Why marijuana is a national health and political crisis

Marijuana "legalization" is a hoax far more dangerous than Al Gore's global warming agenda. States have become monopolistic drug cartels enriching their political friends and generating large sums of slush funds while destroying the lives of their own citizens.

There are 13 key facts about the left's drug coup that reek to high heavens:

America's greatest problems begin with substance abuse: Gun violence, domestic violence and a long list other downstream consequences such as marriage absence, poverty, crime, deficits and massive nanny government begin with substance abuse. That is why Democratic communists want to increase drug abuse and reconstruct a debauched Weimar Germany.

Fraudulent politics: The term "medical marijuana" is often used fraudulently. It often refers to growing and distributing the mind-blowing "recreational pot" plant, not the controlled CBD extracts (containing less than three-tenths of 1 percent THC – the only true form of non-mood-altering "medical marijuana"). The high downstream costs of marijuana legalization far outstrip revenues. Taxpayers are stuck holding the bag for costs arising from the myriad of social problems caused by drug abuse.

Addicted to fake science: Activists claiming that marijuana makes them feel better are no different than drunks bragging that Jack Daniels solves all their pains and problems. Getting high is fake science, not a panacea. The old traveling medicine shows were a similar problem. Hawkers sold laudanum (opium), morphine, marijuana, cocaine and other drugs until the federal government made them controlled substances.

How addiction works: Marijuana is a Schedule-I drug that is both physically and psychologically addictive. Thirty percent of users develop a serious "use disorder." The rates of addiction are 400 to 700 percent higher for those who begin using pot before age 18.

In the short run, all mood-altering substances make it easy for people to happily ignore their problems. But in the longer run, folks become less able to deal with life's problems because they "blow them off." Folks often fall behind in life, buried under more stress and anxiety. They are far more likely to end up divorced, unemployed, disabled, in poverty, in prison, in a fatal car wreck or a suicide.

Candyland government: Medicine has precise dosages. It is not marketed with hippie names like "Soul Assassin" or "Kryptonite." And it is not sold in head shops. You will never see prescribed medicines with such profound negative impact on the heart, lungs, memory, brain development and motivation. The FDA would never approve it, and no manufacturer would dare risk it.

Drunk and stoned: Alcohol sales had a small decrease of 15 to 20 percent in the 21 states that legalized "medical" marijuana. Some are getting stoned instead of getting drunk – but many of those who still drink are getting drunk and stoned – a much bigger threat in terms of health and highways.

"Medical marijuana" increases opioid abuse: Researchers at Stanford University and the University College in Cork, Scotland, found that people who use "medical" marijuana were 60 percent more likely to also use prescription drugs such as opioids, and they're more than twice as likely to take prescription (opioid) drugs for "non-medical" purposes. Opioids and alcohol become a "perfect storm," driving white working-class suicides and overdoses, according to Stanford Doctors Angus Deaton and Anne Case. Sen. Claire McCaskill is tooting both ends of her horn being "Mad as Hell" about Naloxone prices while supporting medical marijuana in Missouri.

Money-losing government drug cartels: States are being converted into monopoly drug cartels – oligarchies enriching liberal political buddies while harming citizens and leaving taxpayers holding the bag for a large list of very costly social, criminal and enforcement expenses. It robs the taxpayer to finance the liberal political model by bleeding drug addicts for donations.

Longitudinal impact statements were intentionally left out of fiscal notes in prior legislation legalizing pot. A few years later, we now read many frantic stories from municipalities and states drowning in social and economic problems states brought on themselves for lack of legislative honesty.

Missouri Republicans are playing with fire in legalizing medical marijuana. The state is predicting a small profit in its flawed fiscal note review, and it is planning far more production facilities and sales than can be supported by the limited use of extracts. After increases in costs for expensive illegal grow interdictions and environmental cleanups, opioid abuse and treatment and incarcerations are added, Missouri will lose a lot of money – which will then become the war cry for full legalization of recreational pot.

