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A rope leash
02-25-2008, 11:16 AM
Right now a good friend of mine sits down at the county jail. She’s a mother of three, a hard worker who kept long hours at two jobs. I say “kept”, because that was in the past. All she does now is wait.

She has a pretty bad cigarette habit. She also likes to smoke marijuana, as do I and millions of other citizens. We are definitely addicted, much the same as many are on marijuana and other substances, both legal and illegal. Marijuana is pleasurable addiction, not completely harmless to the body but much less so than the vast majority of other “drugs”. Quitting is hard, but not desperate, yet in the bottom line we prefer to have than to have not. We don’t drink alcohol much, nor do we take powders or pills. We like pot.

It hasn’t been particularly detrimental. I’ve smoked quite regularly for more than 35 years, and I’ve done more in my life than I ever expected to, and I’ve pretty much done everything I’ve ever wanted to. I don’t imagine I’m any different from millions of others with the same habit. Weed has a way of being the “every drug”, good for what ails the mind and soul at any particular moment, except perhaps for those moments that provoke paranoia. The life of a pothead is not terrible, until they encounter law enforcement authority.

My ex-wife is a horrible drunkard. Right now she’s at home out west, suffering from severe burns caused by an attempt at drunken cooking. We’re talking skin grafts. Her addiction is a horrible nightmare, one I shared the experience of for ten years, yet there is nothing keeping her from continuing on her trail to death by pickling. The law, in fact, says it’s fine to advertise and sell the product, and to drink it until you are completely addled. One is not supposed to drive while drinking, but honestly, there’s not much stopping a drunk if they really want to. The law only intervenes after the fact, which is sometimes terribly tragic for innocent people. The consequences of legal alcohol are well documented, yet it remains an acceptable legality. I’m still tempted to go back to the bottle, but pot keeps me cool. To be honest, if I had kept drinking, there’s s good chance that I might have ended up like her, or worse.

I met my gal through my good ole brother Micheal. Man, do I miss that guy. He was one of the big reasons I gave up on California, or one of my big excuses. He died the slow death of HIV/AIDS. He lived quite a while with it, taking every sort of concoction the doctors could conjure. In the end, though, it was the marijuana that made his life tolerable. It gave him an appetite and kept him from throwing up his medicine. It soothed his mind and gave him a good night’s sleep. The law would not allow this man this product, so he broke it. We all did, and have many times, but that the law would say no to a beneficial product for a terminal patient is amazingly telling.

Hemp is a naturally occurring substance. It’s flower is what marijuana is. Hemp is known as a source of fibrous material that can be used for various endeavors, such as clothing, or fuels and oils. There are obvious medical benefits, not to mention the recreational benefits of the flower. It is illegal for hemp to exist freely in the United States. In his infinite wisdom, American Man has decided that God got this one wrong, a conclusion based primarily on the notion that smoking the buds makes one “stupid”. ..and indeed, that is how American authority portrays the pot smoker, as lazy-minded or demented. I can assure you that this is the typical American exaggeration, and millions know it. If my gal is stupid and lazy, how does she hold down the jobs? If I am a dolt, how do I write this essay?

As it is with many issues in this country, marijuana law is not what it seems. Most people would like to see it decriminalized or legalized. That’s because they know it is not even as evil as tobacco or alcohol. This is easily seen in our media culture, where depictions of dope smoking are common in movies, on television, and in popular music. The connotation is usually that smoking pot is not particularly harmful, and is even cool. Indeed, the biggest danger in having or smoking marijuana is that law enforcement might find you out.

So, why is marijuana illegal? When we look at the benefits of hemp, why in the world would our government prohibit it? One simple answer is that our representatives no longer respond to the desires of the people, but all one has to do to really answer this question is examine which industries would be affected by legal hemp: textile industries, energy concerns, pharmaceutical giants, distilled spirit makers, and even law enforcement itself. There‘s as much money to be made in illegal hemp as there is to be lost in legal hemp…money for the dealer, money for the cop, money for the judge, money for the prison guard, and of course, money for the lawyers.

