Assembly should enact temporary marijuana ban

The Frontiersman's recent report on new willingness of the Mat-Su Borough Assembly to consider a temporary ban on commercial marijuana operations in the Borough until the public has full input via the ballot initiative on the issue this October is encouraging. I hope to make the case that the assembly would be wise to enact a temporary ban on commercial marijuana activities instead of regulations that effectively encourage the race for marijuana commercialization. Admittedly, basic state regulations will never be adequate protection, but we dare not allow commercialization any toehold lest lawsuits choke future restraint.

The disconnect on this issue among the general voting public must be significant because people universally rail against the problems of drugs and addiction, and yet the state as a whole agreed to allow yet another addictive drug greater legal influence on our lives. Even so, the vote count on Ballot Measure 2 in November of 2014 shows that Valley voters did not approve of the legalization of marijuana. Broad commercialization that increases the exposure of children and youth to yet more potential for a step off into addiction is likely to get even less approval. The issues are many, but not really all that complex. If the following topics receive basic rational approach, we should be able to temporarily ban commercial marijuana activities now and fully prevent them at the ballot box in October's Borough elections.

I understand that the “public has spoken” and that we cannot immediately reverse the “law” that the bit of mob rule called the citizen initiative process has delivered to us. Everyone now has the right to pursue their personal high with designer pot grown in their very own grow house. However, this situation still gives us options regarding the commercial operations, which would increase the exposure of this drug to children and youth at ever earlier ages by its availability as a widely accessible commercial product. Save for the few aggressively motivated parents among us, no one is very successful at keeping alcohol or cigarettes from children. The same will be true for any widely commercialized marijuana products. The provisions of the 2014 pot initiative for restriction of commercial operations must be exercised to their maximum potential to protect young minds and health.

Anyone with some basic grasp of the societal costs of the behaviors that follow the prioritization of chasing a high of any sort should not be too surprised that the costs of legal marijuana will exceed any presumed tax benefits by considerable amount — just as is the case with alcohol. The drug industry's claim of great contribution to the tax coffers of our borough government are flatly false and are designed to deceive us into apathy or partnership with their self-focused agenda. If the Assembly sees through this and passes the temporary ban on commercial activities, it shows they care for the overall well-being of our whole community and not the inurement of a few who are willing to embrace broader cultural destruction in a reach for personal wealth.

The frequent whine that wide commercialization is required for the few hurting souls who need medical marijuana is also plainly pretense. Even minimal medical expertise is unneeded to see through this facade. Any legitimacy of “alternative medicine” aside, there are already clear means by which any verifiable medically useful drugs in our culture can be made readily available. Claiming that broad local commercialization of marijuana is required to meet any need of medical marijuana is simply a twist of a minor issue into a major illusion.

Another defensive ploy used by marijuana enthusiasts goes something like this: “Alcohol and alcoholics are the real enemy here; not pot and pot heads.” They argue that pot should get commercial legitimacy because its abuse does not damage nearly so many people as abuse of alcohol. Any freshman logic student smells the fallacy there. They have just said that we should not fear their pet rattlesnake because it is certainly not so bad as a king cobra. The politically correct description of that as disingenuous will suffice for the moment.

The oft-stated premise that marijuana is not a “gateway” to worsened drug abuse and self destruction is also a flatly deceptive stance by those whose primary agenda is their right to a high. For the real truth on this, talk to the folks who are now desperately trying to recover their lives from those “more addictive” drugs. With near unanimity, those folks will say that marijuana was singularly contributory in the development of a runaway addictive process in their lives. Very simply, those who are enthusiastic about their pot use and claim that pot is not a gateway drug are the folks who are presently at risk for passing through that gate into the self abuse of greater addictive choices. Leadership in our Valley ought to be exercised toward protecting both them and the youth who will be trapped into a cavalier approach to drugs in general because of wide commercial availability of marijuana in our communities.

The assembly may indeed need to get regulations ready for commercial operations. However, we have huge problems with several issues – like defining “residential” neighborhoods where no commercialization would be allowed. The borough attorney indicates that the assembly has the authority to execute a full temporary ban on commercialization activities until the public vote this fall. They should do so, while work proceeds on well-constructed regulations for use if needed. In addition, providing the drug industry with regulations at this point is simply an exercise in influencing the initiative vote this fall in their favor.

The ordinance to temporarily ban marijuana commercialization demonstrates moral clarity and courage against the greed of those who simply prioritize their pursuit of a high and insist they have a right to sell that high regardless the indubitable damage to the children of our Valley arising from easier access to yet another addictive drug. Those of us who daily work with the real penalties in real lives resulting from the tolerance of these sort of drugs in our culture hope to avoid an increase in the destructive potential of marijuana in our Valley by bluntly and wisely restricting commercialization at the ballot box. The citizen initiative vote this fall may yet preserve the minds, health, and cultural capabilities of countless youth from the destructive business of a slide into drug abuse that early exposure and easy access to marijuana clearly engenders. All of us in the business of helping individuals and families damaged by drugs pray it is so. We can ill afford to lose this battle over the future drug dependance of our youth.

Steve Alexander is Institutional Chaplain at Mat-Su Pretrial Facility in Palmer and has been working with prisoners and

addicts over 25 years to facilitate recovery and prevent recidivism. This column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman or its parent company, Wick Communications.