Voters should decide on legalization but…

I don’t have any problem with voters deciding on legalization but it should be a well-informed and educated vote on the entire issue of full legalization and not just medical use. Voters should know what they are voting on. This is too big and important for voting on what you believe might happen. We all need to see first-hand based on facts you have personally witnessed in the CNMI during the moratorium period. More importantly is the fact that we will literally be setting ourselves up for double work to do the same job twice if we just legalize for medical use and later for recreational. People with any knowledge and analytical perspective on this issue can tell you that we will eventually have to rehash the entire issue again for recreational use if medical use is approved, which it will be.

For those who want to study the issue of legalization and vote on it, there is no better way than to create a moratorium period so you can see the effects for yourself. In fact the main purpose of the moratorium is so people can study the issue up close and personally for themselves. So I hope those who want to study the issue before voting are reading this and will spread the news to support the moratorium as it is the best way to start resolving the entire legalization issue permanently. Take it from an educator who knows and taught your children that the scientific method is the best way to study an issue; anything else will be speculation.

I know there are those who are against legalization simply because it is against the law, which is ridiculous and I hope they will talk to someone if that’s their reason as they need a long philosophical lesson on the very nature of our government and laws. But for those who oppose legalization, especially educators, because they will be charged with dealing with the issue, you need to understand that legalization will actually make it easier for you to deal with marijuana use in schools. Getting things out in the open always makes it easier to deal with personal and social challenges.

First and foremost, educators should be leading in the change to legalize marijuana so they can all be more active on the front lines to fight against our youth using it. As long as marijuana is in the closet, we can’t actively and aggressively fight something that is being kept hidden! We should have already learned from other controversial issues like homosexuality and more recently bullying that until we get it out in the open we can’t fully address the issue. Heck, homosexuality went from being unacceptable in society and schools to being supported and the same can happen with marijuana education, like we have done with cigarettes and alcohol. We can only fight marijuana use by our youth appropriately if it is out in the open. As long as there is a fear by our youth of going to jail for a single cigarette we can forget talking to them about it and that’s a fact, Jack! They will do what children do best, be secretive, be in denial, saying that adults don’t know what they are talking about and some will just lie.

Educators and parents need to know that expectations are the bar and our children will jump over the bar if the bar is strictly applied. Educators need to be more innovative and find ways to really motivate no usage and/or ground students at school and even at home if they are caught smoking pot. Start using the parenting skills and child phycology required of highly qualified teachers/counselors and talk to these students, make them stay after school to do their work after making them eat and/or drink something so the high will go away. But don’t send students to jail and suspend students for marijuana so they can go home and smoke some more all day long and sometimes for days. Sending them to Juvenile is not a total deterrent either because many of them know their parents or guardians are not going to do that much to them, just a scolding. FYI readers, marijuana is highly socially acceptable everywhere in our world today so get used to that fact. There is also the fact that the threat of locking people has never stopped crimes so a few hours at Juvi is not going to make every youth stop smoking; many will just get smarter and sneakier.

Support the moratorium because I’m sure that many of you who are opposed to legalization will be surprised at what you now believe as to what you will really see happen. The opposition to legalization also needs to know that the overwhelming majority at the Rota hearings and throughout America and the CNMI are for legalization so you should at least try to be part of the solution and not part of the wall that is standing in the way of progress. FYI, we (everyone in society) will always have to deal with marijuana use in our society forever so do we learn how to deal with all aspects of marijuana use or do we continue to flounder like fools and even fighting the use of marijuana that can never be stopped?

Finally, saying that educators should not be promoting legalization is simply wrong when they are on the front lines and have to deal with marijuana in schools anyway and regardless of legalization! If the President of the United States and his attorney general can actively and publicly promote legalization reform, then everyone including educators in America should be actively working to educate and support the leader of our great nation, especially when we can make hundreds of millions. The President is also begging America to stop locking up anyone, especially our youth, for marijuana, so what are we going to do about that as our youth are not protected in the medical marijuana bill? They will still go to jail. We must also be realistic as most of the students who are going to use marijuana, which is between 1 and 3 percent, are going to use it anyway! Furthermore, marijuana use and legalization is not about individual challenges with “hard-headed” students who are a very small minority but more about revenues, along with controlling and educating all of society on the use of marijuana and how to live with marijuana in our society—it’s called social and economic progress.

Ambrose M. Bennett
Kagman, Saipan