I’m not sure what Palm Coast City Council members have been smoking, but it can’t possibly be good. Their dealer in weedy thinking must be the Flagler Beach City Commission, which started this craziness locally, though they’re unfortunately not alone in Florida.
Two months ago Flagler Beach passed an ordinance that handles the presence of medical marijuana in the city as if it were a strain of the Ebola virus. The restrictions are laughable. Flagler Beach is forbidding anyone from standing, sitting or just hanging around a potential pot dispensary in the city, as if two or more people gathered in pot’s name could foment a coup. It wants a 2,500-foot buffer from schools, churches, day care facilities, public parks and any other dispensary, because health joints and strip joints are really indistinguishable. And, get this: no drive-through service. So it’s OK to clog our arteries and slurp diabetes at McDonalds’ drive-through but god forbid we should treat the diseases at a pot drive-through.
Mind you, the stuff hasn’t been legalized yet, though Floridians seem to support medical marijuana by a 9-1 margin, making the passage of the proposed constitutional amendment in November more than likely. Flagler Beach is among the few cities that are taking the reefers by the horn and passing prohibition-like ordinances ahead of time. Palm Coast appears eager to do the same soon.
There are innumerable problems with that. Let me just cite three. First, if 90 percent of Floridians want medical marijuana, five moralists on a government board should not presume to stand in their way anymore than they should declare that gay marriage, once it’s legalized, and that will be very soon, can only be performed under an I-95 overpass at night, as long as the moon isn’t out.
Second, the amendment makes very clear that regulation is in the hands of the Department of Health, not local government. And it does so because it foresaw that letting local governments have at it would make a mockery of the amendment. Flagler Beach and Palm Coast are exhibits Cheech and Chong. Not that the state is showing itself anymore pro-pot than PolPot with its draconian regulations on that meager little Charlotte’s Web strain of marijuana it just legalized. If that’s an indication of how the leafier weed will be regulated after November, Sharia-inspired local governments have nothing to fear. The emasculation of the law will be done for them.
Third, and most importantly, medical marijuana is not a scourge, and its users should not be treated like you treat sex offenders, who also have to contend with those church-park-school buffers. Those who’d qualify for medical marijuana–and again, the state’s regulations on that score are, judging from the amendment’s requirements, going to be quite strict–are ill and need help alleviating their suffering. Let’s not double up on their aggravations with niggling harassment. Granted: many of the illnesses medical pot proponents say will be helped by weed have little to no reliable proof for their claims. But that’s mostly because the federal government prevents the sort of broad research that would buttress anecdotal evidence with fact. And what evidence does exist on certain illnesses shows pot to be a clear benefit in alleviating pain.
But even if the argument were to favor recreational marijuana, keeping the stuff criminalized is unjustified. Marijuana itself is far less of a danger to one’s health than alcohol or tobacco. And if the choice is between getting drunk and getting high, potheads wins every time: they don’t go on violent rampages, they’re more likely to offer their wives foot-massages than beat them, they’re not nearly as dangerous behind the wheel, and their body will be more grateful than damaged.
Marijuana’s problem is not marijuana. It’s misinformation. Coming around a few decades too late, The New York Times has spent this entire week devoting a series of epic editorials arguing that marijuana, not just medical marijuana, should be legalized, that marijuana laws are racist, pointlessly costly and misinformed, and that a society that celebrates drinking and tolerates smoking has not a twig to stand on by keeping marijuana criminal. Or marginal.
But the misinformation is so ingrained and so embarrassing that its purveyors, those same smug, self-righteous know-nothings who are passing these local ordinances, are indistinguishable from the Inquisition that declared Galileo a heretic for claiming that earth revolves around the sun. It took the church 400 years to come to its senses, as Pope John Paul II did in 1992 when he offered regret at the way Galileo was treated. He must have had a good hit of Lebanese hash before that divine revelation.
Let’s hope the dope heads waging war on marijuana realize a bit sooner that they have no business cross-dressing as Grand Inquisitors.
Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. Reach him by email here. A version of this piece was broadcast on WNZF.
rickg says
Wow great work Pierre. The nail has been hit on its head.
Mary Jane says
The line about the pope and the Lebanese hash made me cough up my pepsi thru my nose. FUNNY !!!
Anonymous says
When does the government start discussing medical cocaine?
John Smallberries says
Cocaine is medically scheduled and has a number of uses. Hope that helps!
jennifer Lopez says
never
KB63 says
Come on Bunnell, we can welcome these legitimate businesses – we need the revenue!!
Bill says
I see this ‘medical” pot as the wrong way to go. its just a way to get around the laws on pot for many. Im voting NO but would vote YES if it was to legalize/decriminalize it all together.
Austin says
It’s a first step in that direction. Would never be able to go straight to legalization. Not in Florida anyway.
Anonymous says
To the editor….well said…..
John Bozzo says
I wonder what distance requirements Palm Coasts sets for alcohol and/or tobacco sales and consumption from schools, churches etc.
Until we have legalization we won’t have the research we need to realize the full medical benefits of marijuana, as well as the many products possible from hemp.
Wishful Thinking says
Pierre,
Your very best yet….For those super religious so called rightious whoevers let’s not forget that GOD grows pot – God does not grow ‘processed’ cocaine ( the cocoa leaf yes but not the end product)…. and GOD does not grow booze… Amen
just saying says
Sweet, does that mean hemlock tea and magic mushrooms next? Let’s start eating/smoking all of the nightshade family too, after all they are naturally grown.
Austin says
Why not? I Don’t see anything wrong with adults having the choice to put what they want into their own body.
anonymous says
My mother has a cancerous brain tumor and I pray every day medical marijuana, especially the oil, becomes available to her with it’s proven results on shrinking tumors and fighting cancer. She’s never smoked a day in her life, doesnt even drink but is willing to give it a try. I wonder what these councilmen would do if it were their mother, wife, or child. What if this were their child: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/07/health/charlotte-child-medical-marijuana/
Rick says
Unfortunately anonymous it always appears to be a different story when it hits one of their own. One human life is just as valuable as the next in my eyes. Doesn’t make a rats rear difference how or where they’re employed.
Best Wishes & good luck with your Mom.
Bobby says
most well written article that I’ve read lately