What’s The Keep-Cannabis-Criminalised Lobby Drinking?

In today’s letters to the editor, Press, Ross Banbury writes:

The recent findings on the cause of the Carterton balloon tragedy in which 11 people died indicated the pilot was a regular cannabis user. The decriminalise cannabis lobby have been deafening by their silence since these findings were made public. Harmless? Obviously not.

There is nothing more harmful than a stupid person: both in this accident, and behind the pen above.

The findings were the amount of THC (active ingredient in cannabis) in the pilot’s blood indicated he most probably had a joint on the morning of the flight, or near enough to for him to be under the influence of the effects of same.

Let me be blunt: to fly a balloon, a plane, drive a car, operate dangerous machinery, after smoking a joint, just as with after alcohol, is irresponsible. Period. It is stupid.

Cannabis is a psychoactive drug (as is caffeine, note): that is, it changes the way the mind works, and from that, reflexes and judgement. The decriminalise lobby would never rebut that fact because responsible smokers smoke to change the way their minds work, that is the point of it. The effects of cannabis are different for everyone, but overall the reasons for smoking are the reasons for drinking alcohol, albeit with one major difference: unlike alcohol, cannabis is non-toxic. You can overdose on alcohol in a single sitting and kill yourself, whereas you cannot smoke yourself to death. It is impossible. The first written use of cannabis was in 2656 BC (from memory): there is evidence of human use going back 6,000 years, however, no reported deaths from toxicity. Not one.

For those over eighteen years old, cannabis is a safer,  much more preferable, option than alcohol. Personally, I’d rather be in a room of stoners than drunkards: I’ve met too many angry, ugly drunks, not a single violent stoner. I say this acknowledging the legalise cannabis lobby would not deny the science that cannabis use in a developing mind is a disaster: pre-teens and teens should not smoke cannabis, it will adversely affect their futures.

But yes, don’t smoke and drive or fly for the same reason as don’t drink and drive or fly.

So Ross needs to chill. At the least, perhaps before penning his next error of false assumptions, he might want to watch his caffeine intake. He’s gotten himself a bit excitable over this one.

(Disclaimer: because I live in a kindy of a country, I cannot, and do not, smoke cannabis – anymore. To be found with cannabis on my person would be to risk my career, and I have responsibilities. As I find the (after) effects of alcohol cause a discomfort that cannabis use doesn’t, this is a cause of chagrin to me. It better be legalised by the time I get to the retirement home, but it’s martinis in the meantime.)