Commentary
I moved from California to Texas to get away from regulations. After 27 years in California, I was tired of the government telling me what I could and couldn’t do with my land, my business, my food, and my life.
I suppose you could call me a single-issue voter. My issue is less regulation.
So imagine my surprise when I discovered that seven of my conservative Texas neighbors voted Democrat in the midterms. Every single one gave me essentially the same reason.
Marijuana.
The first conversation happened during a VIP reception at Sovereignty Ranch. My girlfriend was helping with the grazing table, along with a neighbor and a couple of friends. We started talking about the election, and I mentioned how disappointed I was with the results. I hadn’t moved all the way from California to watch Texas become California.
These were country people. Conservative people. People who told me they had voted for Trump three times.
Then one said something that stopped me.
“We’re not willing to go to jail for a joint.”
They had heard Democrats were going to legalize marijuana, and figured, why not? It’s a midterm.
Now, I understand that midterms are consequential. Extremely consequential. Texas elected a Democratic governor, Democrats captured statewide offices and control of the Texas House, while Republicans retained the state Senate.
As someone who moved here specifically to escape California-style regulations, that concerns me. Elections have consequences far beyond the single issue motivating someone’s vote. The idea that it’s just a midterm—so why not—doesn’t make much sense to me.
But the more I thought about what these people were telling me, the more curious I became.
I started asking around.
Some people were volunteering at our pumpkin patch. Others brought it up during the VIP reception. Then two good old boy farmers told me essentially the same thing while sitting in their side-by-side four-wheeler.
By the time I finished asking, seven people had told me they voted Democrat because they didn’t want themselves or their children going to jail over marijuana.
Seven people. And I hadn’t even left my ranch.
These weren’t college students in Austin or activists in Houston. These were rural Texans who generally identify with conservative values. People concerned about gas prices, the economy, gun rights, abortion, and government spending.
Apparently, marijuana belongs on that list, too.
Full disclosure, for those who haven’t read my book or don’t read my columns regularly, I also had a stint as a marijuana grower in California back in the day. I’ve been arrested for marijuana plenty of times. Not for a joint, mind you. For considerably more than a joint.
But I don’t smoke marijuana today. I’m 48 years old, a mother of four, and I don’t drink, smoke, or use mind-altering substances. I don’t even take Tylenol. I know I’m an extreme example, but I try to live my life as present as possible. I don’t want anything to distract me from my life. I want to experience it, even the hard parts.
That doesn’t mean everyone has to live like me.
I’ve never understood the argument for being both pro-freedom and pro-criminalization of marijuana. I’m sure plenty of people in the comments will explain it to me, and that’s fine.
I believe in freedom. And freedom means adults get to make decisions I wouldn’t necessarily make for myself.
I also firmly believe marijuana has significant medical benefits. God created our bodies with an entire endocannabinoid system. Our bodies produce their own cannabinoids, and we have receptors throughout our brains, nervous systems, immune cells, and organs.
Compounds in cannabis interact with this system, which helps regulate pain, appetite, mood, inflammation, memory, and numerous other functions. Other plants and foods also contain compounds that influence cannabinoid signaling.
This is a fundamental part of human biology.
That doesn’t mean marijuana is harmless. I don’t think children whose brains are still developing should be smoking it. I also recognize that people can use marijuana to escape their lives instead of dealing with them.
But I don’t believe every potentially harmful personal decision should be a criminal offense.
And the Democrats wasted no time putting legalization proposals forward.
On Nov. 9, as filing opened for the upcoming Texas legislative session, Democrats introduced marijuana legislation. House Bills 362 and 369 and Senate Bill 237 propose legalizing adult possession and establishing regulated cannabis systems. Proposals include allowing adults to grow up to 12 plants under specified conditions.
The Legislature won’t convene until January, and none of these bills has passed.
But people are already paying attention.
Last night, while working at the restaurant, I overheard three men discussing the proposed legislation. They were studying the details, debating indoor versus outdoor growing, where they would put their plants, and whether 12 plants would provide enough marijuana for an entire year.
Three men sitting in a rural Texas restaurant planning their future gardens around legislation that had just been filed.
I don’t know how those men voted. But I hadn’t realized how much attention this issue was getting.
And apparently, neither had I when I went to vote.
My children aren’t old enough for me to worry about them getting arrested for smoking a joint. Despite my own history, marijuana wasn’t on my list of major election concerns.
But for other families, it clearly was.
The Texas Tribune has reported that THC restrictions contributed to dissatisfaction among some voters. Yet I haven’t found exit polling telling us how many Republicans actually crossed party lines specifically over marijuana.
That’s the number I want to know.
And while we’re discussing marijuana’s dangers, can we talk about alcohol?
According to the CDC, excessive alcohol consumption causes approximately 178,000 deaths annually in America. Fatal overdoses involving cannabis alone are extraordinarily rare.
We have normalized alcohol, a toxic substance our bodies metabolize into acetaldehyde, another toxic compound. We don’t have an equivalent endocannabinoid system designed around receiving alcohol.
Then there are pharmaceuticals. Prescription opioids and other medications can cause fatal overdoses. The deaths associated with excessive alcohol consumption and opioid overdoses vastly exceed those attributed to cannabis alone.
Whatever people think about marijuana, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and what society considers acceptable, we should be willing to acknowledge those differences.
I’m not suggesting we prohibit alcohol or prescription drugs. Quite the opposite.
I’m asking why we criminalize adults for possessing marijuana while accepting other substances with far greater documented death tolls.
And who benefits from that arrangement?
The alcohol industry has a history of political lobbying, including opposition by some interests to marijuana legalization. Pharmaceutical companies also have substantial financial interests in drug policy.
Are those interests influencing Texas marijuana laws? Or are lawmakers acting primarily from sincere concerns about public health, addiction, and protecting children?
We should investigate rather than assume.
I don’t know how many Texans crossed party lines because of marijuana. Seven conversations on my ranch aren’t a scientific poll. Marijuana certainly doesn’t explain an entire election.
But seven conservative voters independently giving me the same reason, in one week, without my leaving my property, raises a question worth asking.
How many other conservative Texans quietly use marijuana or simply don’t believe their children should go to jail for it?
And how many politicians who campaign on individual liberty and limited government have lost touch with what those principles mean to their constituents?
I moved to Texas because I wanted less government interference. That principle doesn’t change depending on which party writes the rules.
Everyone is analyzing the red vote and the blue vote.
I’m wondering how much of this election was actually about green.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
