I’m a clueless, bleeding-heart, liberal ingrate.
Oh, I must be. Here’s what I should have done after I learned that police in Harford County arrested 62-year-old Bob Chance on marijuana charges and that Prince George’s County police burst into the home of Cheye Calvo and Trinity Tomsic and fatally shot their two dogs in a search for the dreaded weed: I should have dropped to my knees and shouted “PRAISE JESUS! Our courageous mujahideen in the great Jihad against drugs have scored yet another victory over rampant pot smoking!”
But did I do that? Did I show our law enforcement officers in Harford and Prince George’s counties any love at all?
Nope. What did I say?
“So Harford County cops took down a pot-smoking sexagenarian in Harford County, invaded the home of the mayor of Berwyn Heights in PG and fatally shot his two dogs, terrorized him and his mother-in-law — all in order to make sure somebody somewhere doesn’t smoke a joint. Big whoop. I sure don’t feel any safer.”
Am I wrong about this? Am I being a wimpy-pants? I think not. It’s just that I’ve never considered marijuana all that dangerous.
I don’t want anybody to misinterpret what I’m saying, so I’ll make it clear: Marijuana should not only have been legalized, it should have been legalized years ago. The only reason it hasn’t been legalized is because we Americans have a passion for sending dimwits and jellyfish to Congress.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking: This Kane guy either is, or was at one time, a heavy pot smoker.
Well, no, I wasn’t. But like many college kids in the ’70s, (and, I suspect, the ’80s, ’90s and ’00s) I did try it. I didn’t get high, because I didn’t inhale.
I know what you’re thinking again: Ah, another one of those characters who claims he tried it and didn’t inhale. But that’s a fact. I just couldn’t bring myself to willingly inhale smoke into a pair of perfectly good lungs. I guess I’m funny that way.
But I have to admit, if someone had, on a regular basis, baked marijuana into, say, oatmeal raisin cookies and served them up to me on a daily basis, it’s possible I might have spent most of my college years higher than Pigmeat Markham’s Georgia pine.
My pot-using days are more than 30 years behind me. I wish America could say the same about the “War On Drugs” — or at least the war on marijuana. Really, what sane society declares war on a drug that’s less harmful than alcohol, tobacco and some drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that there are about 19,000 alcohol-related deaths each year. The CDC also claims that there are 400,000 deaths from tobacco annually, although scholars for the Cato Institute put that figure around 100,000.
Some folks at a Web site called www.medicalmarijuanaprocon.org compared deaths from the medical use of marijuana to 17 FDA-approved drugs from Jan. 1, 1997, to June 30, 2005. The total number of deaths, from all causes, related to the medical use of marijuana was 275. The total number of deaths related to the medical use of the FDA-approved drugs?
Oh, about 11,687.
The anti-marijuana horde running roughshod over the nation — and over the Bill of Rights and a few dozen federalist principles, I might add — will cavalierly dismiss that data. But they can’t dismiss some tough questions.
Chance was charged with intent to distribute marijuana grown on his farm. If convicted, he stands to lose the farm. Does that punishment fit the crime? (Note to the horde: See the Eighth Amendment. It’s the one sandwiched in there between Amendments Seven and Nine about excessive fines.)
Calvo and his wife were cleared of marijuana charges. Prince George’s County police later arrested two men who, police said, were involved in a scheme to distribute marijuana by shipping the drug to the addresses of unknowing recipients. Calvo and Tomsic were two such recipients.
The question in the case of Calvo and Tomsic is this: Was the juice worth the squeeze? Was catching the two culprits worth having Calvo and his mother-in-law lie on the floor next to two dead dogs? Was it worth killing the dogs?
If the marijuana had reached its ultimate destination, what would have happened? Someone would be smoking a joint even as you read this. And we can’t have that, now can we?
Gregory Kane is a columnist who has been writing about Maryland and Baltimore for more than 15 years. Look for his columns in the editorial section every Thursday and Sunday.
