This is wonderful news. I'm considering moving to Canada!
Well not really, because it is....well, it's Canada, but all the same I am very excited about their new cannibis legislation. (Click on opening sentence for link to article) I wish the weed stigma would just disappear for good because it's so antiquated, not to mention out of hand. Not the use. The laws. In some states the penalties for marijuana are tougher than that of rape. In Idaho the penalty is harsher for possession of pot than for methamphetemines. Ha!
You want to know what makes me mad? Madder than mad? Anti-drug campaign ads which focus solely on marijuana. They say it is the "gateway drug." You know? I think there was a time when that was true; when pot was the gateway drug. But this is the year 2003 and the biggest and most harmful gateway drug around is alcohol. The statistics on highschool and college-age binge drinking are scary. Alcohol is easy and legal and one of the most dangerous things out there if abused. You can not honestly sit and tell me that the numbers of car wrecks caused by marijuana, by any means, exceed those caused by alcohol. You can not honestly sit here and tell me that smoking one "marijuana cigarette" is as harmful to your health as smoking "ten cigarettes" as they love to say in these anti-drug ads.
I don't see ads where they show the kid shooting up heroin and the parents all broken up about that. Is the real truth too ugly so we shroud it with some bullshit about cannibis being the real root of the evil? That's like ignoring the big bad guy and blaming the little guy. But that's a huge problem. Heroin. I have had a friend die from it, other friends go into horrible stupors and waste away months, sometimes even years of their lives. I have watched people lose all of their sensibilities and have at times lost even my own over drugs. I have watched people become empty shells, seen the saddest things....had my heart broken observing the destruction and misery of it...But it has never been pot. Pot has never killed anybody. It has never made me cry. I have never banged my fists and said "why did you do it? Why did you smoke that fucking pot you fucking idiot???"
Hundreds of thousands of people die every year from smoking cigarettes. But they're as legal as could be. I was buying them when I was thirteen years old. I was smoking them in public. Nobody stopped me. (Not that my poor mother didn't try...)
Thousands of people die every year from drunk driving accidents. Yet alcohol is perfectly legal. It's a huge industry. I'm not saying it shouldn't be legal. But marijuana...somebody tell me, when placed in perspective with the other things out there that are harming people and that are legal, does that make sense to you? What makes marijuana the antichrist? The gateway-to-hell-and-damnation drug? Hemp is a beautiful thing. Marijuana is good (granted, it definitely can cause a person to be forgetful, hungry and procrastinating on your living room couch for many hours). And anyone who believes that it is a bad thing which should be cursed and banished, needs to find a sturdy appliance with which to remove their own cranium from their rectal region.
Posted by Maria at May 28, 2003 08:23 PM | TrackBackWow, I was just talking about this earlier today...first marijuana users usually don't get in their cars to go "cruisin"...you get high, you stay home and chill out and even if you do drive while high, what are you going...15mph? You may "bump" someone really hard and annoy them..I know I'm being kinda smartassy, but I love pot....if I could I'd never drink again, just smoke pot...and when I smoke pot I don't chainsmoke cigarettes like I do when I'm drinking and pot smokers don't become enraged and beat the shit out of their wives and knock holes in the wall, you know like a bottle of Jack Daniels will do for ya..no pot smokers, get high, giggle and want to have sex and in my case listen the the Cure all night :)
Legalize Pot U.S.A I can't think of any bad that would or could come of it...
Some may find this interesting...I left the service in the mid 80's and not untill 1989 did the military really start cracking down on marijuana use..we used to "smoke out" the dayrooms...but..the military still has a fucking "keg" at every function and the alcohol flows freely, now the kids in the dorms at this base are being busted w/guns....we didn't have guns in the dorms when we were all HIGH...
Posted by: sandy at May 28, 2003 09:04 PMInteresting. Another good point you made about violence and alchol, they're very closely connected. You know that most serial killers have a problem with alcohol (obviously NOT saying that alcohol CAUSES serial killing) and feel compelled to drink before committing crimes in order to "gain courage..."? (I'm very well informed on the subject of serial killers...why? because I'm warped.)
And speaking of sex...I think the average person is much more likely to say "fuck it" and have unprotected sex with someone they don't know that well when they are drunk than when stoned. As a teenager I definately took note of the fact that it was the drunk girl who was having sex in the other room and the stoned girl who was chillin on the couch writing in her journal. Not being judgmental at all, sex is good, just stating the fact. I think alcohol is far more dangerous in MANY ways, than pot.
I know that I personally feel more self conscious and prefer to be with people I'm comfortable with if I'm baked - not as comfortable with strangers... But if I'm drunk, forget about it! I'm everybody's friend! Big Pahty everybodee, big pahty ova hea'!
Posted by: Maria at May 28, 2003 10:08 PMOkay so I'm not the only warped woman...I have a ton of books about serial killers, books with graphic crime scene photos...speaking of I didn't get a chance to see it, but did you see Rob Zombies new movie? I also love B-rated horror flicks and I wanted to see this movie so bad, but could never get to the theatre w/out my kid.
About the serial killer thing, did you see they just arrested a black male serial killer? They're kinda rare huh?
