Legal Weed in NH

 The New Hampshire legislature has once again failed to legalize recreational cannabis use, making the Live Free or Die state the only holdout in northern New England. So much for their libertarian pretensions.

Personally, I have no stake. I don't indulge, although I used to, many years ago. It just didn't do much for me, so I quit bothering with it. But I have believed in legalization, and still do. More to the point, enough other people do to have changed the laws in numerous states. It's legal for medical use in 38 states, and for recreational use in 24. New Hampshire allows medical use, so maybe all of those cars going by trailing plumes of skunky vapor are using their duly prescribed meds. Whatever the case, drivers have taken the initiative to act as if legalization was a done deal. They're not waiting for mere formalities.

The stoners don't seem to drive any worse than the ones who don't exude telltale vapors. I also smell the cigarette smokers. My senses aren't honed enough to detect booze breath in the open air. But the times and routes I use haven't seemed to attract many impaired drivers. I'm assuming that the stoners are acclimated enough to their intake that they function adequately. So far so good, anyway.

Vacationers might indulge a little too much during the middle of the day. I ride in the morning and evening rush hours, such as they are around here. Drivers tend to be more focused on the schedule. Anyone toasting up is just taking the edge off to help them face the day. In the evening, they're celebrating their few hours of freedom before we all get up and do it again.

Live Free and Kill

Libertarians who equate mask wearing with tyranny not only demonstrate no knowledge of public health, but a gross unconcern with the damage they cause to people who have to deal with them. One selectman in a nearby town was not only part of a 21-case cluster that includes his own family, he also cost us the services of one of our employees, who had to quarantine for two weeks after coming in contact with him. Our small business was impacted even though our employee was fortunate enough not to get sick.

If our employee chose to follow the irresponsible example set by the "liberty" crowd he would have come to work anyway because he felt fine, and probably was. Fortunately, this teenage lad is more mature and responsible than a fully adult government official who holds two elected positions. He chose "better safe than sorry" instead of "better sorry than safe."

Last week, the Town of Ossipee instituted a mask mandate in the town offices, but then rescinded it this week under pressure from this selectman and other exemplars of "personal responsibility" who referred to the people calling for the mandate as "the mask-shaming police."

You can't shame people who have none.

The fact that there are people actively working on the side of the disease against their fellow citizens should come as no surprise considering how recently we had an armed insurrection trying to overturn a national election by storming the US Capitol. It's all part of the same package of self-indulgent foolishness among people who consider themselves to be patriots and heroes because they like to wear guns  and present a threat to people around them. But it raises the stakes whenever you go out for a simple thing like groceries, because you know that COVID's little helpers are spooging up the landscape, even if you don't happen to see one of them while you're out.

Along with being obsessed with "personal freedom," many of these freedom fighters also have a short fuse. Because they are careless with their own health, they're automatically careless with yours. They've taken the rest of us hostage, because no one dares to say anything to them when they go into public places with their freedom faces hanging out. Live Free or Die doesn't say that you have to make any effort whatsoever for anyone else's, only that you can be an uncompromising dick about your own.