In the news yesterday:
AP: For the first time, more than half
of Americans think that marijuana usage should be made legal,
according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday.
Fifty-eight percent of Americans now
back legalizing marijuana. That represents an 8-point increase from
the previous record of 50 percent in 2011, and a 10-point increase
from November 2012, just after Colorado and Washington voted for
legalization.
*****
It's about time. Once you near 60% in
polls, it's pretty much a done deal. They should also lift all the
restrictions on Cuba as well. Those old Cold War attitudes no longer
have a use in 2013, regarding pot or that island nation. Hell, Cuba
can grow pot, sugar and plant thousands of casinos there like they
had in 1959. It'll be a tourist mecca!
Want to know how much pot I bought in
my life? One bag. That's it. Most the pot I ever smoked was
handed to me via a joint. When I began, I'd pinch
my brother's stash. It wasn't because I was a cheap bastard. I did
like it occasionally but never felt the need to have it on hand, all
the time. Add to that it took a few puffs on it to push me past
Pluto for a few hours. I didn't need much. I've known people from my
teen years who are daily smokers to this day, at their age of 50.
My teen years was when I smoked it the
most, again pilfered from my brother or passed to me by friends. Most
times would I smoke it, alone in my room and put the headphones on
and play music. I did that till I was 17 when it all came to a
complete halt.
The Beatles Abbey Road has the song “I
Want You (She's So Heavy).” I was listening to that on a Saturday
morning stoned to my gills, in my rocking chair. The last half of the
song is just repetitive guitar chords with the addition of the sound
of wind, which increases in volume. It's hypnotic even if you're
straight. The song finally shocks you as it lulls you into that
mesmerizing guitar chant, then stops without warning. Lennon, after recording it, told the engineer just to cut the song...here. It can jolt you
the first time you hear it and only that one time. The next time you
listen to it you're expecting the surprising end.
So I'm rocking away, spacing out to the
song when I was hit with a realization out of nowhere. It was enough
to make me stop rocking and pull off the headphones. From somewhere
in the back of my head this thought arose.
“You can't keep doing this.”
“Can't keep doing this” wasn't a
warning about getting high, it was a warning about having to finally
grow up. I couldn't cocoon myself in childhood for much longer as I
was nearing graduation and college was on the horizon. Time to grow
up.
After that revelation I could never
smoke without becoming utterly paranoid. The two instances, having to
grow up and the pot paranoia don't seem connected but perhaps they
are. Maybe I tied the two together in my head?
Anyway, I could never smoke the stuff
again without it becoming a miserable experience for me. Odd huh?
Most people find it enjoyable, I don't.
I don't care what people do with their
lives as long as they don't dump in my backyard. I don't see pot as a
dangerous substance as beer. Pot doesn't make you want to slide your car into
a school bus nor beat your wife as alcohol can. If you tallied up the
social damage alcohol has done vs pot, the argument for it's
legalization is right there.
So, suck on a bong till it's opaque
with white smoke, inhale it and click the pic below to hear the song. I won't
stand in your way.
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