Texas High Ways
Why the unlikeliest of states—ours—should legalize marijuana.
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26 comments
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009, 5:54 pm
Cara says:
I am very proud of Texas Monthly for publishing the article, “Texas Highwaysâ€, by William martin in the October 2009 issue. Marijuana law reform is long overdue and I agree with Dr. William Woodward that the decision should be left up to the states and not the federal government. Our first step should be to decriminalize the possession of and use of marijuana for adults. Too much money is spent on this ridiculous war on drugs and too many non violent drug offenders are rotting away in jail because of the impertinent flaw in our legal system. Secondly we need to recognize the many benefits that legalizing marijuana will have on Texans and on the Texas economy. Marijuana produced by Texans for Texas will immediately reduce the demand for the marijuana that is being smuggled in from Mexico. With proper regulation and dare I say taxes, foreign drug cartels will cease to exist because the demand for imported drugs will diminish and therefore the supply. Marijuana could be an excellent cash crop for Texas. Demand for marijuana is high. We would not be having a “war on drugs’ if drugs were not desired. Recreational marijuana users are not alone. The amount of medical marijuana users are growing. I hate to think that that someone with a chronic or terminal condition is depriving themselves of the healing benefits of marijuana because they buy in to the taboo given to the plant by the “war on drugsâ€. Texas should not be so blind. Marijuana is lucrative. I would be the first person to plow under my corn and spread some marijuana seeds.
Saturday, November 14th, 2009, 10:10 pm
steve says:
Prohibition is referred to as a negative - something that interfered with an individual’s right to freedom. Yet in exercising that freedom to drink, drinkers have killed more people and destroyed more families than all the illegal drugs combined. Sometimes exercising our individual freedoms takes away someone else’s right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009, 6:37 pm
Rick says:
"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is one of the most famous phrases in the United States Declaration of Independence. These three aspects are listed among the "unalienable rights" of man.
Now, I have not smoked pot since 1986 because of drug testing at the places that I have worked. And I have never been in the position where I can take the financial risk, or risk the chance of losing my job that would directly affect my family’s well being. So I haven’t smoked.
So my question is, what happened to my life, my liberty, and my pursuit of happiness? Someone has made it illegal and they have taken it away from me. I am an adult, a father, a Viet Nam Area Veteran, a tax payer and a contributor to Texas society, so let’s be the leaders we know we are and legalize pot in Texas.
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009, 9:58 pm
scott says:
i agree with most of the posts on here, the government is losing the so called war on drugs, ole Nancy Reagan must biting down real hard right now. I can still hear her screaming JUST SAY NO...
Monday, October 19th, 2009, 4:29 pm
Mack says:
Among the many other reasons to legalize pot is the absolute fact that a new kid in town can get pot much easier than a responsible adult.
Friday, October 16th, 2009, 12:57 pm
Texan3 says:
MY HATS OFF TO TEXAS MONTHLY! SPREAD THE WORD!
I MANAGE MULTIPLE BILLION DOLLAR ASSETS SUCCESSFULLY - I DON’T SMOKE WHILE I WORK BUT I SMOKE IN THE MORNING AND EVENING AND DRINK A GLASS OF WINE WITH DINNER.
I AM A BETTER PERSON, HUSBAND, EXECUTIVE BECAUSE OF POT.
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009, 10:33 pm
B Fisher says:
Pot is a relaxer. I am a 54 year old successful, professional woman and have smoked since I was a teenager. I graduated college with a 3.8 BBA, and see no reason why it is not a legal choice.
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009, 10:00 pm
Angela says:
I am a 53 lady professional and I’m a closet smoker. I am in an upper management, high stress job. I am a graduate of Stanford with a 3.8. I don’t appreciate the looser calling us potheads. What do I call you? An Alcoholic Head??? You drink; I do not drink. You are just a product of the Nixon Era that believes all the drug propaganda. No, Pot does not kill brain cells. Does not cause cancer and if you would make yourself educated before you post, you would have saved yourself this education. Well Alcoholic head, if you were educated you would know about the studies recently completed after 40 years of study; that is alcohol is more harmful than marijuana. So all you alcoholic heads,listen up now, "You take away my weed, I take away your beer." Legal or not!