Blue states forever: Phyllis Schlafly warned us that Democrats intended to turn America forever "blue" by importing the drugs of the world through illegal immigration. Marijuana is another addictive weapon intended to turn states into permanent blue-state drug cartel plantations. The entire Democratic Party is pumping marijuana in many states. Chuck Schumer even autographed a bong in a sickening move to politicize pot.

This drug revolution is similar to the "sanctuary cities" insurrection. State's rights were never intended to destroy the whole cloth of our free republic or render America dysfunctional in a mass stupor of pot smoke and related drug addictions. The Democrat drug insurrection has the same endpoint as slavery did. Both are intended to enrich and empower a chosen political class, while keeping large numbers of citizens down and out, addicted, failing in marriage and work, trapped on the Democratic plantation.

Health, social, economic and criminal consequences: Marijuana imposes very serious health problems for adults and children – far worse than cigarettes or alcohol. Any possible "medicinal" value is negligible balanced against known risks. This is why "leaded" marijuana could never pass FDA approval for any purpose. The Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RMHIDTA), a very large, 22-year longitudinal study, recently issued a scathing master report documenting the serious social, medical, psychological, mental health, suicide, criminal, educational, homelessness, car accidents and other problems plaguing states that legalized medical or recreational marijuana. The list of problems is far too long for this column. I have hundreds of other citations proving that marijuana should not be legalized.

The constitutionality of unfunded mandates: The federal government cannot force states to execute federal mandates that aren't funded with federal dollars.

State initiatives containing unfunded or undisclosed mandates can also be struck down. The Montana Supreme Court found Marsy's law unconstitutional because it "deprived Montana voters of the ability to consider the many, separate ways it changed Montana's constitution or explain the significant administrative, financial, and compliance burdens its unfunded mandates imposed upon state, county and local governments."

Marijuana "legalization" ballot initiatives and state legislation claim significant tax revenues, but never report massive longitudinal social, criminal, educational, welfare and enforcement costs the state and taxpayers will bear. State attorneys general should sue to kill legislation and remove ballot initiatives that lie to voters about fiscal liabilities

The constitutionality of the state knowingly harming its citizens: The Missouri Constitution, Article 1 Section 2, declares that "constitutional government is intended to promote the general welfare of the people" … "that to give security to these things is the principal office of government, and that when government does not confer this security, it fails in its chief design." The Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area report and the broad body of peer-reviewed science proves that THC-containing marijuana is so harmful as to be unconstitutional on its face. State attorneys general should sue to kill legislation and remove ballot initiatives legalizing high-THC marijuana. The harm to citizens is too certain, too serious and too broad to let stand.

Marxism on drugs: The sex and drug revolution initiated by Marxist Herbert Marcuse and his peers in the 1960s was the first successful Marxist attack creating serious class conflict in the United States. It separated kids from parents and sent them on a decadent riot that has become a much more serious and violent movement. A large and irrational class of drug-using millennials is now driving dangerous emotional uprisings concerning free speech, education policy, Constitution, religion fascism, racism, sexism, President Trump. Abbie Hoffman's "Revolution for the Hell of It" finally came true. It is no secret that Karl Marx was an opiate addict. Sigmund Freud developed his gratuitous sexual theories while addicted to cocaine. Good luck finding a professional liberal whose "realities" are not jaded by drugs.

Making the Republican Party Great Again: Sen. Cory Gardner should be booted from the Republican Party for suborning national security to pot legalization.

The Koch Brothers pretend they are not liberals – but they are. They claim federal government regulation of marijuana violates free-market principles. The Koch Brothers have joined George Soros' "Open Society" team of globalists demanding erasure of our borders. Their dark money hopes to turn the Republican Party blue. Liberals running as Republicans on Koch money must be outed and exported.

I will give the Koch Brothers the short morning coffee lecture they richly deserve. Free-market principles do not include enriching liberals by turning states into drug cartels to the deep detriment of the citizens of the United States. Great wealth imbues great responsibility. In this, the Koch Brothers are a failure.