For whatever reason, officials who run the Beaufort County Government Facebook page decided to post about “Marijuana Awareness Month” on Monday — and it backfired, badly.
The Facebook post from Beaufort County, South Carolina government received nearly 300 comments and 130 shares — with the vast majority of comments strongly opposing the “awareness” announcement.
“Marijuana is addictive and illegal in South Carolina,” the Beaufort County Facebook post said. “With many changes in attitudes and uses, there is a lot of information and research that consumers need to know.”
The post encourages substance addicts to contact the Beaufort County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Department.
The Facebook post received an absurd amount of comments and large amount of backlash.
Several commenters said the post was a huge waste of time as Beaufort County has plenty of issues to deal with right now.
“What is being made aware is just how far behind SC is in social issues. We have hungry kids in this state, homeless, and we need better resources and equipment for education,” one person commented. “We need to get on the same page as the rest of the country and legalize this so we can have more revenue to better our State and Citizens.”
Others called Beaufort County “out of touch.”
“What 70 yr old that still buys into reefer madness wrote this?” one person commented.
A few people pointed out that they haven’t seen Beaufort County post about heroin awareness — a drug far more dangerous and deadly.
Others just made fun of the post and asked who is the person who thought this was a good idea.
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“Just imagine, someone hit the last stroke of the keyboard on this, looked at it, and silently sipped their coffee like ‘Yeah, this. This is it right here, I am a genius. A true intellectual, standing on the shoulders of giants. The people will adore me for my commitment to a better Beaufort,'” another person commented.
The post that “encourages everyone to do their own research” wasn’t clear about where the research that inspired the social media post came from.
FITSNews founding editor Will Folks reported last week that a new Cato Institute study, which analyzed a host of metrics from the 11 states that have legalized marijuana for adult use, showed that data didn’t support extreme claims from both sides of the debate.
However, the study showed legalizing marijuana for adult use has had “a significant impact” in increasing tax revenues – including the generation of revenue growth which exceeded pre-legalization forecasts in many cases.
Ironically, two of Beaufort County’s state senators have recently filed pro-marijuana legislation at the state level.
The main “marijuana bill” at the S.C. State House – sponsored by senator Tom Davis of Beaufort, S.C. – would legalize marijuana for medical use in a strictly regulated setting.
S.C. senator Margie Bright Matthews recently filed S. 268., which would call for a statewide referendum to be held on the question of recreational legalization during the 2022 general election.
Leading the opposition to marijuana legalization in South Carolina is Mark Keel, chief of the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED). Keel opposes legalization unless/ until marijuana is approved for medical use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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