The moral case for hemp prohibition falls flat in the face of our pleasure-seeking society. If getting high is so bad, then we need to close the alcohol outlets immediately. If damaging your own health is so wrong, we need to start jailing the tobacco dealers and addicts. Hypocrisy in law breeds disrespect for law. Selective morality is hypocrisy at its finest. Imagine telling a dying man he can’t have a bowlful, while telling a young woman it’s fine if she wants to terminate her pregnancy. Selective law enforcement is also an immoral pursuit. Millions of undocumented immigrants live in our country, and the they and the folks that hire them are allowed to continue on despite the very plain law against it, all in the name of some phony economic cause. There is also a morality issue when we speak of the money spent on marijuana enforcement. The infrastructure of our great nation is falling before our eyes, yet the war on drugs continues sucking our coffers dry. We hold more people in prisons than any other country, a situation that could only be considered acceptable in a totalitarian state.

So, how did my gal wind up in the pokey? Well, I don’t know the whole story because they won’t let me see her except for fifteen minutes a week through a small Kafkaesque window. Apparently she made a “friend” at work and got him some pot. She “got him some pot”. She wasn’t driving her car around selling bags to strangers for a profit, she was one addict thinking she was helping another and maybe making a new connection. That’s how it works in the pothead world, but in this case the “friend” turned out to be an undercover agent for the local drug task force. They threw her in the county jail, charged her with two felonies and two misdemeanors, and slapped a $75,000 cash bail on her. That’s cash only, no bond. From what I gather, the amount “sold” was a quarter ounce, a forty dollar value.

This has been completely devastating for more than just her. The impact of having a loved one detained has been similar to the grief of death for all of us who love her. Her reputation among the local puritans has been destroyed, and the rumors run rampant due to the high bail. There are two employers that lost a good employee, her credit rating is heading for a hit due to her inability to make money and pay bills, and my own bankruptcy has been almost assured by this event. I’m selling items to keep the mortgage up.

Is it really worth all this? If law enforcement cannot keep the drugs off of the streets in the first place, what business do they have busting small time addicts? If they really wanted “Mr. Big”, they could have followed my gal around until they found him, but I suspect this is not what they want. The war on drugs is a war on people. They want the drugs to be available so that they can have a steady flow of customers for the law enforcement industry, to soak them dry though fines and fees, to keep up the business for the lawyers and drug testers, and to secure their own fat jobs. They desire to always have something to pin on someone, either through actual involvement or through the all-to-common plant.

No one can blame me for being angry about this. Pot prohibition should have ended years ago, but because our country has turned into a corporate oligarchy, legalization doesn’t even get mentioned much anymore. Sure, any fool can say she shouldn’t have broken the law, but in the end, do we not have a duty to challenge an unjust and immoral code? It is plainly apparent that our representatives no longer represent the common people, but rather the uncommon people…the few instead of the many. Does anyone believe that many of those elite don’t smoke dope themselves?

It’s “high” time that we ended the hypocrisy.

Cleaner44
02-25-2008, 11:39 AM
Actually pot is not addictive. One can become psychologically dependent upon pot, but there are no withrawl symtoms associated with pot and the body does not become addicted.

Anyone that wants to say that pot is a gateway drug that leads to harder thing should first look at milk. I would be that most druggie criminals that started with pot were first regular consumers of milk with their daily habit of breakfast cereal. :D

BigRedBrent
02-25-2008, 12:02 PM
Does anyone believe that many of those elite don’t smoke dope themselves?

I think that many do without any fear whatsoever of being caught. I also think that a significant portion of the elite do stronger drugs such as cocaine. I am almost certain that the Clintons do but I am not going to go into detail as to how I know that.

A rope leash
02-25-2008, 12:02 PM
"One can become psychologically dependent upon pot,"

That's addiction. The physical aspects of withdrawal from a weed habit include constipation and lack of appetite. It isn't bad...there's no need for treatment...but, the psychological impact of withdrawal can be tremendous. Aside from immense depression, there's an awful lot of vivid dreaming that goes on...good rest can be nearly impossible to achieve.

Please don't dismiss pot as being totally innocent. It isn't. Once you're busted, addiction is your only defense, and you'll have to go through all the same drug dependency programs that a crack-head would have to suffer through.

