BREAKING: Rob Ford snorts David Brooks right up his nose.
— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) January 3, 2014
Yesterday, the internet was abuzz with talk surrounding David Brooks’ column/confession about getting buzzed and, more creepily, frolicking. Brooks subsequently appeared on PBS News Hour, where legalization was one of the topics discussed.
Twinkies and Rocky Mountain High jokes? Delightful. One side-effect of the ongoing discussion regarding the new Colorado law is going to be painfully awkward discussions amongst the upper-crust and older crowds on news programs. Broadly, we are being told this is an example of liberalization in America within the context of the culture wars. Arguably, it could be said it’s an example of the libertarian … ization of the population. At the very least, all can agree this is a significant shift in public attitude, at least in certain areas of the country if not the population at large.
For his part, Brooks points out the potential negative consequences, and reiterates his point that using marijuana has cognitive effects and lowers IQ in teens. For my part, if keeping pot illegal means less thinking about David Brooks frolicking, I think it’s probably worth it.
Transcript below, via RCP:
JUDY WOODRUFF: But there’s something else we saw — both of you, we saw this week, first week of the new year. Marijuana is now legal, recreational use of marijuana, David, in a couple of states.
In Colorado, we saw long lines of people waiting to buy their first legal marijuana. What does this — what do you see about the future of this in this country? Do you see this spreading to more states? You wrote about it today in your column.
DAVID BROOKS: Right. Well, I think we probably will see it decriminalized. I’m not sure we will see it legalized. I am not super in favor of all the arrests that go on for people using marijuana.
But I — we will see how Colorado — Colorado works out. It is a good future of our system. It’s an experiment. We will figure out how it works. I have to say, I’m skeptical of it and I am dubious and I wouldn’t have supported it for a couple of reasons.
First, when you do get legalization, the price does collapse. It tends to collapse. You will get it much cheaper. If you have got much cheaper marijuana, more people will smoke it. And then you take away the legal penalties, more people are likely to smoke it. And so we will have states where more people are using marijuana.
Now, I’m not terrifically offended by it, but I do think there are a couple things to be worried about. One is, more teenagers will likely to spend it — and the science behind the teenage effect of marijuana use is pretty severe. It does have cognitive effects. It does lower I.Q. points over the long term. The addiction rates are much higher among teenagers than people who start as adults.
So that is a genuine health concern. And then the second thing, it’s — most of us age out of marijuana use, because it’s not that exciting when you find more serious and more uplifting pleasures. And so most people give it up as they hit middle age.
And I just would make the moral status argument that getting stoned all the time is not the greatest way to spend your time. And so it’s fine when you’re young. You can try it. And people want to try it periodically.
But I think the state through its laws should encourage a culture that discourages the use of marijuana on both moral grounds and health grounds.