Commentary: An open letter to politicians in Nebraska and Oklahoma!

By L. Neil Smith

February 22, 2015 - I've been hearing and seeing reports that politicians in your states, those of Oklahoma and Nebraska, are very angry because a majority of voters in Colorado have decided to ignore the imperious edicts of the federal government and of the vile, corrupt United Nations, and make it legal to grow, process, sell, possess, and consume marijuana. I call to your attention the fact that there is absolutely nothing in the U.S. Constitution giving the government the lawful power to make or enforce such a prohibition, and that, in this matter, at the very least, it is they themselves who are the lawbreakers.

This is why, in a more legally fastidious age, the original Prohibition, on alcohol, had to be supported by a constitutional amendment.

To be perfectly honest, I am kind of old-fashioned. My "shit", as the late George Carlin would have put it, is a Margarita, a Guinness, or a Chelada (that's beer with Clamato Juice). I would never say I haven't tried it, and I did inhale, but I have no personal interest in marijuana.

Nevertheless, I deeply resent your ludicrous attempt, the ravings of a nasty-tempered two-year-old, to influence the policy of a state where the people took up the reins of government themselves, to put an end to one of the most irrational and destructive undertakings any government has ever attempted. Vastly greater numbers of lives have been destroyed by the phony War on Drugs than by the drugs themselves.

Along with recall of our most anti-Second Amendment legislators, the coming repeal of the unconstitutional gun laws they wrote, and the inevitable introduction of "Constitutional Carry" within this state, Colorado has begun following a path toward a libertarian society that I first advocated in my novel, The Probability Broach, some 34 years ago. I suggest that you read it; you might actually learn something valuable.

It was, of course, to be expected that there would be individuals, mostly the products of public schools, many of whom profit enormously from this insane prohibition, who don't seem to understand yet that the Age of Authority is over, the tide of ten thousand years has turned, orders no longer flow from the self-arrogated top of society downward, people will choose the way of life they prefer, and they no longer give a damn (assuming they ever did) about how you think or feel. I heard some lunatic in our own legislature gibbering just last week.

But to underline all that, here is what I'm going to do: I don't know what goods and services flow from your states to ours. I don't know how many Coloradans choose to vacation in Oklahoma or Nebraska; I've spent time in both states; they are beautiful and interesting. I do know that in this economy a fall of five or ten percent could be disastrous.

I'm only the publisher of a small, online magazine, but until I hear you renounce your attempt to override the considered opinion of the people of my state, I will encourage them to have nothing to do with anything grown or manufactured in yours. As a novelist, I was planning a series of futuristic police procedurals based in Lincoln, Nebraska. I will now relocate it to a more worthy state, probably Washington.

We will not be bullied.