Legalizing marijuana and old-fashioned thinking

First, I want to thank the person for raising the concern about “our children” in the discussion of legalizing marijuana for the education of the general public. To qualify myself as a parent and retired educator who has taught kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th grades and college students and as a person who grew up a stone’s throw away from the ghetto, I think I am more than qualified to assess the potential effects of legalizing marijuana on our youth. As for the person who wants to be a ghost with outlandish accusations about legalization and me, a ghost is not considered a credible source in our highly sophisticated and intellectual world.

While I appreciate the concerns of any rational adult for our youth, to proclaim certain unfounded phenomenon as fact without any legitimate foundation is not being a responsible adult. Read the proposed legalization legislation before leaping into the public arena and complaining because virtually none of the crazy scenarios he proposed to scare people will ever happen under the proposed legislation. They didn’t happen in the Colorado and Washington experiments and they won’t happen here! In fact, we have done our homework and the CNMI’s law will be better than Colorado and Washington states’ laws as the CNMI will be a state-owned and -operated business to generate state revenues with 100 percent profits and better controls, not a private industry. The great thing is virtually nothing will change, unless Pop decides to grow his limit if he’s not near a school and nothing in the villages will change except the ejection of poker machines, which is also part of the economic reform initiative. The child protection laws will be improved with hundreds of millions in funding for DPS and PSS. Our concern should be the more dangerous and more addictive drugs and vices that are killing people. Why didn’t the old-fashioned person say something about these more dangerous things our youth can get a hold of like ice, cocaine, heroin, alcohol, and tobacco. Please get educated on issues before jumping into the public arena to attack people as it makes my critics look silly and helps me to prove I’m a lot smarter every time.

Just think, if marijuana was an herb that just makes our body feel better and not our mind, it would be OK with old-fashioned folks but that tells me old-fashioned folks are just jealous of people who can enjoy an altered state of mind without being reckless and criminal, unlike what we see again and again with real drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. How can anyone with common sense condone alcohol, cigarettes, and chew tobacco, which is killing people every day and yet be against marijuana, which has never harmed or killed anyone?

Too many old-fashioned folks don’t give our youth enough credit even though our world continues to get better with improvements in all walks of life because our youth continue to be smarter than their parents. Children are usually the smartest computer programmers and operators in most homes, not parents! We are also on our way to a future of virtually a smokeless society because of education. Has this unknown person against legalizing marijuana seen our youth on the TV commercials against drug, alcohol, and tobacco? There are more and more children telling parents to stop smoking these days when it used to be parents trying to keep their child from smoking. Times have changed and so have our youth so don’t lower the bar; raise expectations and children will jump over it every time.

We should all be more concerned about all this casino mess than worrying about our children and legalized marijuana. PSS is also doing a fine job combating drug use by youth. The old-fashioned ideology toward marijuana must change because our entire nation is changing with over 20 state legislatures poised to legalize marijuana this year because of the very successful Colorado and Washington state experiments. FYI, even the man’amko are excited about legalizing pot as the root-tea is one of the best blood pressure medicines in the world.

I’m am very glad this person did admit they were “old-fashioned” because an official national poll showed that the largest portion of the minority group against legalization was voters over 65. Why do we have to wait until old-fashioned folks change their minds or die? Why not now when we need it most!

Just because you are old you don’t have to be old-fashioned. Just ask any man’amko who wants to legalize pot. But the purpose of the CNMI’s operation being a government operation in theory is to reverse the marijuana trends of today to the government’s and our community’s advantage under controlled conditions until it is decriminalized by federal authorities. If you want to know more about the economic initiative, attend the presentation that will be held on Saipan, which will be announced. In the meantime, I will be on Tinian for a presentation on Saturday, May 10, at noon so people of Tinian, tell a friend to tell another friend to come and participate in the Q&A on the CNMI-wide economic initiative. Location to be announced.

Ambrose M Bennett
Kagman, Saipan