Alchohol withdrawal can literally kill you. Tobacco withdrawal is a lifetime of mental battle with the desire for nicotine. These are legal products. They are known killers. Stop the hypocrisy.

A rope leash
02-25-2008, 12:06 PM
Pot is a gateway drug because it is illegal, and the same folks who will provide someone with illegal marijuana can also provide other, more harmful illegal drugs. Alchohol and tobacco are the intitial "gateways", though.

...and yeah, they all get high. Millions of people smoke dope in this country. Shouldn't all of them be in jail, instead of just the conveniently bustable?

sophocles07
02-26-2008, 04:24 PM
Actually pot is not addictive. One can become psychologically dependent upon pot, but there are no withrawl symtoms associated with pot and the body does not become addicted.

Really, I would consider that addiction. It's not like heroin or cocaine, but it is still in some ways habit-forming.

Once you get into the habit of using pot for a release from the bullshit of "normal life" it gets to form a dependent-user. I'm not saying this is at all bad, because I don't think it is--I've never seen anyone who smoked pot regularly have any considerable negative attributes (that came about because of smoking pot).

By the way, the original poster is absolutely right in everything said.

A rope leash
02-26-2008, 05:57 PM
I appreciate the boost.

People that smoke pot regularly tend to be less outgoing and socialable than others. I'm not sure if it is a result of the substance use itself which causes the smoker to become introspective, or of the illegal nature of the substance, which causes the smoker to be paraniod.

The biggest danger of using pot appears to be the chance confrontation with law enforcement. It's also damn hard to get a decent job, since it takes weed weeks to clear the system and allow for a clean drug test. Cocaine and heroin users have a better chance of getting by a urine test than a pot smoker does.

All in all, right now anyway, I wish I'd never seen it, much less enjoyed it. A situation llike this makes a person feel very powerless...and we are, absolutley, cowered and lame. Just try taking booze away from a drinker, or tobacco away from a cigarette smoker, and put them in jail. The outcry would be tremendous. Have you ever had to deal with an alcoholic waiting for 6AM to arrive so they can buy some booze at the 7-11? Ever spent a day with a tobacco addict who is out of money and cigarettes? It ain't fun. I suspect that's why these drugs are legal...the addicts are such pains-in-the-ass!

One of the things about our culture that really irritates me is the media hypocrisy on this subject. We watch movies where people smoke pot, and it's no big deal. Musicians have been subtlely and overtly promoting drug use to young audiences for years now...since I was a kid, even. But where is Snoop Dog when one of his fans gets caught up in the law, huh? It ain't so cool then, eh what? All of these media operatives that present pot-smoking as a zero consequence activity should be arrested and put in jail as accessories. Just my opinion, but they are treating my gal like she's some kind of hardened criminal, when in fact she was only doing what a lot of other folks are doing. Pot is still available, I can get it, you can get it...there is a market for it. Busting small-timers is a big reason the police do not enjoy a cordial relationship with the general public.

Watch out, young ones, we've been living in a police-state for some time now, and the media is doing what it can to lead you directly into the arms of law enforcement. Hollywood, pop-music, That 70's Show...it's all just a mass deception. The powers that be want you in jail!

pinkmandy
02-26-2008, 10:34 PM
The moral case for hemp prohibition falls flat in the face of our pleasure-seeking society. If getting high is so bad, then we need to close the alcohol outlets immediately. If damaging your own health is so wrong, we need to start jailing the tobacco dealers and addicts. Hypocrisy in law breeds disrespect for law. Selective morality is hypocrisy at its finest. Imagine telling a dying man he can’t have a bowlful, while telling a young woman it’s fine if she wants to terminate her pregnancy. Selective law enforcement is also an immoral pursuit. Millions of undocumented immigrants live in our country, and the they and the folks that hire them are allowed to continue on despite the very plain law against it, all in the name of some phony economic cause. There is also a morality issue when we speak of the money spent on marijuana enforcement. The infrastructure of our great nation is falling before our eyes, yet the war on drugs continues sucking our coffers dry. We hold more people in prisons than any other country, a situation that could only be considered acceptable in a totalitarian state.

Nice job and ita.

