Dori Monson: I was wrong to vote for legalizing marijuana

Taken from Friday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.

How many times do I go on the radio and say I was wrong about something?

Not often. I love coming on and saying I told you so and I predicted this and I called it. But the one time I went along with the crowd, I was wrong.

You see kind of a hallmark of my show and it’s not by design, but I tend to be the contrarian in the Seattle, greater Puget Sound area. Whoever I vote for loses. Whatever cause I vote for loses. I am the minority voice of the Puget Sound region.

So there was one issue that I voted for that the majority agreed with me on, and that was the legalization of marijuana.

I voted for legalization of marijuana for purely libertarian reasons. I think if people want to mess up their brains and mess up their lives, they should be free to do so, just as they’re free to do so with alcohol.

For a variety of reasons, I thought legalization of marijuana would be a net positive for our region, for our society. I think I was wrong about that because of what I’m seeing.

There was a story Thursday about drug and alcohol use increasing at Roosevelt High School. According to the Q13 story, there’s been an increase in pot use around the state. Students are drinking less, but they’re smoking a lot more weed.

It’s getting tougher and tougher to educate kids too, when the Seattle Police Department makes smoking weed a big joke and passes out bags of Doritos at Hempfest. I didn’t know Seattle police were going to turn smoking weed into a gigantic joke which sends to kids the idea this is really funny. I don’t think it is.

I think it’s fine for adults to make that choice. By the way, I think it’s a dumb choice. But I think people should be free to make dumb choices. I think it’s probably still preferable to alcohol from everything I know, but I’ve never smoked weed.

Also this week, we legalized hash oil. And what we’re looking at in our region – the marijuana that a lot of us grew up knowing about, it’s not nearly as potent as the stuff they’re selling today – and now the hash oil they’re going to sell just amps the potency up to entirely new and higher levels.

Even pets are being impacted. Pets are getting everybody’s edibles. KING 5 has a story that said since the legalization of marijuana, veterinarians have reported seeing an increase in animal THC toxicity. We’ve also had stories of children ingesting pot-laced cookies and brownies.

People are just getting more and more irresponsible with it around their pets, around their children. I should have seen this coming.

I think I screwed up with my yes vote on legalizing marijuana, not because I think that government should tell any of us how to live our lives, but because you cannot ignore these problems. I’m not a blind libertarian idealist where I ignore the realities and the consequences of the ultimate freedom. Seeing all that I’m seeing, I think I screwed up with that vote.

Taken from Friday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.

JS