Don’t normalize pot

Council candidate Matthew Howes concern about marijuana advertising is enough to get my vote. When I peel off a “pot” sticker from the paper, toss aside the multi-page insert telling me all the news I evidently need to know about marijuana and pass another glossy billboard, I am reminded again that, as a society, we have lost our collective minds.

Heaven forbid that our local leaders understand marijuana is a mind-altering drug. Mentally healthy people do not use drugs to feel good. Would we support an alcohol industry whose only purpose was to get people drunk? Yet, recreational pot has no other purpose.

The growing research on the negative effects of marijuana on memory, on lasting damage to developing brains, the rise in traffic accidents and anecdotal observations on depression and general lack of achievement are sobering.

In a recent discussion with one of the most progressive friends I know, we were both equally horrified at the thought of the “normalization” of marijuana use. That is the side of legalization we are concerned about. Marijuana use is not OK. Those who say it is not a vice are ignorant of the facts and just kidding themselves.

James Becker

Spokane