Pubdate: Fri, 02 Oct 2015 Source: State Journal, The (KY) Contact: 2015 The State Journal Website: http://state-journal.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5487 Author: Thomas Vance NO CREDIBILITY Seventy seven years after marijuana prohibition began with the claim it would turn people into violent murderers, remember "'Reefer Madness" and little Timmy killing Grandma with a skillet, pretty much all the claims about the harms of marijuana use have been proven to be false. Not one of the predicted outcomes cited by prohibitionists have happened. Ohio is currently in a battle for legalization and the Cincinnati Enquirer has been following and reporting on it. In a column titled, "Who are the opponents of issue 3, which will legalize marijuana and is on the ballot this fall, the paper reports what the reasons for opposing legalization are. It seems to come down to 3 items. The manner in which the ballot initiative regulates the marijuana business because initially there will be 10 farms which will be in competition with each other and the ballot uses the Ohio constitution to establish legalization.That didn't seem to be a problem with the casino legislation but the opponents seem to think it is a problem with the marijuana industry. It will make marijuana legally available state wide. Isn't that the reason for legalization? Legal marijuana is a threat to public safety. Although marijuana has been identified at crash sites more often, the number of accidents in Colorado are down, particularly fatal crashes.The study showing the increase in the presence of marijuana did not determine whether marijuana caused the accident. A recent study found marijuana users get into traffic accidents at the same rate as non-users. Colorado, while initially having some child packaging problems, has experienced none of the predicted harms of using marijuana we have been told all these years would happen. The reality today is, as reported by the Drug Policy Alliance, traffic accidents especially fatal accidents are down. Violent crime is down and teen use is relatively the same as during prohibition. The Marijuana Policy Project reports record setting job growth, 21,000 in the industry as of June 2015, and Colorado has collected 74 million dollars in revenue as compared to 42 million dollars in alcohol revenue. To top it all off the Journal of the American medical Association reports a 24% drop in opioid overdose deaths in States with medical cannabis laws. Time to admit we have been, to put it mildly, misled by the Government and the prohibitionists about marijuana and it's effects since 1937 and they have been wrong every time. The Government and those who would continue the prohibition of marijuana have absolutely no credibility on this issue and their pronouncements on marijuana and marijuana prohibition itself should be ignored and relegated to the dustbin of history. Msgt Thomas Vance USAF Ret. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom