Lewis is spewing forth the same phony baloney about how harmless and how beneficial marijuana is, as do all the other proponents of pot. He says that half the people in the U.S. believe that our marijuana laws are “outdated, ineffective and stupid” and that more than half of all Americans have used pot. Well whoopee, what does Lewis expect? It doesn’t take a brilliant mind to figure out that those who have used pot favor changing the law. That’s just their way of justifying their illegal use of an illegal drug.
Lewis says he’s been doing “a great deal of research on public opinion on marijuana.” Well, I’ve done a great deal of research on marijuana and, public opinion notwithstanding, marijuana is not the innocuous substance that its proponents claim it is. It is a dangerous drug! It is not less harmful than alcohol! I’ve worked many cases with pot heads both as a narcotic officer and as a parole officer. I’ve seen the debilitating effects of marijuana use.
Lewis says that, after a leg amputation, his use of marijuana made the excruciating pain tolerable. I’ve got news for Peter the Progressive. Jack Daniel’s also makes pain tolerable and Jack is legal, while ‘Mary Jane’ is not.
Lewis says that he’s “amazed that anyone could oppose marijuana for medical use.” Apparently it doesn’t bother this ‘progressive’, i.e. left-winger, that the legalization of ‘medical’ marijuana in California, Colorado and several other states has turned into a perverted farce of major proportions – doctors are prescribing pot to just about anyone for just about any claimed ailment.
Peter Lewis is more flaky than Flo, the beloved character in his Progressive Insurance commercials.
BILLIONAIRE PETER LEWIS: MY WAR ON DRUG LAWS
Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis has devoted many years and millions of dollars to reforming marijuana policy. Below, in his own words, he tells FORBES why he’ll keep battling drug laws. This story is featured in the latest FORBES 400 issue, newsstand date October 10, 2011.
Forbes
September 21, 2011
Our marijuana laws are outdated, ineffective and stupid. I’m not alone in thinking this: Half of Americans believe we should stop punishing people for using marijuana. And not coincidentally, more than half of Americans have used marijuana themselves. I am one of those Americans, and I know firsthand that marijuana can be helpful and that it certainly isn’t cause for locking anyone up.
My story is fairly simple. I grew up after college in a world where social drinking was the norm but marijuana was hidden. When I was 39 I tried marijuana for the first time. I found it to be better than scotch. But it wasn’t until I had serious medical problems that I realized how important marijuana could be.
When I was 64 my left leg was amputated below the knee because there was an infection that couldn’t be cured. I spent a year after the amputation in excruciating pain and a year in a wheelchair. So during that period I was very glad I had marijuana. It didn’t exactly eliminate the pain, but it made the pain tolerable—and it let me avoid those heavy-duty narcotic pain relievers that leave you incapacitated.
I am a progressive by birth, by nature, by philosophy—that’s the name of the insurance company I ran as well, which is coincidental—but I am a small ‘p’ progressive. I don’t believe that laws against things that people do regularly, like safe and responsible use of marijuana, make any sense. Everything that has been done to enforce these laws has had a negative effect, with no results.
It’s become sort of a central philanthropic interest of mine—by no means my only interest. But I’m pretty clear. I’ve thought it through, and I’m trying to accomplish something. My mission is to reduce the penalties for growing, using and selling marijuana. It’s that simple.
I’ve been conducting a great deal of research on public opinion on marijuana. Change in this area is inevitable, much like the movement toward equal rights for gays and lesbians. An ever shrinking fraction of the country resists changing marijuana laws, largely for moral reasons. But change is coming. It’s just a question of when and how we get there.
When you think about all the people who have used marijuana—from political leaders to sports stars to corporate executives to people from every walk of life—one way to win this battle is for people to just be honest. If everyone who used marijuana stood up and said, “I use this; it’s pretty good,” the argument would be over.
I’m amazed that anyone could oppose marijuana for medical use. It’s compassionate. Doctors recommend it. But the federal government is so hung up on its war on drugs that it refuses to even allow medical research on marijuana. So I’ve ¬supported changing the laws state by state, and I’ll ¬continue to do so.
On legalization beyond medical use, we may be some years away, or we may find that we suddenly reach a tipping point, much like the end of alcohol prohibition in the last century. I’m supporting innovative ideas to move toward a system that would regulate, control and tax marijuana.
I’m retired; I have time to work on this, to treat it with the same seriousness that I treated my former work running a large corporation. I care deeply about it. I deeply believe that we’ll have a better country and a better world if marijuana is treated more or less like alcohol.
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