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009, 5:31 pm
Marcus says:
As a 53-year-old retired Navy veteran who is conservative to the core, most people would never suspect that I would support the legalization of marijuana. However, I do. It has now come to the point in the State of Texas where too much time and effort is being wasted by law enforcement trying to catch people with drugs. If done right, legalizing marijuana would put the drug cartels out of business, make the state some much needed tax revenue and probably reduce the consumption rate of marijuana among young Texans.
Monday, October 5th, 2009, 10:53 pm
herbalist says:
(1 of 2)
Like the Iraq war and the “war on terrorâ€, the so-called “drug war†is a government contrived “war†based on lies that generates massive profits for a few while causing massive suffering for many.
The drug war is futile by design (and thus never-ending) because it doesn’t “fight†drugs—quite the contrary—it strongly encourages production and distribution of prohibited drugs by guaranteeing extremely high profits.
But the most insidious and evil aspect of the drug war is it manufactures its own enemies by criminalizing the most basic of human rights—the right of sovereignty over your own body. The drug war could not exist without first inventing a bogus crime.
Our government wastes billions of tax dollars each year harassing and jailing millions of decent, productive Americans for a government-invented “crimeâ€. The use of drugs (even dangerous drugs like alcohol and nicotine) simply doesn’t meet any reasonable definition of “crimeâ€.
Real crime requires action that harms another. Real crime requires both a victim and a perpetrator. For example, robbery harms another and has both a victim and a perpetrator. Only a corrupt, depraved government could invent a crime you commit against yourself.
If you use certain drugs, our government claims you’re both a criminal and a victim at the same time. Since the perpetrator can’t be separated from the victim, the victim is further punished for the “crimeâ€. This pathetic perversion of justice is vigorously championed by our government for selfish political reasons.
More than 50 government agencies share billions of your tax dollars each year “fighting†a government-created crime. Of the millions of illegal drug users, the vast majority use marijuana. If marijuana were legal like alcohol, these government agencies would suddenly lose billions of dollars because millions of former “criminals†would suddenly be granted sovereignty over their own bodies. The vast army amassed to fight the drug war would need to be dissolved at great cost.
That’s why our government strongly opposes even honest debate about marijuana legalization because this massive money-making scam would soon end.
Ingesting nicotine, alcohol, fatty foods, or certain drugs may be unwise. But why is it a crime? If a drug user or a non-drug user harms another they should be treated equally. But the bogus “crime†of drug use doesn’t require harming anyone. Nor does it require a victim and a perpetrator. It only requires a government-invented, bogus criminal/victim, a drug user.
By using lies and deception our government convinces gullible Americans that simply putting something into your own body is a serious crime. But evidence clearly shows that nearly all the harm associated with drug use is caused by creating the bogus crime, not from the actual drug use. There are millions of drug users, but relatively few are harmed by their drug use. These few should be patients, not criminals.
Monday, October 5th, 2009, 10:51 pm
herbalist says:
(2 of 2)
But it’s not just the millions arrested for drug use who suffer from this gross injustice. We gullible Americans have allowed our government to invent a bogus crime that causes massive misery worldwide while costing the taxpayers billions.
Consider the following list of easily avoidable human tragedies that are the direct result of a government-invented, bogus crime: A tax-free, unregulated, multi-billion-dollar drug industry necessarily run by violent criminals; a giant law enforcement bureaucracy wasting billions in a futile attempt to curtail this drug industry, which, in fact, guarantees its extreme profitability; a deteriorating public education system robbed of billions to support this law enforcement bureaucracy; courts and prisons overflowing with non-violent "criminals" while murderers, rapists and real criminals go free; tens of thousands of children enduring the suffering and stigma of having one or both parents in jail for a bogus "crimeâ€; the gradual erosion of our Constitution as more and more civil liberties are sacrificed to fight a crime "made in USA."; rampant corruption of foreign governments (like Mexico and Columbia), so driven by US drug profits that life and human rights are secondary; thousands of adults and children infected and dying from HIV because distributing clean needles is a “crimeâ€; violent street gangs with little incentive for education or legitimate jobs reaping huge drug profits made possible by a bogus crime; a growing death toll from police breaking down doors to catch people using substances less dangerous than tobacco, alcohol or fatty foods; a growing cynicism and disrespect for all laws and authority fueled by the knowledge our government can arbitrarily invent a bogus crime…
This sordid list goes on and on.
