Occupational Health & Safety: Nov. 6, 2012 may someday become known as the day the drug war went up in smoke. Why? That's the day voters in Colorado and Washington state decided to legalize marijuana use, and not just for medicinal purposes. They voted to legalize marijuana for so-called recreational use. The pro-legalization of marijuana movement signaled that at least four more states (Alaska, Arizona, California, and Oregon) may pass similar legislation this year, and as 2013 came to a close, 20 states plus the District of Columbia already had legalized medical marijuana. New York's governor welcomed the new year by announcing that he intended to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes by executive order, thus bypassing voters and legislators.
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I believe that this article provides great information about both areas of concentration. Marijuana and the legalization in comparison to alcohol. The only problem that I had was the lack of statistics of a driver under the influence of Marijuana alone. The article gave great understanding of the problems with people under the influence of marijuana when it is accomplanied with alcohol. But again, where is the statistics concerning the damage of the surrounding people and marijuana alone. Because the harm of the consumer and their drug done to themselves is their responsibility. When it harm another there is a problem. There was more attention on the affects of alcohol and the damage done by it than marijuana. Yes, there is a wide range of laced marijuana, there is a problem in that and it is so unpredictable that I can understand the frustration in trying to trace it. But this article could have been a little more specific in its topic of interest and argument.
While marijuana is legal in Washington and Colorado, and the legal ramifications of showing up to work high is a grey area, I believe that it's a respect thing. Being high while doing your job isn't just disrespectful to your profession, but it's dangerous. Studies have shown that driving under the influence of marijuana is dangerous to both yourself driving and the other motorists on the road. That being said, if you really value your job, you shouldn't show up stoned. Furthermore, while I support marijuana being recreationally legal, I also support it just being that: recreational. Something you can do in your free time, and not while you're working. You can't smoke cigarettes while you're working (albeit because of different reasons), but it's on the same lines. You're not getting paid to be stoned.
This article seems to imply that legalizing marijuana is going to automatically result in people everywhere going to work under the influence. Just because medical marijuana is legal, doesn't mean that employees are going to be allowed to go to work high. This would be no different from showing up to work drunk- the employer still has the right to prohibit this, and there will be consequences. In addition, the article has some very misleading statistics- it lists off a bunch of scary numbers about drunk driving and then implies that marijuana is just as bad, without giving any actual numbers or even marijuana-specific numbers. The sketchy "proof" of marijuana's danger makes me distrust the bias of this article. Yes, it would be bad if people were driving school buses stoned, but legalizing marijuana isn't going to guarantee that.
I suppose to put this in context.. If I'm helping load in a show, do I want my head rigger high as a kite or at least somewhat sober.. Personally, I think what people do on their own time is their own business. So in that sense, I guess I'm ok with legalizing marijuana. But showing up to work impaired is definitely not ok. I wish that the government would create more strict and better defined legislation regarding this topic. There is no reason that this needs to be the grey area that it is today.
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