The Insanity of DUI with Marijuana

After passing through a narrow margin of votes in Colorado in 2013, recreational marijuana use was legalized after January first in 2014. Washington State also passed the same legislation by voting that year which was not as surprising but equally as infuriating for anyone who is concerned about the when and where of use and by whom. With stiff federal regulations still in effect one has to wonder how it could have passed. Nevertheless, it’s there and the general public will have to deal with it even though regulations are still in strict reinforcement along with taxation.

     Those regulations on who can sell, tax revenues and amounts that are dispensed are hardly assuaging to a public more concerned about what our safety will be on the roads, working around and with heavy machinery to say nothing of health- mental or physical. If you are not concerned about what someone else does to themselves or to others under the influence of marijuana then maybe I should introduce you to what it actually does to people who insist on smoking weed and driving. That’s hair-raising enough isn’t it? Considering the rise in fatalities on U.S. roadways and highways everyone should consider introducing a bill that makes it illegal for all purposes throughout the States.

     Ahem! Marijuana’s known effects include altered consciousness, perceptual distortions, drowsiness, impaired memory and impaired coordination. Those hallucinogenic effects would obviously seriously affect and impair your ability to drive correctly- and way off the charts!

     By Colorado law, drivers are assumed to be impaired if their blood test shows a level of THC- the active hallucinogenic constituent in marijuana- of 5 or more nanograms per milliliter. There is a great deal of debate on how much marijuana a person needs to inhale or ingest before he or she is impaired. There are many variables, including THC’s level of concentration as well as individual biological reactive and susceptible differences in the user which impact the drug’s effects. It will be different from one person to the next in the usual way- i.e. height, weight, age, allergies, etc. Research has been limited and development of impairment testing equipment is in infancy. As a result, at the present time there is no roadside device that law enforcement can use to measure marijuana impairment. However, one thing is certain. Driving under the influence of marijuana, much more than driving under the influence of alcohol, can be dangerous- to put it mildly.

     In the mean time, here is a run down on the regulations which remain in effect and should be duly noted. Here are five of which I know about and are important to keep in mind for everyone:

     1. Selling marijuana without a license remains illegal. Purchasing marijuana from someone who does not have license to sell it is also illegal.

     2. Selling or giving marijuana to someone under 21 is illegal and a serious crime with stiffer penalties than before it was passed.

     3. Marijuana cannot be smoked or consumed ‘openly and publicly’- on public streets, parks or buildings. Its use is limited to your home or privately owned and occupied buildings.

     4. Marijuana purchased in Colorado cannot legally be taken out-of-state to sell or for any other reason. 

     5. Operating a motor vehicle while impaired is illegal and prosecutable.

     The next time someone asks you to sign a petition to pass marijuana use in your state, keep all of what I’ve told you in mind. Do the responsible thing for all of us. Just say, “No.” 

Stay Safe,

Is Anybody Above the Law?

Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship

with thee,

which frameth mischief by a law?

     Psalm 94:20




If this man who works out of the White House at the Oval Office is within the law then who is out of order?

It's time to take a good look at what has been going on since he took office and ask ourselves if we should tolerate his version of being a president of the U.S.

A Lesson in Art Appreciation

  More than a month ago GMA aired a video that not only shocked me but once I took in more details on the internet, absolutely outraged me. If you have just watched it above this entry I will explain briefly that a woman took her child into the art gallery portion of Overland Park Museum in Kansas then proceeded to sit down and let her child run all over the museum with some other woman’s kid until he ended up pulling down a sculpture worth $132,000 narrowly escaping getting crushed himself. She proceeded to saunter over where her child had moved away from what he’d done. When she finally made it over to where her child appeared to be in shock, but okay, he ran away from her!

     The gallery had it all on videotape, obviously, and she originally told them she would pay for the damages until she found out what it was worth! She sent GMA her own homemade video at a later time stating that she felt the museum was negligent in displaying a piece of art so expensive where children were allowed to visit! Then she said she was sure that her child could’ve been killed. I’ve looked at this from all sides, including what the artist must think of a woman who lets her child roam around in an art gallery, unsupervised and being quite capable of creating this kind of damage. (Parents, especially mothers, do know this about their children whether they’re willing to admit it or not.) Not once did she mention anything about the artist or the destruction of his work. In case someone may be rather misinformed (or perhaps uninitiated), I will say that when you go into an art gallery or salon you are looking at somebody’s hard work and also their property. If you have no respect for that, you shouldn’t be there. Most museums are not a child’s playground and I don’t consider this occasion a normal way for children to behave themselves anywhere, personally.

     My first reaction was this and I have not changed my mind yet: Why was she not directly supervising her child at close range? Are we all to believe that she didn’t know he was capable of doing this? These are the same questions that the art gallery officials must have asked because they charged her with negligence in supervising her child. She adamantly denies what is as plain as the video itself. By taking this stance she has inexcusably taught her child two things. One is showing no respect for other people’s property. Were they at home? Somebody’s house? The mall? (And would that make a difference?) The second thing she has taught him is not to take responsibility for one’s actions. That’s why he ran away from her!

     Since that time the museum settled this through their respective insurance companies so hopefully the artist has been compensated financially. There are two points I want to make in conclusion, however. First is the damaged art which can’t ever really be replaced. That art is the artist’s baby, Ms Negligence and it’s been destroyed. A price tag on it can’t replace it. Value of art is intrinsic and extrinsic and is not truly meant to be replicated. If the artist tries to recreate the piece of art it will be different. That may not mean anything to you but it will eventually to the artist. Second, if you can’t see value in the art destroyed as something reserved by the person who created it then I would suggest that you keep yourself and your child away from the places where fine art is displayed. Either that or start teaching your child how to act when you’re not at home. You’ll probably be spending more time in a doctor’s office, anyway, until and unless you start taking some responsibility for what he does. A child lives what he learns.