We’re appalled when Islamic regimes invent bogus crimes against reading certain books, or listening to certain music. Using certain drugs is our government’s version of the same thing. But the worldwide consequences of US drug prohibition are far more serious and severe. All of these "crimes" lack the moral basis of real crime. All are clear cases of a repressive government dictating the private personal behavior of its citizens.
If real crime is knowingly causing harm to others, then the real crime here is not drug use, but making drug use a “crimeâ€. And the real criminals are not drug users, but ordinary people like us, who sit back and condone a ruthless scam that has been exported and exploited around the world leaving massive human suffering in its wake.
Monday, October 5th, 2009, 10:45 pm
herbalist says:
It was Dupont that conspired with William Randolph Hurst and Henry Anslinger to demonize the most valuable crop on the planet in order to promote their own financial gain. Dupont to protect their new invention “nylon†and Hurst to insure paper is made from trees of which he owned vast tracts of in the Pacific North West.
From http://www.ericthered.ca/
1. We have cut down vast tracts of the original forest cover to make paper that we could have been making from hemp.
2. We produce plastic that does not biodegrade and harms us by introducing chemicals into our food and our environment that we could have made 100% biodegradable from hemp
3. We produce toxic based paints that poison our air and water and houses that could have been made from hemp oils
4. We make things like Styrofoam, diapers, car parts, computer parts, and thousands of other items that, if they were made from hemp, could return to the soil as fertilizer after their use.
5. We run our cars on a polluting non-renewable source of fuel when we could be using unrefined vegetable oils like hemp oil in slightly modified diesel engines. Diesel engines were invented to run on vegetable oils but were modified early on to run on diesel fuel, a byproduct of gasoline refining.
6. We feed 40% of the world’s grain production to cattle for a protein source (which is enough to feed 3 billion people) when we could be getting that same protein in a more digestible source from hemp seed
7. We have weakened immune systems from eating over-processed foods devoid of any Essential Fatty Acids when we could have a diet rich in Essential Fatty Acids simply by adding hemp oil.
8. We dump half the worlds pesticides on cotton, when we could be using a by-product of the hemp paper industry to make strong, comfortable clothing
Monday, October 5th, 2009, 10:34 pm
Texas Tea Pad says:
In the 1930s alcohol prohibition was such a bad public policy that a Constitutional Amendment was passed to do away with it. Today we are seeing the same bloodshed, corruption, and increased power of the criminal element as back then. It’s actually worse now. Thousands of people have been brutally murdered just across our Southern border. Are there going to have to be beheadings in Houston before this gets our government’s attention?
Monday, October 5th, 2009, 7:46 pm
BE MORAL--ReLEGALIZE says:
"Go back to school"s comment made me so mad. Talk about MORALS...this country is MORALLY wrong for keeping a gift from GOD illegal. READ the BIBLE, it says that HE gave us seeds to use and grow for our needs. WHO invented alcohol-MAN and look at the deaths from it. I would LOVE to sit down with you and all the other ignorant people out there. Yes, I am doing my part to change the laws. I am 52, serve on the Board of Directors on a non-profit organization trying to change these ridiculous laws.
Monday, October 5th, 2009, 6:35 pm
henry says:
If you have harmed no one you should not be arrested. Smoking a joint harms no one!!!
Monday, October 5th, 2009, 2:42 am
Keep drugs illegal says:
New drug policies must be smarter and more effective in reducing illegal drug use. Curbing the demand for illegal drugs must be their central goal. New and better policies can greatly improve current performance of drug abuse prevention which, far from failing, has protected millions of people from the devastating effects of wider use of the drugs that are illegal today.
Monday, October 5th, 2009, 2:02 am
GO back to school says:
All you druggies are off your rockers. Texas doesn’t need a bunch of pothead drug addicts running around. If you ignore the health, moral, accident, and crime rates then your one sided argument is nothing but propoganda. There are all kinds of economists and models used to make a linear regression. To put economists in this propoganda lie just to push a pro drug story is irresponsible. A real regression model would include negatives, impacts on society, costs related to accidents, productivity losses. NOT just the FINANCIAL hypothetical WHAT IF of only one variable. Real economists, statsticians, CIS,accountants or anyone who can run a regression would include all the variables before making any claims. You all sound really dumb.
