Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Maureen Dowd, "Dealing With Pot": A "Great Social Experiment"?

Writing from the "Mile-High City," Maureen Dowd, in her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Dealing With Pot" (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/opinion/dowd-dealing-with-pot.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss), describes Governor John Hickenlooper's reservations concerning Colorado's legalization of marijuana:

"'Great social experiments always have risk,' says Hickenlooper, who, amid floods, fires, droughts and shootings, finds the pot issue bogarting his time. The state, subtly supported by the president and attorney general, must conjure up a regulatory system, sort out legal and banking complexities, and quickly try to head off deleterious effects.

'It’s like opening a restaurant,' the governor says. 'Just because you have three great weeks does not make it a successful restaurant.'"

Legalization of marijuana is a "great social experiment"? "Great" in which sense of the word?

Although its rollout has been a disaster and its implementation could prove even more catastrophic, Obamacare is an enormous "social experiment," introducing socialized medicine to the United States.

The legalization of marijuana, on the other hand, is a non-prescription remedy for the anxiety and pain of an empire in decline.

And whereas the United States may be literally going to pot, Obama's new-found friends in Iran are hanging ever higher numbers of drug offenders (see: http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/2013/02/11/Iran-Drug-Execution-Frenzy-Continues-Year).

In this as yet obscure clash of civilizations, who comes out on top? As Edith Hamilton once wrote:

"When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again."

May the Lord have mercy on us.

No comments:

Post a Comment