Proposition 19

Dear Dr. Bob,
Do you have any opinions about Prop 19 in California that allows for legalized marijuana?
Cynthia, Walnut Creek




Dear Cynthia,
As you know California Proposition 19 calls for the regulation, control and taxation of cannabis. And as you also know, this is an extremely controversial issue. It seems to me to be the latest chapter in the struggle between groups who want to control whether government or individuals know what's best about their own welfare. And it may be an attempt to change hypocritical Prohibition Era ideas toward marijuana, which is illegal, while alcohol is far more lethal. There is some interesting history about how marijuana became illegal, a successful effort by the tobacco farmers in 1933. But that's for another time... Many countries have far more lenient or far more strict laws about alcohol or drug use than the United States, with varying results of the impact on society and individuals. 


The issue is not the substance, its the substance user. As the saying goes, "guns don't kill people, people kill people". Drugs and alcohol are not the problem. Otherwise everyone who drinks or uses would become dependent, which is not the case. In the drug and alcohol treatment field, we think of addiction using a bio-psycho-social model. We tend to have a very stressful competitive society which accepts self medication of all kinds, add that to an individual that may have some developmental psychological wounds and or a genetic predisposition, and the recipe for addiction is set. But the recipe is not set for everyone! No two people have the same genes, the same development and the same experience. Even identical twins raised in the same family have different interpretations of their existence.


Having said all of that, most dependency can be simplified by this question: "Does the individual control their use, or does their use control them?" Whatever the substance, if it controls a person's life, whether it's legal or illegal, they will have plenty of problems because of it. Moderation seems to be the way to go with any psychoactive substance, food, behavior, etc., which is not an easy option for many.
Dr.B