Musings: Matter of Perspectives

While admiring the pretty pink pastels of a streaky winter sunrise, I happened to glance down and saw the dogs similarly mesmerized by the view at their level: a smashed toad encrusted with feasting flies.

It's all a matter of perspective.

As America continues its feeding frenzy for guns — some dealers are so backlogged they're not even accepting new orders — it struck me as utterly bizarre that in this nation, you can order 32,000 rounds of ammo on line and have it delivered to your door. But unless you live in Colorado or Seattle or certain states with medical marijuana laws that are less punitive than ours, you can't legally buy a fricking joint, which would actually make most people less inclined to want to use a gun.

“That's why,” said a friend.

Not to mention that you can slap your Rx for oxies on the counter at Longs, but where the hell are you supposed to get the medical marijuana you're legally entitled to with a blue card when you're too scared to risk a Green Harvest raid to even exercise your right to grow it?

“Still, I heard the cops can't take anything out of your yard without a warrant,” I told my friend.

“Don't the cops just do whatever they want and leave it to you to sort it all out later but by then the plant is already dead and worthless because they ripped it out of the ground too early?” he replied.

Compare that to California, where those with a medical mj recommendation can peruse an on-line menu with more than 25 varieties of cannabis — including Maui Waui [sic] — hash, wax, cookies, candies and ganja butter and have their order delivered to their homes.

Sales tax is added to all purchases.

Imagine what that could do for the economy of Hawaii. No need prostitute the public lands or bump up the GE tax.

So why, in Hawaii, are we less afraid of guns than accessible medical marijuana? It is actually easier to get a gun permit in the Aloha State than to get a medical marijuana license (blue card). Plus you have to pay $35 for a blue card, but a gun permit is free, even though it certainly requires significant police time to run the background check.

Anyone with a brain knows that guns are far more dangerous to police than medical marijuana. Yet over and over we see law enforcement in this state vigorously resist any effort to establish dispensaries or even move medical mj from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health, must less decriminalize or legalize the herb.

But have you ever heard a cop or prosecutor in this state complain about people being able to buy a gun at Wal-Mart?

Have you ever heard a cop or prosecutor question whether someone actually has a legitimate need for a gun? Yet they repeatedly question the validity of medical mj prescriptions that are written by a physician.

And though Keith Kamita of DPS had his knickers in a serious twist when the number of medical marijuana permits jumped from 7,593 to 10,454 within a year, have you heard him, or any law enforcement official, utter a peep about the “staggering 2,652 new guns [that] were approved in November alone,” just on Oahu?

Nope. They're all strangely silent as people amass arsenals that could so easily be used on them, not to mention the rest of us.  

Meanwhile, the number of registered guns on Oahu has risen from 13,182 in 2009 to 23,643 as of Nov. 30.

So you tell me. Which do you think is the biggest threat to the safety and security of these Islands? Marijuana? Or the steadily increasing number of guns, including assault rifles, in this state?

And they call it call it “reefer” madness.