Marijuana means no pain, no gain, and no growth
You know the well-worn joke: My wife and I have an arrangement. She decides the small, trivial things, like where we live, which schools my children attend, and who they marry. I decided the big things, like whether the US should leave NATO, how the world should address global warming, and the pros and cons of space exploration.
In a sense, I feel the same applies to these elections. While everyone is handwringing over the “big issue” — picking a president — a smaller, yet much more consequential change has happened under our collective noses, garnering hardly any attention. For while the presidential vote certainly has great impact on our communities, it really is impossible at this point to assess the particulars. As per the saying, “Leiv melachim v’sarim b’yad Hashem” (by the way, there is no such precise pasuk), it is difficult to predict with any degree of certainty how a given president will affect our lives.
The much more salient vote took place on the same day, and will likely have significant consequences for our community. Recreational marijuana was legalized in New Jersey — and it is likely that New York will be pressured to follow suit. But even if New York does not fold, the effect on the bochurim living in the Tristate area may be devastating. A strong, concerted, unified response and policy is critical… and it has to be implemented soon.
The problem with marijuana use is not health per se. Cannabis may or may not be a gateway to much more dangerous drug abuse. But the more pressing problem is that pot kills motivation. It absolutely destroys it.
Create a free account to keep reading.
