Doobie Doobie Do! Or Not?

Follow me on ...

I’m not even sure if they still call them a doobie these days. I was a teenager in the 1970’s and it wasn’t uncommon for my friends to light one up. Do you believe the consumption of marijuana should be legalized?

Before I get started here, let’s clarify that this isn’t my opinion as opposed to me just “Thinking Out Loud”. I still have a lot of questions and thinking to do before forming an opinion. I have no factual evidence to offer but just hope to prompt some questions and dialogue.

REASONS NOT TO SMOKE DOOBIES

Smoking marijuana may cause cancer.
Marijuana may be a gateway to much harder drugs.
Currently brings you closer to the criminal element.
May be emotionally if not physically addictive.

I can tell you that when I was selling life insurance, they said they tested for the presence of cotinine to determine if you smoke. The test wouldn’t actually identify if it was cigarettes or nicotine. We were expected to ask the questions and make clear that the presence of cotinine would show up for at least 30 days and could result in higher rates or possibly refusal to insure if it turned out you lied about smoking either cigarettes or doobies. End result – you could cost your family because you tried to hide the fact you smoked they might not have to honour your policy after you died because it was proven you were a smoker and didn’t declare it.

When an insurance company is deciding how much to charge you for insurance, they need to know the risk to them. Basically, life insurance is a bet on your life. Your smoking marijuana indicates that you are a person who will take some degree of risk. The same can be said for cigarettes. The difference is that marijuana is considered an illicit drug and your use means you associate with people who are willing to take risks that others won’t, including associating with criminals who live in a more dangerous world.

Insurance companies ask about how much you drink to determine if you may have an addictive personality and to see if you may be at risk to further health complications like liver disease. I believe the addictive personality is likely more drawn to marijuana because of the euphoria produced while smoking. This may not be a physical addiction but sometimes the power of the mind is greater than the power of the body itself.

REASONS YOU MAY WANT OR NEED TO USE CANNABIS

You are managing pain and/or appetite for very real physical reasons.
You believe there may be an alternative to traditional medicine.
You have an addictive personality and need a substitute for something more harmful.

There are many different ailments that cause chronic pain. Most of the pain management drugs tend to be addictive and have potentially harmful side effects. The drug industry claims there is huge cost to producing these drugs and charge accordingly. If you don’t have a good drug plan, you may not be able to afford the drugs you need. Or, you may be denied access to potentially beneficial drugs because it hasn’t been approved in this country.

I heard someone comment on CBC Radio during a discussion on legalizing the use of marijuana that they substitute this drug for other more harmful drugs because they have an addictive personality and this allows them to feed that need in a less destructive way. For others, they found dope to be a more natural alternative to chemical drug therapy and easier on their bodies.

SHOULD THE USE OF POT BE LEGALIZED?

This question itself may be faulty.

Current discussion seems to focused on making a controlled substance. The “medical mafia” would love nothing more!

Pharmaceutical companies could then take control of distribution with the full blessing of government and society in general under the guise of safety. Prices will be inflated due to the cost of research, processing and marketing for something that can grow like a weed in your back yard. Now we can have GMO pot with all it’s inherent health risks and believe we are safe because it’s controlled and distributed by pharmaceutical companies and government agencies.

Pot could potentially become more expensive than the opioids currently on the market and because of the increased demand, everyone has some kind of pain or other condition that needs to be managed, the cost of drug plans sky rockets. Government has another cash cow with the taxation that would naturally follow.

A better question might be “Should it be legal for individuals to grow marijuana and process it for personal use?”.

Make it illegal to produce for profit or financial gain. This is a weed, literally. This may well be the best thing for mankind and we are going to make it unaffordable by legalizing the use of marijuana and attaching controls that will yet again add to government coffers and feed the might pharma companies.