We have a silly country. In a recent opinion piece in the NY Post, a “columnist,” if that is what she wants to be called, made a link between the horrific shootings in the US and the smoking of marijuana. Yes, she went there. It is not enough to place the blame on mental illness as we have now moved on to wacky weed. She uses facts she gleaned from a ten-minute search on google, facts that justified her gun humping insanity.
She is not alone. Sadly, her opinion piece, and others like it, stoke fear and stupidity, and that’s is a dangerous combination that has become quite the fashionable rage as of late. Fifty-five million Americans have used marijuana in the last year, and 35 million are regular users. That’s a lot of shooters The former interim director of a local Miami university, used to smoke marijuana in his office. This writer proudly smokes marijuana and is also prescribed it for medical reasons due to having a compromised immune system. I can assure you I have never shot anyone nor will I, not even the nut who wrote this article.
With 35 million regular users this means, for the puritanical non-smokers, that people you deal with everyday through work, social engagements, family or even church, actively puff the magic dragon. It is always 420 somewhere. But you do not know this because marijuana users are closeted due to the ridiculous shaming from the squares. They are squares that have screwed up the country’s geometric vibe. They may even call police on a smoker in the chance they walk up to their door and take a big sniff. I have seen this happen.
Not enough room to talk about the medical benefits of marijuana. I have used it for appetite and have gained 30 pounds since I began regular use as I was very skinny and close to death three months ago. Pot sort of saved my life or at the very least sped up the recovery part. There are many people right now who are medicating with a natural and effective medicine as they have done for thousands of years. That was until the end of prohibition when some government overlords needed to justify their salaries by going after weed. Of course. the majority of users were black and a perfect target. The white people were too busy vomiting on themselves or beating their wives after another bender, then going to church on Sunday.
We have freedom of speech in this country and we see it most strongly on the internet, but that is not always a pleasant thing as hatred and xenophobia are proudly shot from one’s keyboard. Nothing can be done about that, but one would hope a mainstream newspaper would not publish such bad comedy. There is bad comedy everywhere and it involves feckless elected officials who need to appeal to an ignorant and angry base in order to stay in power, doing nothing, but offering hackneyed impact statements that are void of common sense but appeal to emotion, a powerful drug used (badly) everywhere.
This is one issue I think we can have mass agreement on. With 11 legal states and the District of Columbia having legalized recreational weed and over 60 percent of the country favoring legalization, there is hope and a collective army to fight the puritanical squares. Florida of course is behind the times, perhaps due to conservative voters but the truth is that North Florida is alike a giant marijuana cloud. You have people in Dixie County, which leans far right with 88 percent voting for Trump, openly smoking a spliff in public. I am thinking that cops don’t really care as I recall getting a tattoo and while my artist puffed away, a cop had walked in the shop and said nothing, just waved hello. Now that is freedom my friends. Legalization is coming despite the old guard. Younger people are seizing power. Those health conscious millennials are drinking less and puffing more because they understand that alcohol is the most deadly abused substance in the county at this time. A good friend of mine who owned a prominent trophy shop in North Miami told me he served two years in prison in 1970. For what I wondered? A nickel bag of marijuana which is for those who do not know, a very small amount you could lift with two fingers. Thankfully it is no longer like that, police have the option to just give you a ticket in South Florida, unless you’re black of course.
It is time that all the smokers rise and come out of the closet. Everyone who smokes needs to be visible and stop the fear from the non-smokers. At 4:20, at a date to be established later, everyone needs to light up and be out and proud. Ideally this could be done daily. Visibility will end the dreadful and dangerous stupidity of those who can send their opinion to mass audiences without fear of reprisal. The reprisal will be the end of us being a silly country.
Smoke up.