You forgot one thing...if we decriminalize drugs how can we keep minorities in jail and then once they are out keep them from voting because of their criminal record? And why is RP the only one willing to discuss that? And they call HIM a racist? Our country is so screwed up.

MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2
02-27-2008, 05:40 AM
People that smoke pot regularly tend to be less outgoing and socialable than others. I'm not sure if it is a result of the substance use itself which causes the smoker to become introspective, or of the illegal nature of the substance, which causes the smoker to be paraniod.

I've had the pleasure of knowing many hardcore stoners as well as many hardcore alcoholics. I've found the alcoholics to be less sociable. People can get stoned in the morning and be unstoned before too long, going on with their day. Once people start drinking, they drink all day.

Also, stoners are more likely to continue on with their day stoned even, and be pretty good at any task they need to accomplish. Not so with heavy drinkers.

Most things in this thread you've written, I completely agree with.

Not this, tho...


We watch movies where people smoke pot, and it's no big deal. Musicians have been subtlely and overtly promoting drug use to young audiences for years now...since I was a kid, even. But where is Snoop Dog when one of his fans gets caught up in the law, huh? It ain't so cool then, eh what? All of these media operatives that present pot-smoking as a zero consequence activity should be arrested and put in jail as accessories.

I say they have more balls than the average person. Also, they're rich, so they don't have to worry about their rights being violated so easily. I'm glad some people aren't afraid. If pot smokers would stick up for themselves, they wouldn't be trampled on so often. Many are middle class... they could affect political change, but they have enough to lose to keep them quiet so they don't wind up being an example.

What I find most alarming is how many politicians admit to prior drug use, and then turn around and increase penalties for such things. Seriously, if they think people deserve to be in jail for drugs, their first action should be reporting to jail for their incarceration.

A rope leash
02-27-2008, 09:27 AM
"I say they have more balls than the average person."

That's right, because they can afford it.

Years ago I worked a construction job where we were stoned in the morning and drunk in the afternoon. This was due to the boss, who brought out the beer at lunch, and all the "real men" drank up. I gotta tell ya, those were some long afternoons.

Sure, give me a stoner to work with any day. Cranksters aren't much good, either. I had a short career in field service, and was eventually promoted to a higher echelon. Surprise, they all got high.

To be honest, I've driven literally a million miles, much of it under the influence. A lot of people have. Earth help you if you are a drunkard's passenger....

Of course, almost everyone has at least tried it. I've been speaking with lawyers lately, and more than one has commented on how, when they were younger, they thought pot would be legal...but, they say, "there's just too much money in it". I'm already hearing jailhouse rumours that the prosecuting attorney is a coke abuser. I think the guy that busted her really only wanted a big bag of the good shit. So far, she hasn't talked.

These lawyers also say that hiring them is not the right thing to do...what will happen is that the public defender will go through all the motions that the judge is used to, and she will get 5 years supervised probation. If I hire a lawyer, it will just piss them off, and the process will slow down (they're are so many offenders), and the judge will impose a harsher sentence as a penalty. (This is hoakum hick justice, I don't live in New York). From what I understand, she will be required to hold a full time job during her probation...if she can't hold a job she goes to jail. Read that again...no job = jail. It's slavery.

I do agree that the drug war has been used as a device to keep certain groups supressed. My aunt used to say that all this shit started with the Beatles. I can see why. That Sixities Rock and Roll turned a lot of people on to drugs, with bad consequences for many of them. The leftist hippie movement was pretty much decimated by the influx of drugs. I don't really see it so much as a racial thing, but a poverty thing. People get involved with the drug trade for money. But, if we want to talk about a specific culture defined by race, black Americans are a good example of what happens when the media defines the image. According to the much of the media, there are two faces of black culture...the proper, church-going, respectful clean-cuts, and the criminal, whore-baiting, drug-dealing gangsters. Gangster culture gets a lot of pop airplay, and my gal's daughters are quite attracted to it. It's cool to be a rebel, and smoke some ganga...but nobody loves you after The Man has had His way with you, and they for sure can't or won't help you. Rap and HipHop should point this out more often.

Yes, if the poor little pot-smokers would just stand up for themselves! Well, how long has NORML been around? What good did the medical marijuana initiatives do? The fascist federal government has said no, and if the states say yes, the feds will "protect you" from the state law. It's all by design, I presume, part of the bread and circuses.

