QUIT SMOKING DOPE

Posted this date on Baxter Black’s website:

ON THE EDGE OF COMMON SENSE: STOP BORDER VIOLENCE – QUIT SMOKING DOPE

Here's a tough question: If you are hitting yourself on the head with a spatula and are complaining because it hurts, what should you do?

Answer: Stop it!

If the citizenry wants to save General Motors, what should we do?

Answer: Buy a Chevy!

And the million-dollar question today: If more than 6,300 people were killed last year on the Mexican border trying to smuggle drugs into the United States, how can we stop it?

Answer: Duh ... nobody seems to know.

Eighty percent of the drugs brought into the U.S. through Mexico is marijuana. I am watching the president, Congress, columnists and TV pundits babble. Maybe we should legalize it? Maybe we should send the Army to the border? Maybe we should build a higher wall?

Am I wrong or is it illegal to grow and sell and smoke marijuana in the United States? Where is the outrage among the politicians, the movie industry, the rock stars and the general public that they readily lash out at cigarette smokers, polluters and developers? Where is the public shame, the protest marches? The dots are easy to connect.

The naked answer to stopping the rampant killing along the border is ... quit smoking marijuana.

In an effort to defend its use in spite of the death and destruction it wreaks trying to supply us, supporters fill the air with an obfuscating shrapnel of responses including, "It's less harmful than alcohol, it's not addictive, it's good for you, it doesn't lead to meth, cocaine or heroine use, I don't inhale," etc., ad infinitum.

Let us say that all these reasons given by those who would call themselves potheads are valid, one big truth remains: If you want to stop the killing and bloodshed, stop buying marijuana. And if the humanitarian answer is not enough, remember it is illegal.

The laws against drunk driving, robbing convenience stores, smoking cigarettes in public, and cheating on your income tax are enforced. It is possible some of these crimes are never committed by the majority of people because it is against the law?

The decision is in the hands of the user. It is obvious that our leaders don't want to offend users, pushers, dealers or growers, so it is up to you, up to us. If you want to make it legal, work on that but resist breaking the law until then.

Read the news stories about the continuing border slaughter, the deaths, the ruined lives created just so you can have a toke and get mellow.

If it is not addictive, just say No.

Cheech and Chong don't look as cool as they used to, do they?


Baxter Black is a veterinarian and cowboy poet. His column appears weekly and airs each Monday at 6:20 a.m. on KGNC Talk Radio 710. He can be reached at baxterblack.com or 800-654-2550.