It's time to legalize, regulate, expunge

Minnesota State Representative Zack Stephenson announced today that he would be scheduling a hearing for Ryan Winkler’s bill to legalize marijuana in the state. As providers who have seen the effects of both cannabis use disorder and the results of the drug war, we say, ”It’s about time.”

While selling drugs is not in the diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders, we believe that most issues related to the sale of small-to-moderate amounts of substances occur in this context and should be treated as a public health issue, not a criminal one. Our current state of crisis related to behavioral health issues requires us to muster a nationwide recovery response, moving the misspent appropriations in the worlds of criminal justice, corrections and supervision into prevention, treatment and recovery.

For many of the people we work with, enforcement and prosecution of prohibitionary marijuana laws results in major impediments to stability and recovery. These conviction records need to be expunged as we move on from our failed policies.

From denied housing, student loan and employment applications to getting stuck in the cycle of treatment court and probation, we have seen over and over how our archaic approach to cannabis affects our most vulnerable populations.

We see the current reality of a fundamentally racist approach to our behavioral health crises reflected in the divergent paths to intervention, treatment and recovery for the people we serve. De jure or de facto — it doesn’t matter. The reality is that Minnesota’s current system is racist.

So, we support this and all efforts to move the prevention, intervention and treatment of substance use disorders firmly and forever into the realm of public health.

We also know that when Minnesota implements these changes, there will be risks and consequences.

It’s easy to be dismissive of the risks of cannabis when so much of the warnings have been shrill “Reefer Madness”-style reactionary screeds rooted in fiction. We’re telling you, it’s a little harder to be so cavalier when you are connected so closely to families and individuals who have been affected.

Nobody is going to die from an overdose.

The vast majority of people won’t have a psychotic reaction.

Very, very few people will lose children because they drove intoxicated and wrapped their car around a tree.

But, a decent amount of people — especially the people at the core of corporate cannabis’ target market — will be susceptible to having their drug use interfere with their life.

We all know these folks. Some of us might even be these types of people. (raises hand slowly….) We see people who have substituted their personality for cannabis enthusiasm.

Weed is a panacea: “SHATTER CURES CANCER! LOUD MAKES YOUR HAIR GROW BACK!”

Their life revolves around various cannabis preparations as they transform into a walking, semi-sentient Instagram cannabis influencer. They often attract moons — vulnerable others who enter their weed orbit for a time. It’s like one, big embarrassing public display of affection with a plant.

I used marijuana daily for years. It made the intolerable tolerable. I hated my job. I hated myself. I worked at SuperAmerica after dropping out of college. If I smoked before work, the morning was tolerable. If I smoked at my morning break, I could make it to lunch. If I smoked over lunch, the afternoon store cleaning and prep for the next shift wasn’t a full-blown, rolling existential crisis. Then, I would get off and take a nap, wake up and smoke, eat dinner, watch tv and go to bed for the night. Repeat. I can hear an old friend of mine, coughing as he exhales a hit from the ever-present gravity bong in the kitchen, “Don’t blame the drugs, man…”

I was so ashamed. I was ashamed that I had a problem with this plant…

The uniquely insidious nature of cannabis use disorder is that the decline often takes decades and often times the facade of maintaining a happy existence remains undisturbed by the fuzzy reality kept at bay with wax and cartridges.

I can’t tell you how many people I have worked with who basically wake up when their kids are grown, haven’t accomplished anything they hoped to do, and they have no idea what happened with their time on this rock. And, if that’s not some of the saddest s&*% on the planet — a realization of life unlived — I’m not sure what is...

So, while we celebrate the efforts to reimagine our community approach to cannabis — and hopefully, all other substances — let’s not fall into the same trap that this plant is without risks for some people.

If you want to see some stories from real people about their issues, check out the r/leaves group on Reddit. Like us at YourPath, they aren’t anti-drugs. But, if you want to take a look at making a change? We’ll be there.

In the spirit of transparency, Rep. Zack Stephenson is a friend of YourPath.

Jordan Hansen