A Question

This is what my Search Terms thing on my Dashboard looks like:

drugs	18
kat von d	12
recycle	7
miami ink	3
marilyn monroe	3
Weed Women And Wine	2
miami ink face tattoo	2
John Pilger Book/Movie 2007	2
stupid recycling quotes	1
celebrities getting high

Maybe I should start writing about something else.  Every day it’s mainly “drugs” and “kat von d.”  This is not the direction I wanted my blog to go in!  This is what I have become on the internet- drugs, Kat Von D, and Marilyn Monroe.  Oh well, I just hope the people searching for Kat Von Grease Crotch hate her as much as I do.  And I’m not a drug addict, I swear.  I don’t think drug addicts have blogs. 

Marc Emery- Important for Pot heads!!

If you live in Canada, you may have heard of Marc Emery, the Prince of Pot.  If you live in the United States you may have heard of him too, although when I am in the US I never see any news coverage about him, 60 minutes did a show but that’s about it.

Anyway, Marc Emery is a Canadian Marijuana activist.  He opened Hemp BC in Vancouver, and also started Pot TV.  He is very passionate about legalizing marijuana and what’s not to love about that?  Read more about him here.

Anyway, along with his other accomplishments, Emery also sold marijuana seeds online.  In 2005, the United States DEA went into Canada and closed down Emery’s shop and seed business.  The United States went into Canada and enforced US LAW in CANADA???!!  YES!  Because, seeds were sold to customers in the United States.

Since then, Emery has been facing a possible life term in prison(under US law)- and today accepted a plea deal that would result in him spending 5-10 years in prison.  He did this to (obviously keep him out of a life term) AND to keep his two colleagues from having to serve sentences as well- one of his fellow activists who faced jail time has Crohn’s disease, and uses the drug to alleviate symptoms.  Just like millions of chronically ill people could benefit from.  I think if your condition is chronic, you should get a little chronic.

But what is wrong with this picture?  If you are a fellow pot head, you have probably come across a seed or two in your day.  Now, what would a weed lover do with a wayward seed?  Plant it!  And then you get a little sprout and your practically selling your crop already, and then you wake up 3 days later and your precious little sprout is flopped over dead.  It’s f-ing hard to grow pot!  You need a specific set-up and even the most basic equipment can be expensive.  So my guess is that over half of the US customers were probably stoners like me who think pot is as easy to grow as a Chia Pet, and produced no crop from these illegal seeds.  But does the United States care?  No, because the government refuses to recognize that pot is not on the same level as heroin and as usual, we make it our job to stick our nose in the business of other countries.  So I guess we’d rather import weed instead of have it grown at home.

I am outraged that Marc Emery has to serve jail time at all, what a criminal!  Rapists serve less time than him!  And I’m outraged that we are living in this nightmare world where alcohol and cigarettes are legal and BOTH can kill you, but a PLANT that is never fatal, is not addictive, and has no negative health effects is treated like a WMD. 

No wonder kids are dying from things like huffing and the choking game, Jesus if they had a couple joints on hand like normal teenagers are supposed to we wouldn’t have all these freaky accidents!  MySpace wouldn’t run their young lives and video games wouldn’t be turning young men into owl-eyed, nocturnal, I-can’t-change-a-flat-but-I-can-work-a-machine-gun-in-halo, and girls into catty text-messaging Paris Hilton carbon copies (Paris smokes pot though, but I couldn’t think of anything else).  And adults could fucking relax once in a while instead of filling their time with work/tv/work/tv.  People could have a reason to get together and visit, instead of living isolated lives and only getting together for holidays. 

“Hey Neighbor, want to pop into my garage and want to help me smoke this joint?”

“Sure, I just got home from work and would love to experience human interaction instead of watching television until bed.  Crimeny, I just spend 8 hours staring at a computer and truthfully, I’m lonely.  My kids spent all night in their rooms watching tv, text-messaging, going on MySpace and huffing spraypaint.  And my wife just watches reality tv while drinking wine from a box.  When she isn’t doing that she’s busy buying the latest sheet set from the Martha Stewart collection.  I really don’t see my family at all, and we don’t laugh together anymore.”

“Well” says the joint-providing neighbor as they proceed into his garage, “my family used to have the same problem, and while my wife still has the occassional box of wine and my kids still have cybersex on MySpace with men my age, I have found solace in this special time I like to call After-Work-Daddy’s-In-The-Garage-Hour.  My family knows they can come into join me, and sometimes my wife does and we laugh and talk about funny things and split a bag of Doritos, it’s really helped our relationship”

“Wow, that sounds wonderful, perhaps I’ll occassionally do the same, it’s not that expensive and it’s not bad for you, and if it encourages interaction with me and my family then why wouldn’t I try it?” 

“You know, Neighbor, we live in a lonely world, and sometimes I think this little plant” (motioning to a small terrarium with 1 pot plant thriving) “is the only thing that truly helps me relax while living in this problem ridden society”

BOOM BOOM BOOM- garage door blows off it’s tracks- men wearing gas masks and weilding maching guns and shields burst in and immediately taser Neighbor and Neighbor with Joint.  Both men are currently serving 9 years in jail.

The End

JUST LEGALIZE IT ALREADY YOU FOOLS!  CANADA IS GETTING CLOSE, THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO WAKE UP AND GET ITS PRIORITIES IN ORDER.

I guess I’ll go drink a liter of vodka and smoke a carton of cigarettes now, totally legal, totally acceptable.  Fucking backwards.

Did I miss something here?

