By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: September 17, 2012

reddirtreporter@gmail.com

OPINION

OKLAHOMA CITY – Sounding like some Reefer Madness-era Eliot Ness, State Rep. Doug Cox, a physician and Republican Drug War advocate, has gotten a column – “Don’t Let Oklahoma Go to Pot” – placed in a number of newspapers in his district in northeastern Oklahoma. We even posted here at Red Dirt Report over the weekend. 

Writes the manly legislator from “If you are a pot-head, doper, or user of illegal drugs you should always vote for my opponent because I will never, ever, vote to decrease or eliminate the penalties for marijuana use.”

Tough words from a tough drug warrior from Grove, Oklahoma. He’s just looking out for the folks, right? And don't forget the Drug War. A rousing success!

Sure. Send the kids to jail. Put cancer-addled gramps in the clink. That’ll teach ‘em. After all, as Cox bellows, these layabout pot smokers “lose interest in the things that would make them successful in life. Things like succeeding in school, holding a job and supporting their family.”

But he doesn’t stop there. Cox continues, saying, “Potheads are more likely to be high school dropouts, unemployed, on disability, or dependent on the government dole for support. They are just downright lazy.”

Ouch!

But would you call New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg lazy? Would you say Stephen King has not achieved any success? What about Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps? He’s probably going on disability soon, right? And what about Emmy Award-winning Aaron Sorkin? Or billionaire Richard Branson? Or every member of the Rolling Stones? The dope did ‘em in? Right?

In Doug Cox’s mind it did. Oh wait. Folks in Delaware and Mayes counties don’t count among the ranks of famous folks who do the dope like Barack Obama did back in the day (or Bill Clinton, for that matter).

Cox argues that smoking a joint will lead to “amotivational syndrome” or other gateway drugs like heroin, coke and meth. Those folks who would take that step would have done it anyway. Most people are content with marijuana and we see that Sen. Constance Johnson is working on a bill that would allow medical marijuana in Oklahoma.

But the drug warriors like Cox and Mark Woodward with the Bureau of Narcotics tremble at the thought. Said Woodward in a recent article at Newson6.com: “The bottom line is the whole medical marijuana movement is recreational pot smokers looking for loopholes in the law so they can recreationally smoke it whenever they want.”

Where do they find clowns like Woodward? His statement is so asinine that it’s not worth addressing, quite frankly.

And Doug Cox? Well, he’s a big advocate of legal drugs – the ones that the FDA and Big Pharma love to push. Drugs like the anti-smoking drug Chantix – you know, the one that causes users to hallucinate and do harm to themselves and others. As was the case with my good friend Carter Albrecht. Oh, that’s just peachy keen to the establishment.

Has he bothered to see the success the nation of Portugal has had with decriminalizing drugs? Probably not. Mention marijuana and Doug Cox covers his ears and goes "La, la, la!"

And true to form, we see in the Tulsa World last week that the clean-living Cox is pushing for a smokeless tobacco from Sweden called Snus. It is often just placed under the upper lip, as a snuff, that had a lower nicotine content than cigarettes. The Oklahoma State Medical Association, interestingly enough, is looking askance at the “smokeless tobacco” idea that Cox is wanting looked at. They say it isn’t safe. Tobacco use is a health problem in Oklahoma. Pot, meanwhile, doesn’t cause all those health problems. But don’t tell that to Doug Cox. If you think that, he doesn’t even want your vote, by gum!

The good folks at Snus had asked Cox to push for an “interim study” that would look at the effectiveness and safety of smokeless tobacco that while available in Sweden is banned in the European Union.

After Cox’s “Don’t’ Let Oklahoma Go to Pot” column ran in papers like the Pryor Daily Times and the Grand Lake Business Journal, the rumor was that Doug Cox “owned a drug-testing company” or was connected to one. While he is a physician, we could not find any truth to that rumor. So, we emailed Rep. Cox yesterday and he responded with a curt “Not true.”

Hmm. Well. So, there you have it. Rep. Cox pushes for drug-testing for recipients of state aid, as he did last session, and, like a good, Big Gov't Conservative, wants the state to pay for it. And, it would violate the Fourth Amendment, in the form of suspicionless drug testing. Cox doesn't care.

But what Doug Cox does care about is those folks in Grove and elsewhere in his district. Those suffering folks and those who are just feeling poorly. He is not financially gaining off the misery of others. He is helping people. He is a physician. A friendly man in a white coat. In the healing business, right?

For more information on this topic, note the new Rolling Stone article: "California pot crackdown threatens a child's health." What MD would want to threaten a child's health, hmmm, Doc Cox?

Copyright 2012 Red Dirt Report