Letter to the Editor: Vote Against Marijuana Business Ban

The following letter to the editor was submitted by resident Jon Lott. If you would like to submit a letter, you can send it to Stoughton Patch Editor Dan Libon at dan.libon@patch.com

On Tuesday, April 4, Stoughton voters will have the choice to ban regulated marijuana dispensaries from conducting business in our town. This ban is a bad idea for Stoughton, and I urge all of you to vote against this ban.

For decades, the federal government has, based not on research but on racial hysteria, forbidden the cultivation and sale of cannabis. For decades it has been a disaster for the American people.

Let me blunt: the War on Drugs has been an abominable failure. It was designed to target Latinos and blacks, and later adjusted to target citizens protesting the Vietnam War. It accomplished nothing, except keeping marginalized groups on the fringes of society.

The War on Drugs was a ban of political convenience, the effects of which have damaged communities to this day. The reason so many of us call it "marijuana" is because politicians wanted the drug's name associated with Mexicans, who were not widely considered at the time to be upstanding citizens. (Based on current political trends, that sentiment may still persist.)

Prohibition of alcohol, a substance proven to be far more dangerous than cannabis, was quickly shown to be an abject failure during the fourteen years it existed. Crime rates skyrocketed, violence escalated, and an entire industry funneled money to powerful gangs rather than government coffers.

Now a similar situation presents itself. Drug cartels currently run the marijuana industry, rather than licensed, regulated businesses. Wouldn't you rather buy from a Stoughton business, operating with strict guidelines, paying taxes to our heavily indebted town, selling tested product? Who would want to direct commerce to an untaxed guy, selling unreliable weed out of a smoky apartment?

Stoughton, and the rest of New England, is in the midst of an unprecedented opioid epidemic. Part of this is due to Big Pharma pushing addictive painkillers to unsuspecting patients (or often, people gaming the system to resell those pills at great profit). Part of it is also due to Afghans (their country produces 90% of the world's heroin) who have no opportunity after the War on Terror ravaged their land and infrastructure, and have turned to poppy growing to support themselves.

As Governor Baker and President Trump slash treatment funding for opioid addiction, marijuana presents itself as a far, far safer alternative to fentanyl, codeine, and heroin. Studies have shown that medical marijuana has reduced opioid overdoses, and it stands to reason that regulated legalization of marijuana will help combat this epidemic as well.

Many parents are concerned about how a cannabis dispensary might increase access to their children. As a former high school teacher, I've got news for you: right now it's a lot easier for your children to get weed than alcohol. That's the thing about taxation and regulation; it limits access. Your illegal drug dealer doesn't card you when you want to buy pot.

And speaking of that illegal drug dealer, he's going to be a lot poorer when he realizes that all his clients have moved on to quality products from local businesses that contribute to the town budget. He won't be able to make much profit from selling marijuana anymore. Maybe he'll get a real job. At the very least, by no longer selling pot, weed won't be wrongly associated with drugs that actually cause overdoses.

Stoughton voted in favor of marijuana legalization last November, and I think highly of us for making the right choice. But there is work to be done to ensure that marijuana in our town is fairly regulated, and that the much-needed tax revenue finds its way into Stoughton's bank account.

Nobody's going to make you smoke marijuana if a pot dispensary opens on Route 138. Odds are you haven't even seen any marijuana in person since it became legal last December. But you will see the benefits that the tax revenue marijuana can provide to our town: traffic lights, paved roads, maybe a new ambulance, school funding, plowed streets. And hopefully a couple new police officers, who thankfully have better things to do than throw people in the joint for smoking some weed.

Jon Lott is a lifelong resident of Stoughton and a Town Meeting Rep. In 2016, he ran as an Independent for State Senate and finished with 26% of the vote. He can be found on Twitter and Instagram at @MrJonLott.