I can't smoke pot like I used to, you know the whole motherhood thing and my husband is in the military w/a clearance and all..I can't do it around him at all, but I think he knows I do...we just don't talk about it. I found out on my last job that EVERYONE there smoked pot. It was really nice and I'm talking people in their 50's were still doing it. Some of my crew would get high on their lunch breaks and do a great job, but you could never go out for some drinks and come back to work and function...don't care how long you've been a drinker, it'll never happen. My oldest brother can't handle alcohol, makes him freakin'crazy, but let him smoke and he's fine. He's in prison right now for manslaughter and I hope he never drinks again, but I'll buy his dope for him if he needs me to...
No you are not the only warped one! I am big on reading TRUE horror. (Not so much with the fiction). My favorite website to visit on that subject is crimelibrary.com. It's the most informative on the web. I read a book recently by Anne Rule called "Every Breath You Take" Have you read it? It's really good. I haven't seen Rob Zombie's new movie, but I read about it. Looks like fun gore.
It's true that black serial killers are not nearly as common. There was another one: Kendall Francois here in NY in the late 80s. Disgusting story. He had eight bodies stashed in various places in his house when they finally caught him. His mother and sister who lived with him claimed they had no idea. Now how the hell do you live with EIGHT rotting corpses in your house and never notice? Everyone on the block noticed the smell!!!
Back to the cannibis subject: I got into a fight in highschool with a guy in my newspaper class who claimed that potsmokers have no place in society and are just losers who weigh down the good working people. (He also said all Mexicans should go back to Mexico because all they do is commit crime - that's when I clocked him and the police came). Anyway, I was so aggravated at the time because I know SO MANY people who are productive members of society who happen to indulge in marijuana. Doctors, lawyers, professors, police officers, firemen, librarians, entrepaneurs... oh that's right. But potsmokers have no place in society. I forgot.
Posted by: Maria at May 29, 2003 09:59 AMI don't read the fiction stuff either..like the real stuff..I"m reading Mistresses of Mayhem by Francine Hornberger right now...and I just got done w/Kidz Who Kill by Charles Patrick Ewing...I never got the rotting corpses in the house thing...I can smell when my tuna salad has sat in the fridge too long, you can't smell rotting flesh...
I"m learning that no matter what anybody says, most are closet drinkers, closet cigarette smokers and definitely closet potheads...You should have told your friend in high school, "hey man smoke up, all the really cool kids are doing it.." That was said with a very California surfer dude attitude..haha..
There are at least two reasons I would move to Canada--to get away from this conservative, right-wing country (which is in a quick downward spiral, along with all our civil liberties); and to be able to fly to Cuba anytime I wanted to. This just adds one more reason to go. Though Canada has become more conservative as well over the recent past, they are still more progressive and open than its neighbor to the south. Toronto is a wonderful, diverse, and progressive city. I would probably move there. Now, if they could just take care of that cold weather....
Posted by: Banzai at May 30, 2003 08:17 AMWe have alot of Canadians stationed at Peterson AFB, this is Space Headquarter for the Air Force, anyhoo..they stil get to have beards, they all curse, smoke, drink, have tattoos all over and alot of them are little "chunky monkeys". I bring this up because the Air Force is trying to get everyone to quit smoking cigarettes, they say you can't have a tattoo that shows in uniform and they don't just weigh you in anymore, it's a body fat count, which if you're a guy w/a little neck you're in trouble. They put you on a weight program and if you don't lose the weight in a certain amount of time, they kick you out. Even if you're close to retiring, you're gone or they'll just suspend you from ever getting orders anymore...Oh and I love Canada because they gave us The Kids In the Hall...:)
Posted by: sandy at May 30, 2003 10:22 AM/rant on
I've lost soldiers to that *&%^&*ing 'tape test' that were in fine shape, passed the PT test, and did their job well, but because that *&%^%ing tape test 'showed' that they were 'fat', even when they were UNDER the weight for their height, they were kicked out.
The damn thing needs to go.
My favorite tape test story? The guy who was on the brigade weightlifting team, and looked like an Olympic bodybuilder. Tape test 'proved' he was 'fat'. It took a colonel, a major, and 2 captains to stop the seperation paperwork on the guy.
/rant off
On weed:
While yes, for some folks MJ IS a gateway drug (as Prince once wrote in a song, 'my cousin tried a reefer in May, now he's doing horse (heroin)...it's June'), these are the same people that are bound and determined to find a way to kill themselves off regardless. Alchohol and ciggies kill more people every year than marijuana EVER has.
And yeah, KITH rock..:)
Posted by: evilmike at June 16, 2003 07:41 PMMan, I wish I had this kinda response when I was ranting about pot on BH; guess I was on the wrong site!!! Damn Sandy, I never knew; let me know and I'll see about bringing some party favors when you're in IL to visit :)
Posted by: lee at June 18, 2003 03:42 AMBH isn't the place to talk about anything "fun". And that's okay, because life isn't always about fun, but it's not all about negativity either. I just think it's sad that they stressed the fact that they welcome opposing opinions, but it turned out that only applied if they found those opinions palatable - otherwise you need to apologize...what's that about? And the whole bashing celebrities thing - when are they going to get tired of that already? It's soooo five minutes ago.
It seems like anytime people are having fun, there is some assmunch nearby to get all uptight about it. Everything that's fun is bad for one reason or another. AND THAT MAKES IT EVEN FUN-NER! la-dee-da.
Posted by: Maria at June 18, 2003 12:01 PM