November 2, 2010

• This Just In: Reefer Madness in California

   

  I gradutated from high school in 1971, at the end of the sixties, well known in history as an age of "sex, drugs, and rock and roll." Although I did sample alcohol at the age of 18, it was after I had already graduated from high school. I also sampled drugs, specifically marijuana, but this didn't happen until I turned 21.

  Marijuana was and still is illegal. Since the early part of the 20th century, portrayed in films like "Reefer Madness", and documentaries shown to us in school as part of our indoctrination into life, we were given a picture of the drug as being tremendously addicting, leading to crime and strife. It was said to be not only bad for one's health, but the addicting properties led one to sample harder and more dangerous drugs. Smoking marijuana caused a loss of brain cells, and made you stupid. However, a lot of young people immersed themselves in the "drug culture" in the late 60s, and I smoked my first "joint' in my friend Mark's back yard vegetable garden, next to towering corn stalks, in the summer of 1974, a few months after my father died.

  The "high" was exhilarating. I didn't turn into a screaming monster. I didn't become "stupid". I knew the effects of the drug were, like those of alcohol, altering my senses, so this wasn't something I wanted to do while driving a car, or working. I enjoyed the numbing of some of my senses, and the seeming enhancement of others.

  In my neighborhood, and among my ex high school friends, with whom I hung out, marijuana wasn't that popular. Only Tom, with whom I would become best friends throughout the late 70s and early 80s, until his untimely death at age 37 from an industrial accident, became an avid marijuana smoker like me. "Pot" cost $10.00 an ounce in those days, and an ounce of pot lasted a month or more. It was cheaper to get "high" than to get drunk, and the feeling was better.

  I must admit. I enjoyed both booze and dope. And I won't lie. I sampled other more "dangerous" drugs too. I took acid (LSD), cocaine, methamphetamine, and gobbled pills of all kinds. However, I didn't usually  take drugs while I was driving, and usually I preferred even being alone rather than socializing while "high". When younger, I did disabuse my driving privilege, and my driver's license was revoked for many years. I drove while inebriated, and I spent time in jail because of drunk driving arrests. This was mostly because of drinking however, and while I might have mixed up drugs and alcohol while in college and in my 20s and early 30s sometimes, I will admit that this was wrong to do.

  After I "straightened up" in the early 90s, when living with Pat, I got my license back. I still drank alcohol, and I still smoked dope. I only did this at home however, and began to use these entertainment choices a bit more responsibly.

  The price of liquor, which is legal, remained pretty stable over the years. The price of drugs skyrocketed. Especially marijuana. I freely admit that when younger I abused drugs, but as I grew older, I began to be more responsible in all areas of my life. I began to take yearly physicals at my doctors. I began to eat more healthy meals. I simply couldn't afford to take as many drugs as I used to, and I limited my intake to a bowl of marijuana each evening, usually smoked while drinking a couple of beers. Instead of $10.00 an ounce, the price of weed jumped over 30 years to about $300.00 an ounce.

  My time spent "high" was in the evenings after work while I was enjoying watching a movie or TV show. Over the years, I completely stopped "partying" using marijuana in social situations. And as the cost went up, my intake of the drug dropped considerably, until I couldn't find a way to budget it at all. I haven't smoked marijuana for most of the last decade.

  Eventually, I stopped drinking alcohol. While I do drink a bit on Friday nights prior to the weekend now, in my late 50s, I don't see a need to drink during the week. I have to get up early to go to work, and I don't need to get tipsy in the evenings. Instead of drinking beer I drink Raspberry iced tea.

  If I'm with a friend, and they offer me a drink, and I'm not about to drive anywhere, I'll accept. If someone offers me a toke of some weed, I will similarly oblige them. I've spent a lifetime with both drugs and alcohol, and I will maintain that like anything in life, in moderation, these entertainments can be enlightening and fun. I don't "prescribe" drinking or drug taking to everyone. I have seen what immersing oneself in hedonistic lifestyles without regard to moderation can do by witnessing the downfalls of quite a few people in my social orbit over the years. As I just wrote earlier, I admit that I might have had "problems" in the past, but as the years accumulated, I was able to moderate my inebriation with both alcohol and drugs.

  In California, marijuana is prescribed as medicine for a number of maladies. True, you don't need to go to an actual doctor to get a "prescription" and true, it is still against federal law to ingest it in any way. A few years ago, we passed a medicinal marijuana initiative in a state election, and since then, medical marijuana dispensaries have sprouted up around the state. The cost weed is still rather "high", however, and now that it's more "legal" than it ever has been, I still can't afford it. I guess it can't be all that "addicting" if I smoked it most of my life, and have been off the "stuff" for most of the last decade. If I could afford to toke up in the evenings, however, I would.

  The reason I'm coming off hiatus for a bit to write this little blog entry is because this afternoon, after work, I am voting for Proposition 19, the "Marijuana Initiative" which is on the state ballot this election. Polls are predicting the measure won't pass, and these days, all major issues seem to be split right down the middle, but I am voting a big YEA on the legalization and taxation of  marijuana in the state of California. I'd like to see the price drop, so I can smoke some of the stuff again.

  The initiative was written and bankrolled by an entrepreneur up in Oakland named Richard Lee. It leaves taxation up to the individual municipaliites. A lot has been written against what "legalizing" a drug on the state ballot would mean when federally it will still be against the law. Nobody knows for sure what will happen unless it does, and I'd like to help the measure out a bit by supporting it.

  Lots of folks are still obsessed with the "reefer madness" that has been preached to us since the early 20th century. Lots of folks believe marijuana is "the devil's weed." I'm lving proof that it isn't. We used to joke about how marijuana makes your short term memory skills abate somewhat, and this is certainly true while smoking or ingesting it, but not only did my short term memory return after sobering up, my long term memory has never gone away, and as I approach my sixth decade on Earth , I still feel as intelligent and perhaps even more wise than at any time in my personal history. Most of which has included the use of recreational drugs, marijuana chief among them.

  So this afternoon, I will mark a YES on PROPOSITION 19 on my ballot. I don't know if legalizing marijuana will stop the "drug cartels" in Mexico. I don't know if it will save the state if taxed. I don't know if any less of the population will be thrown in jail for possession. Getting popped for pot is more like getting a traffic ticket now anyway. However, back in the early 70s  I always thought that by now I'd be able to walk into a 7-11 and buy a pack of joints. And I'm frankly surprised that I still can't. If Proposition 19 passes, we're closer to that reality.

  If marijuana is legalized, and I believe it should be, nationally, and not just in my home state, it will be regulated, as alcohol is, and it will still be illegal to drive or operate heavy machinery while inebriated.

  Here's to high times!

  • 10:06 am
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