Dear President Obama,
I grew up in a situation different from you. I grew up around a lot of people who were really messed up on a variety of drugs and alcohol. All of them drank alcohol. Copious amounts of it. My Father tried twice through AA, and was successful the second time. My Mother and Father were both alcoholics. My Mother abused prescription amphetamines, prescription sedatives, and when she died she had a nasty cocktail of amphetamines, anti-depressants, and alcohol in her system. My Father also abused alcohol. He abused prescription stimulants and sedatives. Neither of them were using drugs when this nastiness of crack cocaine, and meth were here.
Nearly every adult in my life as a child drank heavily. Most of them also abused prescription medications that may have been legally prescribed to someone. I don't know. I just know that they were legal with a prescription.
They also happened to smoke cigarettes. My Father has been chewing nicotine gum for the past two decades. He has 13 teeth remaining.
They also happened to smoke marijuana. If they had only smoked marijuana, and not drank to the excess that they drank. If they had only smoked marijuana, and not taken amphetamines with alcohol and anti-depressants.
Our main problem now is not that some people smoke pot, it's that prescription drugs are nearly freely available to anyone who wants to get them.
The deadly prescription drugs that are legal now, are far far far worse than any marijuana.
Marijuana won't kill you. It just won't. There is no argument to be made about that, and I'm sure you're aware of that.
I was diagnosed with epilepsy as a 21 year old. I decided to honor the doctor's request that I not drink alcohol, and I've spent the past 20 years as someone who doesn't drink alcohol. Every once in a while, I'll sip half a beer to avoid being impolite to my host.
I had, of course, been drinking like any idiot young person. I had been drinking, naturally, for a long time as a minor. We would drive around in high school in a friend's car. He would be drunk, and he would be driving with a bottle of Jack Daniels between his legs.
Alcohol was heavily abused by most of my peers in high school. Yet, for some reason, people who smoked pot were viewed as some sort of outcasts. It's a strange thing, isn't it?
Today, I am a Father of two. Both of my children are excellent musicians. My oldest has been among the top chess players for his age in our state- a state that claims many national champions. He is in an advanced placement program, and he plays on the basketball team, the soccer team, and the frisbee team in his middle school. My daughter is a clear leader among her peers. She enjoys music, dance, chess, and just about any other thing that you can imagine.
Guess what?
I smoke pot. I smoke it because I enjoy it. I smoke pot.
It is more pleasant to me than drinking alcohol. I made the mistake of drinking one cosmopolitan some time back. I barfed as soon as I got home. When I was younger and I would drink, I would lose all ability to maintain self control, and I would inevitably do something stupid. Really stupid.
Guess what else?
As a responsible adult, I feel like I am well within my rights as a person to make the choice to wind down differently than you. You like to drink a beer, right? I remember seeing you drinking a beer with the union members. I remember you invited someone to the White House specifically for the purpose of having a beer.
Well, I like to smoke a little bit of weed in the evenings to wind down. And for some reason that is a problem for not just your administration, but the Republican administrations that came before you, and the Democratic ones as well.
In short, this letter is intended to tell you one thing:
Leave me alone.
Stop menacing the people who sell marijuana as a medicine. Stop incarcerating people who smoke pot recreationally.
Just stop it. Leave us alone.
We are not damaging the moral fabric of this nation. We are not infringing on anyone's rights to a healthy environment.
So knock it off. Just leave us alone.
Some people might have problems with marijuana. That's true. It's totally true. And you know what? Those people should be helped,but at least the lack of any physical addictions to marijuana would probably make the job easier than when we help someone with an addiction to alcohol or tobacco. Those people deserve our support.
That's not me. That's not the vast majority of people who quietly enjoy a bong toke, a joint, some cookies, some marijuana infused hard candy. The vast majority of the marijuana users are just minding their own business.