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009, 4:05 pm
AustinMusician says:
I work a professional career and play music a few times a month in the clubs in Austin. It is ridiculous that marijuana is illegal and demonized while alcohol is legal and almost encouraged in the media. There is a huge silent majority of people that I know that are teachers, doctors, attorneys, POLITICIANS (yes, I said it), and many other highly professional types of people that enjoy a little pot here and there. These aren’t crack addict, worthless to society, bums. They are people from every major career path. And they have to be scared of being fired, put in jail, and everything else just because they want to enjoy something that is naturally grown and basically harmless. Sure there are the extreme cases of people abusing the substance, but people abuse alcohol at MANY times the rate of pot. I really hope someday that small quantities are legalized. It just makes sense when you look at it from every angle.
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009, 12:08 am
Christine says:
I wrote to the author and shared my story. He thought it may be a story to share on this site how illegal marijuana affects everyone.
It’s a great idea for Texas to be the state that would outright make it legal, after all, we have the very best medical center in the world where cannabis could change the way patients feel and I am sure that it would make a difference to patients at MD Anderson Hospital. They want to be "The Futuristic Cancer Hospital of the world." They can do that if they had some of that pot.
This is the way it is folks!
The pot and alcohol laws should be switched. It affects everyones life, even me and I don’t smoke. The judge rules that my son cannot have full visitation of his kids because he cannot pass a marijuana test. Even if he didn’t smoke for a week, he still tested positive. He can only see his kids 2 days (no nights) a month. No summers. God I wish this damn law would change.
Yet it is ok for the kids stepfather (who they live with now) to take Xanax and drink and slap her and the kids around. The woman has left twice because of abuse. CPS knows, but it doesn’t matter to them because the mom hasn’t reported him so therefore he never has to get tested. She reported my son smoked pot and the court made him take a drug test. He tested positive for pot. This is her way of getting back at my son because of the divorce. Therefore, I am unable to see them as well; they are my grandchildren.
My nephew got plastered drunk and and almost killed my neice and her daughter. The nephew likes relaxing agents. He would choose pot, but he has to test a lot at work and he would get fired if he smoked the drug of his choice. Not the drug the government chooses for him. My neice is now a brain-dead alcoholic.. He still drinks and has a job but wished he could smoke pot over drinking.
This would not have happened if he had smoked and been with her that night!!
This next incident I would like to call a political kidnapping because today, Marc Emery, a very well known activist and magazine publisher that lives in Canada was kidnapped by politicians and sent to USA to serve a 5 year sentence for selling seeds on the internet. He was known for making lots of noise for pot reform. Now with the explosion of people coming out of the corners supporting pot finally, they are trying to put an activist to sleep. It makes the opposite; more people become even louder.
Great article!!!
Friday, October 2nd, 2009, 10:00 pm
Grandma420 says:
I’m old. I like my pot.I really think it should be legal at least for the medicine. It relieves me of a lot of pain. Forget the pills and the Alcohol. Esp. Hydrocodone.
I don’t think it will be legal in my life time. I think young people need to bark louder; they have the future say.
Friday, October 2nd, 2009, 9:56 pm
Chris says:
I work for a major airline in upper management. I like to wind down when I come home. I choose not to drink because it makes me very aggressive. I , therefore I choose to smoke marijuana.
Don’t smoke much but it is easy to get. I am a closet smoker as well as all the other professionals in the US. I guess I have to wait til it becomes legal. I would really enjoy smoking with some of my coworkers. We go out to drink and I hate it. Legalize it!!!!!
Thursday, October 1st, 2009, 4:16 pm
KBCraig says:
A an active duty member of LEAP (not a retiree), I thank you for this article.
I oppose a controlled distribution system and taxation; instead, I would solve the problem simply by repealing all laws prohibiting manufacture, distribution, and possession of marijuana.
I believe the system used for alcohol distribution has actually made the alcohol problem worse, so I wouldn’t care to go down that same path with other intoxicants.
Thursday, October 1st, 2009, 1:06 pm
Texan2 says:
I agree with the article and want to thank the author William Martin and Texas Monthly for publishing it.
