STURBRIDGETIMES

MAGAZINE
MAY, 2014
THE
THE CHRONICLE OF STURBRIDGE COUNTRY LIVING
20 THE CHRONICLE OF STURBRIDGE COUNTRY LIVING THE STURBRIDGE TIMES MAGAZINE
r MUSINGS FROM LONG HILL s
BY RICHARD MORCHOE
HIGH TIMES ARE COMING
Its easy to win a lawsuit, but seldom worthwhile to bother
suing someone. You need three things to make a lawsuit work.
First, someone has to have to have done something they
shouldnt have done, or failed to do something they should
have. For instance, a shopkeeper fails to clear the snow and ice
from the entrance of his business.
Obviously, you cant sue him just for that. Its not your prob-
lem he didnt shovel the entrance . . . unless youre the one
who slips and falls on the way in. So the second thing you need
is to get hurt because of his carelessness. And getting just a little
hurt isnt enough.
Lets say you bruise your rear-end and it aches for a couple
days. You go to court and prove the shopkeepers carelessness
caused your bruise. In other words, you win! But what do you
win? A bruised butt is worth a few bucks, which is a few thou-
sand less bucks than your legal bill.
Now, heres the rub. You meet the first to conditions: You
got hurt bad. You broke your hip. And its definitely the shop
keepers fault. But it still might not be worth the cost of filing
a lawsuit.
Lets say it was Joe, the used tire dealer, who didnt shovel
the walkway to his used tire shop. Lets say you slipped and
broke your hip. In terms of a lawsuit, so far so good. But Joe is
a deadbeat who didnt pay his liability insurance and lives in
his moms basement.
You take Joe to court. The jury awards you $100,000.00 in
damages. You win and this time you win big! But Joe has no
money and no insurance. All Joe has is a bunch of used tires.
And all Joe has to do is declare bankruptcy to make you and
your judgment go away forever.
If only you had slipped and fallen in front of Tiffanys.
LEGAL
BRIEF
ON LAWSUITS
M O N T H L Y L E G A L A D V I C E
F O R R E A D E R S O F
T H E S T U R B R I D G E T I M E S M A G A Z I N E
STURBRIDGE ATTORNEY
ROBERT A. GEORGE, ESQ.
O
ur long national experiment with marijuana has en-
tered a new phase. So far, two states have decided
the war against ganja might not be worth the effort. Is this
giving in to vice or a victory for common sense?
The tide is moving in a clearly discernible direction.
The Commonwealth generally follows the national trend,
especially on matters such as what is acceptable to allow the
citizen. Cigarette smoking is dclass and thus our legisla-
ture loses few opportunities to restrict or tax its inhalation.
The use of the cannabis does not suffer the disfavor of
tobacco. How could this be? Both infuse the lungs with a
harsh chemical.
Up on Long Hill, this month, our official think tank
on the matter, The Long Hill Institute for the Study of
Controlled Substance Policy (LHIftSoCSP for short) has
looked at the matter. The preliminary conclusion, more
study is needed, but as the budget is non-existent, we shall
just speculate.
Our finding is marijuana is more fun. Not only that, it
is more fun for the right demographic. The lower orders
may partake, but that is no matter. After all, it is the pro-
letariat who are likely to smoke cigarettes and get no respect
for it.
Your American college student has had, as part of his
or her undergraduate experience, the opportunity to par-
take of cannabis. The percentages as to those who try and
those who dont is surely part of a study somewhere, but is
irrelevant to this discussion.
What the LHIftSoCSP has noticed is that most who
use while in school stop either before or sometime after
graduation, say upon beginning a family. They think of
their indulgence as, to use a clich au courant, no harm,
no foul.
The working class toker will have no input in the de-
bate, the middle class will tell. Unless Washington and
Colorado are a huge mess unavoidable to ignore, it will
happen here.
Myself, I have generally been a tad cavalier on the sub-
ject. Without much reflection, it has been my opinion
that suppression has not worked and better to avoid the
human and financial cost and get over it. After all, polic-
ing at great expense has been ongoing and yet the supply
still more than meets demand. Now that legalization may
come to pass, maybe its time to be more thoughtful.