Here's the problem. Remember all that stuff I told you about? Remember how I told you that I have kids, and yada yada? Well, in the past when I wanted to get marijuana, I had to frequently go to places that I didn't want to. I don't want to go to someone's house and put them at risk for being arrested for dealing drugs. I don't want to go to someone's house and put myself at risk.
I don't want marijuana users to be forced into criminal behavior, and I don't want them to be forced to associate with people who may possibly engage in a variety of criminal activities, one of them being dealing marijuana illegally.
After all, it's not addictive which is better than can be said about the beer you were drinking with the police officer in the White House, and it's less addictive than the beer you were drinking with the union gentleman.
Here's what really gets me. My city has finally given the go ahead to local entrepreneurs to come out of the shadow, and to get licensed so that they can become medicinal marijuana dispensaries.
I struggled with the morality of using a medicinal marijuana law to get something that I have enjoyed recreationally. I really struggled with that.
However, what I discovered over the past 5 years is that if I use cannabis on a regular basis, I am able to reduce the amount of anti-epileptic drugs that I take. I can cut that right down by about 20%. That doesn't just mean that I take less, but it also means I have fewer of the ongoing side effects of the pharmaceuticals I take. I don't have to feel so sedate. Sometimes, it would feel like having a pit in the middle of my face. That's because I had to take so much of the drugs to avoid having anything like a seizure. So when I smoke pot, it reduces my need for pharmaceuticals, and it causes me NOT HAVE ANY SEIZURES AT ALL!
So now I have been prescribed marijuana by a medical professional. She understood the benefit of me reducing the amount of pharmaceuticals I take.
I get to walk into a business. One that operates with a license, and one that collects sales tax. The people who go into this store to purchase medicinal marijuana are also like me. They are parents who just wish to be left alone, and who gain some benefit from smoking pot. They are single people, married people. They are lawyers, teachers...
Seriously. Even if it is just something that helps you go to sleep, why force them to either take a pharmaceutical, or to go to the home of someone who is willing to commit a crime in order to earn some money? That makes no sense to any thinking person.
Remember those seizures? On pharmaceuticals alone, I can have small seizures that do not lead to a loss of consciousness, but which are nonetheless momentarily debilitating. I can't locate the bathroom in my own place of work, for instance, if I have a small seizure.
Guess what? I don't have those any more. Maybe once a year, tops.
So I was able to accept my moral judgement on this issue. In the past I had a couple knee surgeries. Like you, I am an avid basketball player. When I had my surgeries, they gave me a couple bottles of different prescription pain killers. Highly addictive pain killers. Highly addictive. Thing is, the pain was managed nicely with Tylenol.
Those pain meds would have given me some nice euphoria. They would have made me feel "good." And they may have served the purpose of killing the pain. If I took enough.
Your DEA is perpetrating a grave injustice by menacing the dispensaries. Yes, I said it was an injustice. A great injustice. The greatest justice you could do would be to switch marijuana to schedule 1, so that states could regulate it as they see fit.
Would I be okay without marijuana? Sure. I would take more pharmaceuticals which lead to fibrous gums and eventually gum disease. Those same pharmaceuticals have the additional impact of possibly leading to kidney issues at a later date. And they just make me feel bad.
Or you could simply cause the DEA to switch marijuana from schedule 1. It is laughable to see marijuana on the schedule 1.
I know that you are a father. I know that you are concerned about your kids. The thing is, all you have to tell your daughters about marijuana is that it is an adult choice, and that when they are adults, you would prefer that they not use it. How hard is that?
I am looking you in the eye, and I'm telling you this:
You are making a mistake. Stop now, reverse course. Please. It is morally incorrect for you to allow your DEA to treat users of marijuana the way you are going to treat them. It's just wrong. Please leave us alone.
I appreciate your reading this. It's vitally important that you stop wasting criminal, judicial, and social resources on prosecuting a crime that is completely victimless.
If you want to see that biggest turnaround in criminal drug activity, then stop prosecuting marijuana. Move it, please. Just move it.
Yours,
Otto