governor put forward by the Democrats at the behest of the DNC, is a strong supporter of legalized marijuana. Should we be surprised?
Small cities across The Netherlands, where pot has been dispensed for decades to visiting potheads from around Europe and the world, are closing the doors of their local “Coffee Shops”. They are tired of the 25,000 potheads from France and Belgium who invade their locales each weekend to get high. They are also tired of the petty crime that accompanies the influx of these fine citizens.
Amsterdam reduced the number of shops by 80% and continues to drive the number lower. Can we not learn from the Dutch example? Why must we repeat their mistake before ratcheting this whole system down?
The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again while expecting something different to happen. Drug users and potheads are the same the world over, and if they are a problem in The Netherlands they will be a problem in America.
Why must we indulge the insanity of our president and the Democratic coalition that supports drug legalization?
Health problems, absenteeism, and reduced productivity loom over the horizon.
It is another reason to throw the bums out of Denver and Washington, and start over again.
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