 I think a large portion of the population probably think marijuana should be legalized.  No matter what your reason is for wanting it legalized, it is important to recognize why it was outlawed in the first place!  Marijuana has been around for centuries, and people have been getting high for just as long.  Afterall, it’s just a plant.  A plant that is actually relatively easy to cultivate (in the right conditions) and whose close relative (Hemp) is potentially one of the most useful natural resources available.  

Also, there is no proof that marijuana is more harmful than alcohol (if anything, alcohol is much more dangerous-See NORML link below) and we all know it isn’t as bad as the chemical soaked nicotine we inhale all day either!  So why, you ask, is little old marijuana still illegal?  Why are pot dealers sitting in jail longer than some pedophiles?  Marijuana does not cause cancer, it does not rot your teeth or make you violent, it probably impairs driving skills but so does alcohol, prescription drugs, and cough medicine. 

So what the hell is this pot prohibition?  It isn’t harmful to our bodies (not that this should matter, since there are plenty of harmful subtances out there are harmful AND legal), it doesn’t cause people to commit crimes, it’s sibling  hemp could possibly prove to be a whole new prosperous industry world-wide, and look at all the people who support legalizing it!  This is a democracy, isn’t it?  And I don’t just want to get high and eat Doritos, I want to exercise my basic human rights and put what I want in MY body!  Excuuuussee Me!

Marijuana is illegal in a society where alcohol is pushed as a dietary staple (especially for college students), prescription drugs are dispensed like Skittles, and pollution is a daily dosage that no one is doing anything about.  So what is the big deal about adding in some pot to our already toxic mix?  Pot would at least calm us down, get us off our sleeping pills, cure our chemo-induced nausea, and possibly (with hemp) put clothes on our polyester and lycra covered backs!  It’s not crystal meth or something, it’s not going to make you crazy or kill you.  It’s going to get you high, help you relax, and you aren’t going to bother anybody.

Pot is illegal because of money.  Big surprise right?  But there’s more… the man behind the early Drug War, HarryJ.Anslinger, had some interesting ties that may have to do with the demonization of cannabis.  Back in the 1920’s and 30’s, when Anslinger was serving as the Assistant Prohibition Commissioner, he decided to drum up some negativity towards the drug to get his own name in the history books.  Interestingly enough, Anslinger was also good friends with William Randolph Hearst (magazine mogul) and the DuPont family, whose patented petroleum compounds could easily be replaced by the more simple and natural hempseed oil.  So, while stirring up anti-marijuana scare tactics and appeasing his buddies, Hearst and the DuPonts, Anslinger successfully fucked over all us potheads for the past 90 years.

He falsley claimed marijuana turned good men evil, and was being used and abused mainly by the already “bad” minority groups.  What a way to win people’s support, through blatent racism.  Here are some of his prize-winning bumper sticker slogans.

So, for no real reason at all, Anslinger and all the Drug War supporters after him have been making this “evil plant” illegal simply to convince themselves they’re helping, but really they are just suffocating what could be a prosperous and ecologically friendly industry (HEMP) and making regular people criminals.  So I have never gotten so much as a speeding ticket, but in the United States I could face jail time for having some leaves on me.  Meanwhile, there are people who still have their driver’s licenses after 2 DUIs, pedophiles being allowed to live a block away from an elementary school, and my neighbor getting completely fucked up off Xanax every day of her life and driving and caring for children.  What is wrong with this picture?  Doesn’t it maybe seem like there are some other motives for keeping pot illegal besides its “negative” effects?  Think about it:

Early protests against taxing marijuana

the Miracle Drug

Costs of illegal marijuana

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

It is a sad day for me today, no one died and I didn’t get evicted, but I’ve decided it’s time to stop smoking pot.  On special occassions maybe, but I can’t have it in my home anymore. 

I am a huge advocate of legalizing marijuana, BUT I also recognize that it is not the wonder drug that I thought it was when I was younger.  I’m not that old now, but I’ve smoked a lot of pot for a long time- as part of my scientific research for this post, of course.   One thing about pot is that it intensifies your ordinary habits and traits.  My ordinary habits happen to be overeating, watching tv, sleeping, and smoking cigarettes and my personal traits happen to be laziness, antisocial-ness?, and anxiety.  So if my theory about pot intensifying how you are naturally, you can imagine what a bundle of fun I am when I’m high.  So, I figure it’s probably not beneficial for ME to smoke.

My husband, on the other hand, is naturally inclined to exercise, read, and play sports.  So for HIM, getting high is a good thing.  He reads for hours and he plays soccer, and he doesn’t sit at the computer and eat a whole bag of Doritos (like his better half).  So he doesn’t see a reason to not smoke.  He does, however, become boring (to people living outside his head) and antisocial- so maybe he isn’t so perfect after all.

But back to me… he can write his own Pot Story.  But I am quitting… because it really doesn’t do anything for me.  Sure Cypress Hill and Snoop Dogg and Bob Marley make it seem like this magical experience, and when I don’t have it around getting high seems like the best thing in the world.  I like the idea and the ritual of getting high, but I am now smart enough to realize that I am not a good candidate for it. 

 Sorry Snoop, this time I’ll have to pass.

I enjoy going outside, socializing, learning new things, and bettering myself, and since pot does not help me do any of these things, I am giving it up.  The past year or so it has only cost me money, extra pounds, wasted time, and paranoid “run-ins” (or fear of run-ins) with the law. 

So, while I still support legalizing it, I myself am going to have to stop using it.  I am a person who needs motivation, not sedation, and while I can think of a number of people who could probably use a good dose, I never seem to benefit. 

So today, October 15th, 2007, I officially quit smoking pot.  There is  still quite a bit in the house… but I’ll let my husband have it, because he can apparently function better than I can when it’s around.