From KOTA TV, Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom and State Senator Helene Duhamel are speaking out agains the Pot legalization measures that are going to be on the November ballot:
Thom estimates that 95% of the people in the system have a drug or alcohol problem and he and Duhamel think legalizing more drugs would only increase their problems.
“We have a huge drug problem in Pennington County and I look at marijuana as a gateway drug for many people,” said Duhamel. “We are fighting methamphetamine on all fronts and I just can’t imagine throwing more into the mix.”
The sheriff is right on the money, ask any meth addict how they got started on the road and they’ll tell you smoking pot.
Completely off the mark. Marijuana legalization shows a reduction in usage of harder drugs. Nobody smokes pot before smoking a cigarette or drinking a beer. The gateway argument is bunk. In fact, taking dealers out of the equation reduces the chances of someone moving on to harder drugs because those are the people who tend to offer them. The drug war is lost and prohibition does not work. Put resources towards addiction services and quit spending money incarcerating and branding non-violent offenders for life. People who smoke pot will do it whether it is legal or not. Might as well tax and regulate it. You can get pot in SD just as easy as you can beer already.
Here is the study that shows a reduction of fatal opioid overdoses in states with legalized marijuana.
Bachhuber MA, Saloner B, Cunningham CO, Barry CL. Medical cannabis laws and opioid analgesic overdose mortality in the United States, 1999-2010. JAMA Intern Med. 2014;174(10):1668-1673. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.4005
These studies are probably funded by opiod and meth pharmaceuticals.
What you would have if marijuana is legalized is yet another drug on the market.. It would not reduce other types. The sheriffs and other law enforcement officers will attest that marijuana is the gateway to other drugs.
Not the ones I have talked to.
lol – it’s alcohol and tobacco 99% of the time
Pot and meth are never going to go away. Laws are not going to stop people from taking drugs. It’s a personal decision. How’s that “War on drugs” working for you. The Government needs to admit that they screwed up big time.
WRONG…..Your war on drugs is a joke…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1g5I_7J0qo&t=34s
The problem with legalizing drugs, of any kind, is that it turns the users into innocent victims, and once they become victims the rest of us have to pay all their bills for them.
Another bunk position. How does that differ with fat people, lazy people, people who don’t wear helmets or seatbelts? When they can no longer function, we support them on disability and Medicaid to cover their healthcare. I could name an activity that everyone does that puts them at higher risk but why don’t you complain about that? Why should I care if you smoke yourself to death anymore than I do if you eat yourself to death? Heart disease is still the biggest killer in America and it costs us a fortune.
It doesn’t differ from fat people, alcoholics, smokers, etc. That’s the problem: we already have too many ways for people to harm themselves, and then the rest of us have to pay all their bills for them.
Keeping pot illegal turns users into victims of the unjust drug war.
Your statement can also be applied to smokers and alcoholics, are you in favor of outlawing those drugs? Yay more government!
If landlords can’t evict stoners, how the heck are parents going to get their unemployed adult kids out of their basements?
Isn’t marijuana only a “gateway drug” because it’s illegal, so the only people you can get it from are people who sell illegal drugs and have financial incentive to upsell their marijuana customers on something else too?