Can’t they even try to make a legitimate case against marijuana legalization?

I mean, this is just embarrassing. In a college paper debate at Oklahoma State University, we have The burning question: Should marijuana be legalized? Anti-
And what argument does Meg Foster present for keeping marijuana illegal?

On Aug. 17, 2007, Richard Hill smoked some marijuana and then went for a drive on the wrong side of the road.
He collided with Todd Kirtley‰s car. His 10-year-old daughter, April, was in the car with him. Kirtley is now paralyzed and might never be able to walk again. Hill was sentenced to eight to 15 years in prison.
Kirtley will never see his daughter again.

Now, sad as that is, it’s not a very good reason to keep marijuana illegal. But the real problem is that she isn’t even close to being factual. A simple google of the names Richard Hill and Todd Kirtley, came up with this news article.

Kent County deputies said Richard Hill, 40, of Greenville was drunk and driving the wrong way in the northbound lane at the time of impact. […]
The sheriff’s department said Hill smelled of alcohol as rescue workers treated him. Deputies found several empty beer cans around his pickup truck at the scene.
Hill was taken to Butterworth where he was treated and released. After being released from the hospital he was arrested and charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death and operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing serious injury during an arraignment in 63rd District Court on Aug. 19. […]
On Dec. 17, Hill appeared before Kent County Circuit Court Judge George Buth in Grand Rapids, where he was sentenced to from eight to 15 years in prison for driving while intoxicated third offense, causing Kirtley’s death.

This reminds me of when Karen Tandy, the head of the DEA wrote the Washington Post and used an example of the horrors of driving while stoned on marijuana, and the example she used also involved cocaine and opiates.
Now I don’t doubt that, despite the fact that studies have shown marijuana users are more aware of their impairment and adjust accordingly, there probably have been some stupid accidents somewhere that were a direct result of the driver being impaired by marijuana.
And yet, the fact that drug warriors keep having to make stuff up completely in order to bolster their case about the dangers of stoned driving really makes you wonder. If the head of the DEA can’t get good examples and if OpEd writers (even students) have to change alcohol to pot in a story to have an example at all, well then it can’t be that urgent a danger.
By the way, Google the phrase “killed by drunk driver” and you’ll get about 61,000 hits. Google the phrase “killed by stoned driver” and you get 12 (probably 13 now), and most of those 12 are commenting on the fact that you never hear the phrase “killed by stoned driver.”

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