California’s Reefer Madness

California’s Reefer Madness
By Michael E Jones

Simon Says “I Love Getting High”
Simon’s gaze was transfixed on an uncertain point across the room. Every now and then his eyes would give in to the strains of having to stay awake, eyelashes flittering to a close. He would silently nod off a bit then abruptly reconnect with our world, as if jolted by some unseen electric shock.

I had barely recognized him yesterday in the controlled chaos of this emergency room. Two years ago when I saw him, he was a frightened and suicidal 17-year-old living in the grips of a mentally ill mother and a devoted Scientologist father. Back then he’d been “rescued” by a squad of Scientology nuts who circled him and demanded his release. One of them was a suit who described himself as John Travolta’s lawyer. In any event, his forlorn and helpless expression spoke volumes that his mouth could not that day. The Cruise cadets scooped him up and carried him away. “He’ll be back,” I muttered to a colleague So here he was, a bit older and a lot sicker. “I just love getting high, man,” he bellowed at me, his grinning face lit up with pride. “See, look,” he said, his stained fingers digging around in a front pocket of his once-blue jeans. He produced a tattered and four-folded set of photocopies and handed them to me.

They were his physician’s statements for procuring medical marijuana. The copies bore the logo of a “Family Practice” pot clinic and some auspicious language explaining that Simon needed to get high for a “medical problem.” What, I wondered, could this generally healthy 19-year-old be carrying that requires the use of dope.

“I have insomnia and lack of appetite,” Simon said.
“Pretty common side effects of smoking crystal meth for days on end, as you have been doing,” I pointed out.
“Oh, yeah,” he stammered and chuckled, closing his eyes again .

We Voted for This?
When millions of us Californians voted for Proposition 215 in 1996 legalizing medical marijuana, we did so with images of gaunt and pained terminally ill patients. Pot, we were told, would be used to help the most desperate of our brothers and sisters gain weight and feel better. Instead, it has degenerated into little more than a front for legalized drug dealing.

That medical marijuana isn’t being used as we voters intended is almost a foregone conclusion. NORML, the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, has itself reported, according to the US Department of Justice, that medical marijuana is used for the following conditions:

40% Chronic Pain
22% AIDS-Related
15% Mood Disorders
23% All other categories

What happened to all the morbidity and mortality?

When we witness delirious 18 to 20-something year-old burn-outs parading through our emergency rooms and offices brandishing prescriptions for pot, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out something’s up. It didn’t take authorities long to figure it out, either.

Just a few weeks ago, on August 22, California’s Bureau of Narcotics enforcement busted two men in Los Angeles for the illegal possession, transportation and sale of marijuana in connection with a marijuana dispensary, Today’s Healthcare, in Northridge, CA. The men were making a healthy profit off of dealing “medical” marijuana to a clientele between the ages of 18 and 29.

The problem in California has gotten so enormous that Attorney General Edmund Brown had to issue guidelines last month just to give some shape to an otherwise out-of-control system.

What’s the Prescription?
Applying a psychological overlay to all of this yields, for me, a different conclusion than my initial knee-jerk, oh-my-God-isn’t-this-awful reaction. A cornerstone of psychological theory is the splintering of the whole person into acceptable and unacceptable parts. One who recognizes perverse sexual impulses within themselves might defend against these urges by becoming rigidly religious, for instance.

Extrapolated to a societal level, one could argue that we are so collectively unnerved by our love of chemicals and pleasure that we don’t just enforce laws against it, we declare war on it. If we’re defeated, we might try to rationalize and make excuses, much like cousin Boudreau drinks himself into a nightly stupor because of his “bad back.”

The degree of our defensiveness is proportional to our degree of investment in the self image we like to propogate. Are we as a collective determined to prove ourselves righteous by battling the demon to our own death? Or are we prepared to declare, as Simon did, “I just love getting high, man”?

Quite frankly, I think we in California have reached the intermediate stage of rationalization. I don’t believe there is enough will in the Golden State to stem reefer madness. We can drown in a sea of data about the destructive effects of marijuana, protest loud and long about the evils of getting high, but it is still, to many, “only weed.” God grew it so it’s more trustworthy than anything man-made.

What would the healthy social response be to this dilemmes? I suggest that we stop tip-toeing around the issue and legalize pot for once and for all. Then regulate it and tax it as we do with every other “sin.” Here’s what that might look like:

1. No one under 18 may purchase marijuana. For any reason. Period.
2. Tax sales at a rate of 20%.
3. Only state-licensed businesses may sell it, and only in certain geographic areas.
4. Illegal sales will be deterred by significant increases in the penalties for them.
5. Tax revenues will be divided among state healthcare programs, drug education and intervention efforts and will help close the state’s yawning budget gap.
6. Finally, revenues will fund free medical marijuana to those truly in need of it.

That’s the honest, and pragmatic, solution to the issue. But are we ready to reconnect with that pleasure-seeking spirit we once disowned?

Michael Jones, LMFT, BCPC is a licensed and Board Certified psychotherapist in Glendale, CA. For an appointment, call (818) 974-2158 or visit him at http://www.psych247.com

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