Thanks for talking...

Mach
02-27-2008, 11:01 AM
Here is the Mena Connection watch and learn.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1558956367063931499


One of the main reasons that pot is not legal is a Corporatism thing, it's simple, legalization means no profit or very little compared to what they make with it being illegal, if it was legal we could grow it in our own homes or backyards for free, the way they see it, that cuts them out of the picture. I don't think all drugs should be totally legal.... why? Because if that would happen then Corporatism would take it over. Decriminalize? Yes! Make sure to watch that Mena Video, that is how our government works, the more you protect the "higher ups" the higher up you go....... with a smile, of course..... oh yeah and more money.

It seems like it's on it's way, to a certain extent....... Prescription Marijuana in California, even Marijuana Vending Machines (with Prescription only). Some of these places have been raided and of course all over the news to push the punishments in peoples faces to make then NOT do it.... it hasn't worked. If the States would just kick out the Federal Government, this country would actually get somewhere and not just with drugs but, everything. I look up to the people in California that are doing what they damn well please compared to what the Feds say........ that's what all people need to do, when the Feds say no, the States should ignore them and do whatever anyway, when lots of people/States etc. "just do it" the only way the Feds can stop them is to come out in force, then, that shows the people in their face what a sick government they have and even more people stand up and shout out...... and so on and so on and so on.................... we need to start electing State Politicians that don't go around kissing the Federal Governments ass and actually really care for their people and what they want........................... I know, I know.

Vending Machines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe_6opRXOcg


LEAP

http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php


I guess you already know where McCain stands......... Profit Only!

http://www.leap.cc/link/124

Red Dingo
02-27-2008, 05:43 PM
Thanks for the write up. I found it really interesting and I think agree whole-heartedly. If you've ever lived with an alcholic, you'd much prefer they smoked pot as with alchahol, they become talkative and even physical, but with pot, they become relaxed and peaceful and things slow down a bit - but people are still coherent, unlike alchohol. I hate alcholism. It's terrible on those who live with the alchoholic. But pot relaxes them.
I wonder if the pharmaceutical companies don't want pot legalized because it will cancel a whole lot of relaxant tablets and other pain tabelts. They would lose whole lines of tablets.
Do you guys agree with me that when you've smoked pot (a little does or bigger), you are more clear and controlled and cautious and calmer and alert COMPARED to being drunk or very tipsy. I reckon that's dead true.

A rope leash
02-27-2008, 06:16 PM
Artists and writers have used both alchohol and marijuana as a source of artificial inspiration. They both work terrific, but you'll create more with pot, simply because it doesn't completely wreck the body functions.

Pot is also a far better aphrodisiac.

Did I mention that before?

The list of what pot and hemp can be utilized for is tremendous.

Don't get me started.

Henry Ford made a car out of hemp. Think about it.

sophocles07
02-27-2008, 07:39 PM
Artists and writers have used both alchohol and marijuana as a source of artificial inspiration. They both work terrific, but you'll create more with pot, simply because it doesn't completely wreck the body functions.

I think you'd have to look at this on a case by case basis. Kerouac, for example, was a very bad alcoholic, but he got a lot done. James Joyce, too, was a known alcoholic, but look what he did (think of the length and complexity of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake).

To be honest, I don't think these substances had much to do with the aesthetic act itself, but surely had a small part; you also have to consider that artists are sometimes very fragile emotionally (which manifests itself in different ways in different artists) and these kinds of substances often allow a "coping" with normal life, and this may or may not allow them to be relieved of those 'pressures of reality' (as Wallace Stevens calls them) so that their art can, at least to some extent, be executed more freely.

Marijuana, though, has also contributed (in some way) to varying artists' works. Think of Allen Ginsberg and the San Francisco and Beat poets, as well as many musicians (jazz or otherwise), etc.

You could also include opium and other substances, and include Coleridge, Edgar Allen Poe, etc, (an endless amount of drunken and otherwise-intoxicated artists, going back as far as someone like the poet Anakreon, who wrote mostly of sex and drinking (though it's debated how much he actually did of either)).