It seems this plant has a bad reputation for no good reason. People are generally afraid to talk about Cannabis except to laud it’s illegal status.
New scientific studies as well as old tried and true texts point out it’s usefulness to our society as a medicine and as a fiber. It’s availability today is mostly marketed to those who care to visit the black market. Ask most High School teenagers and if you’re trustworthy, they’ll get you some in no time. You see prohibition has a way of reaching around the law and delivering what people want through undesireable means.
It’s time we all fess up to owning the problems associated with the current prohibition Cannabis plant. Legalize and regulate the crop that is financing upwords of 70% of the illegal drug trade. That’ll certainly put a damper on the black market’s operational funds (unlike prohibition has done). Let’s bring the Cannabis plant into it’s rightful place. Where it can benefit society with it’s qualities. Through education and purposeful laws we can regulate and inform. God intended the Cannabis plant be placed on earth... Remember the passage about all seed bearing plants are good? Those are not my words but it is my philosopy.
It’s how we use the plant that is most important. Those who wish to abuse the plant may find their health and welfare suffer. Then again, so do folks who abuse anything. Look around and let’s talk about this. Thanks again Texas Monthly.
Thursday, October 1st, 2009, 10:35 am
Jackson says:
I take 750mg of hydrocodone some times as many as 3 or more in one day. I have been doing this for over 20 years. I am hooked on legal drugs, YES. I used to smoke a joint when the pain came and all was well. I married and deciede to become totally a law biding citizen and go with legal pain killers only. The word killers are right...
They are killing my liver, kidneys, and my ability to lead a mormal life . I am high on codine not in control of my actions like I could be if I just smoked a simple joint.
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009, 9:23 am
Bill Harris says:
One need not travel to China to find indigenous cultures lacking human rights or to Cuba for political prisoners. America leads the world in percentile behind bars, thanks to ongoing persecution of hippies, radicals, and non-whites under banner of the war on drugs. If we’re all about spreading liberty abroad, then why mix the message at home? Peace on the home front would enhance global credibility.
The drug czar’s Rx for prison fodder costs dearly, as life is flushed down expensive tubes. My shaman’s second opinion is that psychoactive plants are God’s gift. Behold, it’s all good. Canadian Marc Emery sold seeds that enable American farmers to outcompete cartels with superior local herb. He’s being extradited to prison, for doing what government can’t do, reduce U.S. demand for Mexican.
Only on the authority of a clause about interstate commerce does the CSA (Controlled Substances Act of 1970) reincarnate Al Capone, endanger homeland security, and throw good money after bad. Official policy is to root out, not tax, the number-one cash crop in the land. America rejected prohibition, but it’s back. Apparently, SWAT teams don’t need no stinking amendment. Father, forgive those who make it their business to know not what they do.
Nixon promised that the Schafer Commission would support the criminalization of his enemies, but it didn’t. No matter, the witch-hunt was on. No amendments can assure due process under an anti-science law without due process itself. Psychology hailed the breakthrough potential of LSD, until the CSA shut down research and pronounced that marijuana has no medical use, period.
The RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) allows Native American Church members to eat peyote, which functions like LSD. Americans shouldn’t need a specific church membership or an act of Congress to obtain their birthright freedom of religion. Denial of entheogen sacrament to any American, for mediation of communion with his or her maker, precludes free exercise of religious liberty.
Freedom of speech presupposes freedom of thought. The Constitution doesn’t enumerate any governmental power to embargo diverse states of mind. How and when did government usurp this power to coerce conformity? The Mayflower sailed to escape coerced conformity. Legislators who would limit cognitive liberty lack jurisdiction.
Common-law must hold that adults are the legal owners of their own bodies. The Founding Fathers undersigned that the right to the pursuit of happiness is inalienable. Socrates said to know your self. Mortal lawmakers should not presume to thwart the intelligent design that molecular keys unlock spiritual doors. Persons who appreciate their own free choice of path in life should tolerate seekers’ self-exploration.
Monday, September 28th, 2009, 6:39 pm
katalina says:
geez louis...........legalize.
been a smoker for over 40 yrs. steady job--public school teacher--....own my home--as in paid off my mortgage. have raised successful kids am as laid back as can be.......worst thing about the herb for me is ...........the munchies...... : )
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