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Jewish World Review Oct. 22, 2010 / 14 Mar-Cheshvan, 5771 Will ‘blood on hands’ argument deter pot use? By Betsy Hart
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
I have no problem with marijuana being used to genuinely relieve discomfort for the ill. But I am concerned about the sloppy movement in that direction -- and things like the marijuana "truffle shop."
I recently strolled past one of countless such legal dispensaries all over Colorado that make pot and presumably other hallucinogens that seem like no big deal to kids. They are a big deal.
Meanwhile, California is likely to make marijuana legal for adults, when folks there vote on a referendum to that end on Nov. 2.
It never ceases to amaze me that the same people who act like one cigarette will literally kill you -- and run if they are within a one-mile radius when you light up -- are some of the same ones arguing that the right to freely and regularly inhale pot deep into their lungs is some sort of civil right.
Anyway, at the moment marijuana's recreational use remains illegal and will likely stay that way in most of the country. So while there are lots of good reasons to not use pot, I recently explained to my children something they hadn't probably considered before: When they see news of innocent people dying in the drug war in Mexico, or kids getting killed over drug wars on the streets of Chicago, my children have to consider that if they ever buy pot or any illegal drug then they have blood on their hands too. They are enabling the drug wars.
I'm not sure outright legalization of marijuana would change that picture much, by the way. These things have a way of not being very predictable, and leading to lots of unintended consequences.
In any event, respected national surveys suggest that about 40 percent of high school students have tried or now use marijuana. That means there are a lot of parents who are naive (part of the "my kid would never do that crowd") or they are deliberately turning a blind eye to their child's illicit drug use or they somewhere else on that continuum.
So then the parents might at some level be enabling the drug trade too? All those parents who are so relieved they live in affluent suburbs -- far away from the violence of those "inner city kids" -- are part of the reason those poor kids are often living violent lives, if their own children are using illegal drugs and they aren't doing everything possible to stop them.
So I talked to my kids about the children who live in the crime-ridden areas of Chicago, those innocents who will likely never have the chances my children do. For those inner-city kids, every day is about survival, about walking to school without getting shot, in part because the gangs in their neighborhoods are battling over who gets to sell drugs to the affluent kids in the suburbs. I reiterated to my children that if they ever partake in such a transaction no matter how minimally, they share in the guilt of the perpetrators of the violence -- many of whom become victims of the violence themselves of course.
Do I think my children are moved by the "blood on their hands" argument and that will keep them away from pot and other drugs? I have no idea. But at least it's a way of communicating to them that a decision about illegal drug use, like almost any moral decision, isn't just about them as the "make good choices" campaigns consistently reiterate.
It's about a community they are part of, and have a responsibility to, even if it's far away. Today we don't often look at moral issues that way. Too bad. That may be when it's most likely to "take a village."
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. JWR contributor Betsy Hart, a frequent commentator on CNN and the Fox News Channel, can be reached by clicking here.
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