High Times

I've had occasion to think about marijuana this weekend. I am not experienced in this area. For regular readers of this blog, you know that my substance abuse is almost always food. I am an infrequent drinker and as for illegal drugs, well, I have never tried cocaine or any hard drugs, and only smoked marijuana twice, with no particular effect. I have the feeling I wasn't doing it right.

But this weekend I accompanied by girlfriend and her son to a doctor so that the lad could get his medical marijuana card. Here in Nevada, medical marijuana is legal, and now dispensaries are opening. My girlfriend's son is 14 and suffers from a variety of ailments, most notably anxiety, and the doctor said he would be a good candidate for treatment. I was kind of surprised that a kid that age could get pot legally, but he can and has. Dispensaries will even deliver it straight to his door. What a great country!

Though I do not use pot (on the car ride home we tried to think of as many euphemisms as we could: marijuana, Mary Jane, weed, reefer, grass, chiba, pot, the list goes on and on) I am firmly in the belief that it shoul be legalized. Now four states have legalized it, and I think that before long more and more states will do the same. While it does have it's deleterious effects, most notably it can temper ambition and may cause cardiovascular disease, it is certainly safer to use than alcohol, which has ruined many lives and families, and cigarettes, which are the greatest cause of death in U.S. history. Tobacco has never been banned here, and we tried with alcohol, a spectacular failure.

Prisons are full of people jailed for crimes dealing with marijuana, while white-collar criminals roam free. The priggishness of many Americans around pot is akin to our attitudes on sex--everybody condemns it, but everyone is also doing it. It is estimated that 100 million Americans have tried it, or more than one in three. To outlaw something so common is imprudent and illogical, and certainly making it legal for medical purposes is a no-brainer.

I have stayed away from it because it is illegal, as I have a fear of going to jail. I just know that if I ever tried to buy it it would be from an undercover cop or something. I also have asthma and don't like the idea of smoking anything, but I am intrigued by the idea of edibles--eating a sweet, and getting a sense of euphoria from it? That sounds great! She has offered me a chance to get a brownie, and I just can't turn it down. I have to know what that's like.

Cannabis has been used by people for millennia, even in prehistoric times. It has a practical use as hemp in making rope and paper, but has been used recreationally for a long time. The first recorded use was by the Scythians, who used the vapor in their steambaths. Many cultures, including Rastafari, use it in religious ceremonies. Why it became demonized seems something of a mystery, but in the early years of the twentieth century the U.S. made it illegal, and then propaganda films like Reefer Madness made it seem as if toking would make a person a wild-eyed maniac.

Statistics show that marijuana is not a killer, and that more die from ants per year than the plant which has been making people happy, including my young friend, for thousands of years. He may suddenly have an interest in wearing tie-dye or listening to the Grateful Dead, but so be it.