Working Poor
02-27-2008, 08:29 PM
The thing I don't like about pot and other drugs being illegal is that minors have more access to it because it is illegal. Also I would much rather see it being taxed and the income be used to build roads and other things rather than letting the black market use it to keep it going.

A rope leash
02-27-2008, 09:06 PM
Some folks can really handle alcohol better than others. Some are even prone to alcoholism as a family trait. Hemmingway drank a lot, from what I understand. I wonder if he really meant to take himself out, or if he was just drunk. Burroughs actually killed his wife in a drunken attempt to shoot an apple off her head. Inspiration via substance works, but it doesn't always turn out so good.

I was reading some things about Rembrandt, and the artists of Flanders. It seems they might have been into hemp. Cab Calloway and that era of swing is some of the greatest music ever, and I'm sure they were on to the herb. Of course, the Beatles were into psychodelics...

...of course, I'm not recommending this.

I agree that legalization of drugs would make it harder for kids to get them. I'm not so sure that speed, coke, and smack should be legal...in any case, if people could get good weed, they might not desire these other substances at all, since they have such downsides. But, none of it should be advertised, and public use or intoxication should be discouraged. Perhaps the government could sell the hard drugs to the addicts in well lit places, thereby adding a stigma to the drug use...that is, everyone will know who's a crack head. The government would then be able to control doasages, and limit the number of deaths, or even ween the addicts off the drug.

I don't know. I don't care if other drugs are made legal, but I like what Mike Gravel had to say about marijuana..."It should be sold at the liquor store"...

Kruniac
02-27-2008, 09:39 PM
These lawyers also say that hiring them is not the right thing to do...what will happen is that the public defender will go through all the motions that the judge is used to, and she will get 5 years supervised probation. If I hire a lawyer, it will just piss them off, and the process will slow down (they're are so many offenders), and the judge will impose a harsher sentence as a penalty. (This is hoakum hick justice, I don't live in New York). From what I understand, she will be required to hold a full time job during her probation...if she can't hold a job she goes to jail. Read that again...no job = jail. It's slavery.

She should get all of her assets together, sell her house, then move south of the border. From there, head to Panama. From there, she can go where she wants.

Fight the system by stepping out of it :D

sophocles07
02-27-2008, 09:46 PM
Some folks can really handle alcohol better than others. Some are even prone to alcoholism as a family trait. Hemmingway drank a lot, from what I understand. I wonder if he really meant to take himself out, or if he was just drunk. Burroughs actually killed his wife in a drunken attempt to shoot an apple off her head. Inspiration via substance works, but it doesn't always turn out so good.

Art paves a mean road. From what I’ve read, Hemingway’s liver was so destroyed toward the end of his life you could actually see it “swollen” (I’m not sure what the term is) physically from the outside. THAT’S a real alcoholic; that’s ridiculous.


I was reading some things about Rembrandt, and the artists of Flanders. It seems they might have been into hemp. Cab Calloway and that era of swing is some of the greatest music ever, and I'm sure they were on to the herb. Of course, the Beatles were into psychodelics...

Yeah. Albums like Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, Exile on Main St., and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts’ Club Band wouldn’t have been made without the influence of drugs (particularly: methamphetamine/amphetamine and marijuana, LSD & mushrooms (and other psychedelics), heroin & cocaine, etc etc.).

A rope leash
02-28-2008, 08:19 AM
Carl Sagan is said to have enjoyed marijuana. I'm pretty sure Bill Gates and Steve jobs tried it a time or two. Does anyone believe that Ronald Reagan had a career in Hollywood and never toked the weed? I suppose it's possible!

It has been said that the USA is the largest market for illegal substances in the world. Somebody's buying...and who is the "greatest country on Earth"? US!

Well, we used to be, anyway. My gal and I have spoken before about moving to Canada...it's not like a person can just pack up and go. We've been thinking about leaving because we're embarrassed for ourselves after what GWB has done to our collective reputations, but I keep getting the sense that an upheaval is coming, and that we will straighten this country out. It's probably the effect of the constant BushCo brand fear-tactics. O yeah, GWB...there's another guy who has obviously partaken.

Panama, eh? I don't like humidity, but I could wear a white suit, right?