"The Ronan Report" provides insight about the activities at the Western Maryland Health System in Cumberland, Maryland, and about the changes taking place in healthcare today from a CEO's perspective.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Maryland Senate President in Favor of Legalizing Marijuana

I made a prediction the other day that within four years Maryland would legalize marijuana.......boy, was I wrong with my end date.  It appears that approval is on the fast track with the Senate President, a tobacco farmer and trial lawyer, being in favor of legalization and probably more importantly, taxation.  Public opinion has the majority in favor of legalization; at least that's what the media is deducing from the polls.  I sure as heck don't know many people who are in favor of legalization, but I guess they are out there.  

What amazes me is that the state is committed to improving the health status of its residents and yet they are going to approve the use of marijuana, a drug that is known to be addictive, harmful, cancer causing through prolonged use, and a gateway to the introduction of other extremely harmful drugs such as cocaine, heroin and other hard drugs.  All in the name of tax dollars.  One of the candidates for Maryland Governor wants to legalize marijuana to fund full-day kindergarten education across Maryland.  Somehow, isn't like legalizing prostitution to fund research on sexually transmitted diseases.

The effects of marijuana on one's mental status are well known.  According to WedMD, the psychological effects are a distorted sense of time; paranoia; "magical" thinking; memory loss; slowed reaction time; anxiety and depression with impairment and the residual effects from the drug lasting hours, days or even weeks.  This doesn't even take into consideration the physiological effects that marijuana has on one's body.  


In my almost 60 years, which was old when my father was 60, but not today, more and more, I am feeling like a dinosaur as these "progressive" ideas take center stage and get traction for all the wrong reasons.

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