If the number of people partaking before legalization
does not increase after, then there is no reason not to end
prohibition. What if, however, the population of users
increases several fold?
Marijuana is the nations most used drug and is grow-
ing among teens and young adults. If, due to legalization,
the number of users surged exponentially, we cant say
what the effect would be, but again we turned to the
LHIftSoCSP for insight. In observing the population of
users, The LHIftSoCSP has never encountered anyone
who possessed the eloquence of say, Cicero. In spite of
that, said users have often displayed an excess of unnec-
essary loquaciousness.
Has my mind changed on legalization? Yes and no. I
am given pause by the findings below.
"It is important to remember that over the past two
decades, levels of THC the main psychoactive ingredi-
Continued on page 23
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23 THE CHRONICLE OF STURBRIDGE COUNTRY LIVING THE STURBRIDGE TIMES MAGAZINE
Richard Morchoe
Greenwich, Conn., family that had its
premiums rise from $458 to $5,500,
while premiums for the second home
of a Rhode Island resident jumped
from $5,000 to $66,000 a year.
In some cases, owners of property
that had never been flooded were see-
ing large premium increases.
Not a Total Overhaul
The new law doesnt completely
change BW-12. Some aspects of the
law, such as the updating of flood
maps, will remain. Property owners
will be eligible to purchase flood insur-
ance through NFIP only if the commu-
nity where they live adopts a new
Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM).
As new maps are being adopted,
many homes and buildings are being
marked as being located in a high-risk
flood zone for the first time. If owners
of a home have a mortgage, they will
be required to buy flood insurance.
The new law also makes a variety of
additional changes. For example, it re-
quires the creation of a new flood in-
surance policy with a deductible that
can be as high as $10,000. As with
health insurance, setting a high de-
ductible will reduce premiums, but the
insured will pay more out of pocket
when a claim is filed.
It also creates a flood insurance ad-
vocate to advocate for the fair treat-
ment of policy holders under the
National Flood Insurance Program
and property owners in the mapping
of flood hazards, the identification of
risks from flood, and the implementa-
tion of measures to minimize the risk
of flood.
The law gives FEMA eight months
to develop rate tables and final guid-
ance for implementing the new law.
Property owners can contact their in-
dependent insurance agents to find
out how they will be affected by the
new law and to purchase flood insur-
ance.
Richard A. McGrath, CIC, LIA is
President and CEO of McGrath Insur-
ance Group, Inc. of Sturbridge, Mass.
He can be reached at rmcgrath@mc-
grathinsurance.com.
This article is written for informa-
tional purposes only and should not be
construed as providing legal advice.
ent in marijuana have gone up a great
deal," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, in a
statement. "Daily use today can have
stronger effects on a developing teen brain
than it did 10 or 20 years ago. ... The chil-
dren whose experimentation leads to regu-
lar use are setting themselves up for declines
in IQ and diminished ability for success in
life."
Yet there is probably a place for it medi-
cinally and there are numerous studies to
back that up and others to disagree. Suffice
it to say, the LHIftSoCSPs final ruling is
that older people and sufferers who may be
helped should be allowed to toke to their
hearts content. All others who want a
bone should suffer the pariah status of cig-
arette smokers.
Do I have any first hand experience of
tragedy associated with reefer madness? Yes,
and it's not pretty. During summer vaca-
tions while a college student, I had a job at
a large company in Boston. One of my co-
workers was a bright kid who had gone to
my high school and excelled academically.
He was in pre-med and was doing well
enough or so we thought.
The youth was a smarmy fellow and was
always talking about how wonderful mari-
juana was and also about his revolutionary
politics.
After my last summer, he more or less
left my consciousness and I'm sure I left his.
It was not until decades later that my father
mentioned that so and so's son was a lawyer.
He had not gone to med school. Instead
my dad said he was now an attorney serving
the cause of crony capitalists. Moms and
dads of America dont let this happen to
your kid.
Continued from page 18