It is time for West Virginia to come out of the dark ages and not be last in everything. West Virginia should consider passing laws decriminalizing recreational use of marijuana, or, at the very least, to legalize medical marijuana.
As a past criminal defense lawyer and assistant prosecutor, and now as a Family Court Judge, the editor of the Commentator has witnessed the inordinate time, effort, and money wasted on prosecutions of people possessing or using recreational amounts of marijuana. We allow sale and use of tobacco and alcohol products that have known adverse health effects and cause societal problems. We justify the same by warning people of its dangers. The same can be done with recreational marijuana use, and the State can profit from taxing marijuana sales, from business revenues created by start up marijuana farms, and by increased jobs and income tax revenue. Four states have legalized recreational use and are raking in tens of millions of dollars in tax revenues, curing budget problems in those states.
Overwhelming numbers of medical studies point to the benefits of prescribed marijuana to treat cancers, chronic conditions, seizure disorders, and more. The federal government now allows Veterans' Administration doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to its patients. Sixteen states have legalized medical marijuana, as have the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico. West Virginia should join that crowd at the very least.
Some people claim marijuana is a gateway drug to other dangerous drugs. Studies on that claim are contradictory at best. Further, with marijuana illegal, people turn to the black market which leads to other drugs from the drug dealers. Legal, regulated sale and use of recreational marijuana could actually help a drop in hard drug use, as the experience in Colorado proves (their teen and adult drug use has dropped since legalization of marijuana).
If West Virginia waits until every other state legalizes recreational marijuana and/or legalizes medical marijuana, West Virginia will miss out on a golden opportunity to cash in on all the economic benefits from legalization. Our State is in desperate financial times with the declining and soon to be non-existent coal revenues. Legalization of marijuana in some form (medical or otherwise) can help to fill those revenue gaps.
Kanawha County House of Delegate member Mike Pushkin recently introduced a bill in the West Virginia legislature to decriminalize recreational marijuana. The Commentator urges our local Delegate Dana Lynch and local State Senators Greg Boso and Robert Karnes to support these measures and at the very least to legalize medical marijuana.
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