'At What Cost?': Elmhurst Doctor Opposes Pot Legalization

The following letter was submitted to Elmhurst Patch by Ivan Valcarenghi, DDS, FWCM, FAGD.

Hurrah for Dr. Aaron Weiner in Viewpoint of the Elmhurst Independent.

His opinion article needs to be seen by everyone asap. We are under duress to get out as much info as possible regarding Illinois’ proposed marijuana (MJ) legalization bill.

We are in a political storm of progressive agenda throughout the country with 19 of the now 24 presidential hopefuls with clear progressive and extreme policies. We are no longer asked to tolerate, but to now accept and even endorse those things which we once nuanced and snickered about in whispered conversations, and done on the sly by a monority, is now thrown in our faces, open to the public and we all have to endorse something offensive just for government to access more revenues.

Those who advocate, even doctors, tout the medical benefits and managing the underculture of people who frequent MJ. But there is a cost. This drug is a drug and it has untoward side effects and consequences.

As the great economist Thomas Sowell once said the test for any new policy is to ask the question “at what cost?” The cost of legalizing MJ is too great.

Those of us against legalization, and other extreme progressive policies have to pick up the pieces of shattered lives these government policies leave behind. Dr. Weiner correctly identified the potential dangers in the bill but only touches upon the growing American drug culture, and doesn’t go into the real cost to our families, our communities and society in general.

We have long known governments do not necessarily have our best interests in mind. Government will spend all it has and if you give it more, it will spend more. So my goals have always been fiscal conservativism and to reduce spending and reliance on government. Despite this, local, state, and the federal governments throughout the country are growing. There is an alarming increase in federal reliance.

So the questions we should ask is at what cost are we willing to legalize and make another drug mainstream in an already over-drugged society? Dr. Weiner didn’t talk about how MJ effects our brain pleasure centers, reduces our drive, and the gateway drug deniers obviously have not had a family member devastated by the ravishes of listlessness, homelessness and criminality that so often ensues. Look at what’s happening in Chico, Ca. where my family resides, or in San Francisco, and watch the video “Seattle is dying.” Even in an environment of acceptance, the homelessness is increasing and becoming an incredible public crisis.

Sure there are those who dabble in pot and continue to be productive members, and keep their pot participation on the sly, but legalizing it would logarithmically grow the community problems it inevitably creates. For what? So government can have more money to pay for more and more of it’s spending and bad contract negotiations, and bad policies and former government representatives who “double-dipped” and lead to our borrowed pension crisis? How did the promise of improved education with lottery monies work here in Illinois? Right, it didn’t. But it did ruin many families who waste their money for the false hope of lottery riches. Once again, our government representatives took more of our money, with false education promises, and left broken people and families behind.

Our property taxes will continue to rise anyway, ours went up 35% this year, as well as all the additive costs that makes Chicago the #1 in-debt city in America and Illinois one of the worst run and corrupt states in the nation. The new governor, who surprisingly has enjoyed no criticism, is already advertising his tax increases on TV to make it seem more palatable.

In the past, if someone ran for public office touting tax increases, it was a sure loss. Today we have become so tolerant of fiscal misappropriation and spending, we elect our new governor who touted tax increases from day one.

Enough! Write your reps, and tell this governor he needs to be more fiscally responsible, rather than doing something we have not asked for and incurring the cost of broken lives, communities, and hearts. Stop the legalization of pot. The cost is too high.

Ivan Valcarenghi, DDS, FWCM, FAGD