Letters to the editor for Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016

Prohibition’s lessons can be applied to marijuana

Now that the bill has passed, making recreational-use-only marijuana legal in Nevada, that beginning date has not been determined. It will be interesting to see what sort of laws Nevada will apply to it.

Something was about to happen, just by the sudden urgency in the past two years, for medical marijuana dispensaries to be established, as well as the special licenses and permits needed to operate them. There is too much money to be made for our state to just simply pass up. Everything else is in Nevada — brothels, swinger clubs, gambling, liquor and adult bookstores. The list of vices goes on and on, so why not add marijuana to that list?

It looks like, because of the incredible amounts of tax money which have already been generated from sales of marijuana in marijuana-friendly states, a sort of “house of cards” affect has now began in America — as one by one more and more states cast aside their old marijuana laws and jump onto the proverbial bandwagon by legalizing recreational-use-only marijuana.

In my opinion, the argument over marijuana is sort of like the argument was over alcohol to prohibition — you can’t pass a law that tells an entire country they can’t drink alcohol anymore (or, in this case, smoke marijuana legally) and expect them to agree with it, and then walk away with a smile on their faces. Just having a good time, people have always smoked or drank whatever they wanted to. And as always, regardless of what the law dictates.

Donald Paetz

Carson City