Ivan Pernar (L) Zeljko Glasnovic (R)
As I watched Ivan Pernar’s televised submission (14 December 2016) to the Croatian parliament on the matter of legalising marijuana it was difficult for me, a qualified and duly licensed professional in the field of mental processes and behaviour, to ascertain whether or not I was listening to an articulation of an intricately florid, clinically driven delusion when he, without batting an eyelid, unveiled his vision for a future where Croatia would apparently turn into “El Dorado” - a country of fabulous and untold riches almost overnight, if the use of marijuana was legalised. Often impressing as bizarre or odd during sittings of the parliament it appears the Alphabet Democracy party’s Ivan Pernar was either stoned during that Croatian parliament sitting or was suffering some mental aberration, however passing or enduring in nature, at the bottom of which may well have stood a calculating, ill-intended pursuit to insult the intelligence of the Croatian nation as a whole. What’s troubling more, perhaps, is that the mainstream media omitted to show him up as a national disgrace for what he garbled up on a serious matter such as legalisation of marijuana. According to Pernar life in Croatia, heck - the economy overall and all manner of lifestyle and standard of living-prosperity would be much, much better and all Croatia’s existential problems - solved, were Croatians to freely (legally) consume marijuana and puff away at joints till the proverbial cows came home, or as much as one pleases - thank you very much! Pernar, straight faced, with a palpably spooky conviction said in his submission words to the effect that legalising the use of marijuana would have astronomically positive impacts upon Croatian economy – almost instantly. According to Pernar, legalisation of the use of marijuana in Croatia would almost automatically trigger a string of occurrences that would fill chockablock the till of Croatia’s struggling economy almost overnight. He submitted to the Parliament that if use of marijuana were legalised it would bring about an instant renaissance of Croatia’s agriculture because the vast mandarin orchards of Neretva Valley and most corn and wheat fields of Slavonia would simply be cleared out and these unprofitable crops replaced by immeasurably profitable cannabis. He revealed his wild, unrealistic conviction that if the use of marijuana was legalised in Croatia all of the marijuana consumers from all over the world would flock into Croatia for a legal puff at a joint or two or three and thus swell Croatian tourism industry to the hilt. Utterly bizarre! “I am primarily a representative of younger people,” he said, “that is, the young generation, and those generations are not burdened by the issues that burden perhaps most of the people in here. That is, many young people would like marijuana to be legalised because they are exposed to political persecution for smoking it. I say political persecution because politics decide whether marijuana will be legal or not. Since it’s not legal many of them must face infringement courts, get fines, etc. If Croatia were to legalise marijuana we would become the metropolis of tourism just like Netherlands has. Tourists would come all year round, we would have more foreign currency, people say they sell one mandarin for one kuna but that if cannabis were legalised they would all convert to these profitable cultures. Also, many in Slavonia who now grow corn and wheat unprofitably could, tomorrow, earn money and become profitable farmers. I think that legalization of marijuana would bring about a renaissance of our agriculture, a renaissance of tourism and I think that many people would be happier in this otherwise gloomy country. And if young people were asked whether they would be emigrating from this country I believe many would say that there is at least one reason why they could stay. I hope that the parliament will accept our proposal for the legalisation of marijuana, which we will be sending for processing and that it will have a heart for all those young people because it’s not OK that they live in fear. The other day I was with a group of them who were smoking marijuana and they were shaking, and said – Ivan, what if they catch us. And I said to them that the people from HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union/parliamentary majority party) had robbed the whole country and none of them are shaking in their boots in this parliament (at this point the Speaker warned Pernar not to insult people). I only wanted to say: young people need to be given freedom, but there is no freedom in this country and I say many of them are exposed to that political persecution; can you imagine facing a court just because you had a joint, is that not shameful, they’ve done no harm to anyone and it’s needless to speak about all the useful effects of marijuana. Say, oil heals cancer and you can use it in textile industry… Marijuana should be produced in Croatia and consumed at a small price,” Pernar contemplated loudly. Many I have come into contact regarding Pernar’s submission for the legalisation of marijuana in Croatia found the whole speech difficult and painful to digest because of its dumb, bizarre and insulting nature - just as I did. While most of the world’s parliaments engage in consideration of marijuana legalisation (and in Croatia its medicinal use is on the legalisation books), or the more advanced countries on carefully deliberating on regulations for medicinal use of marijuana, the Croatian parliament and nation were, without interruption in the parliamentary chamber, exposed here to an appeal for the creation of a legal framework that would facilitate cheap cannabis smoking habits in the young with a crazy and psychotic projection that Croatia would become a rich and prosperous country simply because of legal marijuana – to smoke and get high on. Given this submission by Pernar for marijuana legalisation it would seem that General Zeljko Glasnovic’s loudly articulated opinion in parliament, on the same day, that Pernar was suffering from a bipolar disorder may not have been too far off the mark even if it was delivered in relation to Pernar’s reportedly flippant attitude in the chamber during discussions on key and important issues for the country. Certainly, close attention to Pernar’s speech in parliament on the benefits of legalising marijuana justifiably leads one to conclude, professionally qualified or not, that Pernar’s expressed thoughts are strongly suggestive of some mental aberration – perhaps more serious than a containable bipolar disorder. Much of the media, though, went on to say how Glasnovic had insulted Pernar and yet failed miserably at noticing that Pernar with his submission to parliament regarding legalisation of marijuana actually insulted the prevailing morality and the intelligence of the majority of Croatian people. Double standards astound – always. So much for a large part of the mainstream media in Croatia, which seemingly thrives on or makes up scandals on a national scale where there are none, but fails gut wrenchingly as a gatekeeper and watchdog of sound national intelligence and decent morality. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)
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