{"id":655,"date":"2014-01-21T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html"},"modified":"2016-08-14T08:17:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T14:17:07","slug":"is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html","title":{"rendered":"Is pot-smoking merely a “bad habit”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Look, I know that there are significant differences of opinion among reasonable people of good will on the topic of marijuana. The only person I know who smoked pot was my Uncle S., who, by the way, ended up in jail, then afterwards went to live with my other uncle and his wife, and suffered a mysterious stroke that left him paralyzed and ultimately killed him. \u00a0Was it the pot-smoking? \u00a0My parents believe so. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s the right answer on the question of how dangerous pot-smoking is? \u00a0Does it produce lethargic failures who spend their time getting high rather than being productive members of society? \u00a0Or would those potheads be failures anyway, just angrier, drunken failures? \u00a0How large an increase in pot users would we see if it\u2019s as readily available as liquor? \u00a0Or is the above irrelevant, because the right of responsible smokers, who get high in the evenings when everyone else is just settling into their favorite TV show, but show up and put in a good day\u2019s work the next day, trump social concerns about the others? \u00a0I don\u2019t know. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s very worrisome about the \u201cexperiments\u201d in Oregon and Colorado and the medical marijuana laws elsewhere (particularly in places such as California, where everyone is quite open about the fact that anyone who wants to can find a doctor to diagnose them with a suitable condition) is that we\u2019re making a mockery of the law. \u00a0Large numbers of Americans view laws on pot-smoking as somewhat arbitrary, somewhat like Catholic \u201claws of the church\u201d on not eating meat on Fridays in Lent.<\/p>\n

And Obama\u2019s recent comments \u2014 as written up in the Washington Post<\/a>, but really, all over the internet \u2014 are quite disturbing in this respect. \u00a0Here\u2019s the \u00a0key line: \u00a0\u201cI smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don\u2019t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n

He goes on to say, smoking marijuana is \u201cnot something I encourage, and I\u2019ve told my daughters I think it\u2019s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Obama has said is ultimately that he thinks a major piece of American criminal law criminalizes something that\u2019s simply a \u201cbad habit\u201d and a \u201cwaste of time.\u201d \u00a0Well, guess what, plenty of things are \u201cbad habits\u201d and \u201cwastes of time\u201d \u2014 watching excessive TV is, or spending all day playing Grand Theft Auto when your mom is after you to get a job. \u00a0But we don\u2019t criminalize \u201cbad habits.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Obama truly believes this, then he truly believes that large numbers of people are locked up unjustly. \u00a0But what is he doing? \u00a0Nothing. <\/p>\n

If laws criminalizing pot-selling and possession are unjust, he should, in his capacity as president of the United States, actually propose legislation changing the laws at the federal level. \u00a0Maybe he\u2019s too busy reading Angie Merkel\u2019s e-mail and watching sports on ESPN to get around to this.<\/p>\n

But maybe he doesn\u2019t really recognize the concept of an \u201cunjust\u201d law \u2014 which is even more dangerous, if that means that he thinks of laws as fundamentally arbitrary anyway and not reflecting any great truth in what is criminal and what isn\u2019t. \u00a0And if Obama\u2019s solution to inconvenient federal pot laws is just to ignore them, what else is he ignoring? <\/p>\n

Pot-law enforcement. \u00a0Immigration law. \u00a0NSA spying. \u00a0IRS scandals. \u00a0Is it all a fundamental disregard for law on the part of our vaunted Constitutional law professor President?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Look, I know that there are significant differences of opinion among reasonable people of good will on the topic of marijuana. The only person I know who smoked pot was my Uncle S., who, by the way, ended up in jail, then afterwards went to live with my other uncle and his wife, and suffered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[447],"class_list":["post-655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-pot"],"yoast_head":"\nIs pot-smoking merely a "bad habit"?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Look, I know that there are significant differences of opinion among reasonable people of good will on the topic of marijuana. The only person I know who\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is pot-smoking merely a "bad habit"?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Look, I know that there are significant differences of opinion among reasonable people of good will on the topic of marijuana. The only person I know who\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-21T14:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-14T14:17:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html\",\"name\":\"Is pot-smoking merely a \\\"bad habit\\\"?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-21T14:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-14T14:17:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"Look, I know that there are significant differences of opinion among reasonable people of good will on the topic of marijuana. The only person I know who\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is pot-smoking merely a “bad habit”?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is pot-smoking merely a \"bad habit\"?","description":"Look, I know that there are significant differences of opinion among reasonable people of good will on the topic of marijuana. The only person I know who","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is pot-smoking merely a \"bad habit\"?","og_description":"Look, I know that there are significant differences of opinion among reasonable people of good will on the topic of marijuana. The only person I know who","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2014-01-21T14:30:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-08-14T14:17:07+00:00","author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html","name":"Is pot-smoking merely a \"bad habit\"?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-01-21T14:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-14T14:17:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"Look, I know that there are significant differences of opinion among reasonable people of good will on the topic of marijuana. The only person I know who","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/01\/is-pot-smoking-merely-a-bad-habit.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is pot-smoking merely a “bad habit”?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}