How many potheads does it take to change a nation? We are about to find out… unless those opposed to recreational pot step up to the plate.
You might think, as some state legislators like to say, that the train has left the station. To be sure, a majority of voters passed a referendum on November 8 to allow recreational marijuana sales in Massachusetts. Beacon Hill bureaucrats and exploiters of this law with dollar signs in their eyes are in a frenzy to hop the train to Marijuanaville.
But it hasn’t happened yet, because legislators have delayed implementing the law while they tinker with it.
That means that residents of the state could testify recently before a legislative committee, as I did, on Monday, April 3, which was also Opening Day at Fenway Park.
On the T that day Red Sox Nation was showing its colors. It was the first spring-like day after a lot of cold and rain. There was joy in Mudville as many father-and-son teams headed for Fenway — oblivious to the threat of the pernicious weed growing in their own community or in their neighbor’s home which their son might be smoking sooner rather than later due to its increased availability. Even toddlers could innocently ingest cannabis-infused gummy bears, and as doctors and nurses testified only one exposure can do untold harm to the developing brain. Why would we parents stand by and not speak up against a threat that looms over our state like smoke from fire?
Massachusetts what have you been smoking?
It may be too late to make marijuana illegal again, but it’s not too late to accomplish something worth doing. There is still time to submit letters to the legislature’s Joint Hearing on Pot Shops, which could influence how legislators implement the new law. There is also time to stop marijuana sales in your town or city, through an opt-out provision. Massachusetts Family Institute is ready and waiting to assist you in that.
We are already dealing with an opioid crisis losing many youth to these addictive illegal and prescription drugs. Many believe marijuana is a gateway drug; but it surely impairs judgment. That was amply shown by the unruly behavior of the pro-pot people who came out in force to testify on April 3.
But rather than critique in detail their appearance or behavior, I have to ask: Where were the clergy?
Have they backed away so far from the political arena that they have left us without spiritual leadership? A priest or a rabbi would have set a welcome tone to those who have a problem with pot shops in their community.
In the years shortly before independence New England had “Black Robbed Regiments,” some of whose members after preaching about freedom took off their cassocks and picked up a gun and led their congregation to fight for our inalienable rights, which they taught came from God. Preachers went beyond meddling to fighting and dying for what they believed in, including sovereignty over their families.
