Pubdate: Sun, 23 Jun 2013
Source: Weatherford Democrat (US TX)
Copyright: 2013, The Weatherford Democrat
Contact:  http://www.weatherforddemocrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2881
Author: Larry M. Jones
Note: Larry M. Jones is a retired Navy commander and aviator who 
raises cattle and hay in the Brock/Lazy Bend part of Parker County.

ATTEMPTING TO LEGISLATE MORALITY

 From what I've read, the Texas Legislature finally passed a 
watered-down bill requiring some applicants for unemployment benefits 
to pass a drug screening. However, according to the same reports, 
Democrats were able to block this testing from being also applied to 
welfare recipients. This has been an ongoing battle for several 
months although, for the life of me, I cannot see the problem.

Throughout my career in the Navy, I was randomly selected, along with 
everyone else from seaman recruit to admiral, to undergo random 
urinalysis testing for drug use. Since I never used drugs, I never 
saw a problem with this requirement. If I'm going to be humming along 
at 30,000 feet going several hundred miles per hour, I'd prefer to be 
fairly certain that a pot smoker or crackhead hadn't performed the 
latest repairs on my trusty flying machine.

Last Sunday, my son and granddaughter dropped in for a little 
Father's Day visit, and somehow we got onto the subject of marijuana 
laws and how many states were decriminalizing its possession and use. 
He has a slightly different perspective on the subject than me 
because he is a probation officer for the Tarrant County Judicial 
District, where a lion's share of his workload is drug related. He 
sees recreational marijuana use as being far less of a problem to 
society than alcohol abuse. While I hate to admit it, he's probably 
right. Still, here in Texas for the time being, alcohol is legal and 
marijuana is not.

I did a little research on the subject, and I found that about 21 
percent of all inmates currently incarcerated in state or local 
facilities are there for drug-related offenses. 56 percent of all 
federal inmates are there because of drugs. God only knows how many 
of them were convicted of other offenses perpetrated to support a drug habit.

According to other statistics I gleaned from the Internet, currently 
there are 24 states that have legalized use of marijuana -- roughly 
half for medical use, and the rest have decriminalized marijuana 
possession within certain limits. From day one, I've never seen the 
problem of medical marijuana use. If doctors can prescribe opiates 
and other powerful narcotics, why differentiate with marijuana? 
Perhaps the time has come for Texas and the rest of the country to 
legalize, regulate and tax marijuana alongside alcohol.

While I've never tried the stuff, I've never seen the degree of 
impairment from its use that I've witnessed with alcohol abusers. We 
have the ability to test for use of either if inappropriate behavior 
is apparent and may have contributed to accidents or incidents. 
Almost a hundred years ago we banned alcohol, and that didn't work 
out too well. We have banned marijuana for decades, and yet America's 
War on Drugs has been a stunning defeat.

Make no mistake, I do not condone marijuana use and I see nothing 
positive about its use, but in light of our overall failed drug 
policies, perhaps it's time to consider other options.

In regard to drug testing to qualify for benefits, if a worker has to 
submit to testing to be hired, how in God's name can welfare 
recipients be exempt from this requirement? I think a bunch of Texas 
legislators must be smoking something funny.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom