Tag Archives: Wyoming

Driving

Tragedy comes to teens who risk riding with stoned drivers

Driving with friends when they’re stoned

Read Part 1 and Part 2.   Many teens have heard “stoned is safer than drunk.” In the social media, the pot advocates claim to drive more carefully when high on pot.  Long-time pot users say ridiculous things which make young people think they’re immune to tragedy.  Smoking pot and driving is not safe, and it’s foolish to guess which risky behavior is more dangerous than another.

Too many teens take a risk by getting into the cars of friends or classmates who have been smoking pot.  Marijuana was a factor in the crash that killed Darion Wheeler, 18, Destinee Wheeler, 15, and Paul McEwan, 20.  It shocked a small Wyoming town when they died last March. Continue reading Tragedy comes to teens who risk riding with stoned drivers →

Drug Policy

Marijuana Legislation Defeated in Multiple States

Last week a House bill to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol was soundly defeated in the state of New Hampshire.  Opponents questioned the wisdom of making another addictive drug legal during a time of drug overdoses and deaths.

The New Mexico legislature also killed a marijuana legalization measure on February 14.

Last week in Wyoming, a bill to decriminalize marijuana was soundly defeated.    It was the third year in a row that marijuana advocates tried to to pass a decriminalization bill which would have lessened the fine for pot possession.

Furthermore, an attempt get legalization of recreational use marijuana on the Wyoming ballot  failed.   “The group fell far short of the roughly 25,600 signatures from registered voters needed to get on November’s ballot.”   The Wyoming Senate Judiciary panel issued a favorable recommendation for a bill to make marijuana edibles illegal.  (Levi Thamba Pongi , a foreign exchange student at college in Wyoming, became psychotic and committed suicide after eating a marijuana cookie in Colorado in March, 2014.)

In Montana, a petition to put legalization of recreational marijuana on the November ballot is counterbalanced by the Safe Montana petition to keep recreational marijuana illegal.

Marijuana lobbyists and policy groups are making strong efforts to legalize or decriminalize marijuana in western and northeastern states.  Vermont, a bill to legalize marijuana has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.

Vermont gubernatorial candidate Bruce Lisman issued a statement critical of the governor and legislature for acting too quickly.  Six Vermont physician groups come out in opposition to legalizing marijuana for recreational use in their state.  The state’s health department wrote a scathing attack against legalization.

An state considering legalization needs to recognized the continuous onslaught of problems in the schools of Colorado.  Last week, 9 students were negatively affected by marijuana edibles that had gotten into a Colorado High School. ( Maine, the state next to New Hampshire had already rejected a bill to legalize marijuana by a vote of 2 to 1, last summer. )

If Justin Trudeau pushes the legalization effort in Canada, he will into trouble with international treaties, and possibly in the province government of Quebec.  The Finance Minister of Quebec warned that it will be hard to push them to sell marijuana.