By Ray Cardello for November 13, 2023, Season 23 / Post 9

Maine is like the quiet kid that nobody notices. He sits alone, has no friends, doesn’t excel at anything, and flies under the radar until he does something horrific, and everyone is shocked. How could this monster have been among us, and nobody took notice? Well, that is now what we are saying about Maine. In full disclosure, we live in New Hampshire, but my girlfriend was born in Maine, and we have a cabin on a beautiful pond in Central Maine. We know Maine, and we love Maine, but do we really know Maine? Maybe not the “new” Maine. Older was undoubtedly better.

This story is tantamount to peeling an onion. Each layer brings a tear to your eyes. It first started for me a few years ago when retail marijuana sales were legalized, and pot shops were the new building boom in the Pine Tree state. Maine is more than 95% woodlands, but you drive Maine roads and will be hard-pressed to travel a mile without seeing an Adult Smoke Shop. Maine is transitioning from the Pine Tree to the Cannabis Plant State. It is too soon to measure, but I will guarantee that pot sales will not lead to better test scores, better driving stats, stronger family units, or a lower unemployment rate. Marijuana is now Maine’s number three tax-generating industry, behind lumber and lobsters. With Washington doing all it can to kill the lobster industry, pot will move into the number two slot soon.

Last summer, Augusta, Maine, was the epicenter of the battle over Abortion Rights. On the table was the most progressive Abortion Bill in the country that would abolish any time restraints on a woman choosing to end her pregnancy. Polls showed over 80% of Mainers against the bill, but Governor Mills and Planned Parenthood, along with nearly $1 Million, pushed the public wishes aside, and the bill became law. Maine has been Blue for some time but is still primarily morally conservative, except for the big cities. Big cities are where the power is, and power and money got this bill to the Governor’s desk, where she joyfully signed the death warrant for future Maine preborns.

Last month, we witnessed a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. The closest thing to a mass shooting in Maine had always been the opening day of hunting season. The innocence of Maine was destroyed by a mentally challenged man who woke up one day and decided to kill humans. Reality dawned on rural Maine that sad day.

And finally, we now know that Chinese nationals are growing marijuana in hundreds of cannabis farms throughout Maine. This weed is not your run-of-the-mill pot from the 60s and 70s, but a genetically super-charged marijuana that is grown to destroy the minds of pot smokers in Maine, and fill Chinese pockets with American cash. It is not enough that China and Mexico are formulating Fentanyl to kill over 100,000 Americans yearly. Now, they are using Maine farmland to harvest a new poison to kill Mainers and Americans.

It is not good leadership that is bringing you a new, more mature Maine. It is blind ambition, greed, and ignorance all wrapped up in Democrat clothing that is transforming Maine from the beautiful and serene vacationland we all drove to in our effort to escape reality to a harsher Maine that resembles any big city in America. Where do we now go to escape Maine?