Concerning marijuana

If you follow my Facebook page, you will notice a number of links to articles discussing marijuana legalization. And if you haven’t yet figured it out, I am a proponent of legalization.

That is not to say implementing such laws will not create legal complications in the real world.

It’s easy to say you’re an anarchist, or a libertarian, until something someone else does affects you also. And just about anything anyone else does affects you to some degree or another. We live in a crowded world.

Many say marijuana should be treated as is alcohol or tobacco, and I more or less agree. However, there are differences between these substances, rather profound differences.

Alcohol in very low doses, let’s say a single beer or glass of wine is a mild drug. It hits rather quickly and clears from the system in fairly short order. It’s easy to regulate how high you get, how incapacitated, also. One does this, two, this, and three that. More than three and you are quite fucked up and incapacitated, a danger to be around.

It can be, in low dose, a beneficial, stress relieving and enjoyable drug (and yes, it is a drug).

In high doses, it’s a proven killer, a raging, mocking, indiscriminate killer.

Some will say the marijuana of today ain’t the stuff you smoked as a youngster. Well, maybe not you.

In my case, however, I knew people on the cutting edge and they were producing a similar herb many years ago. I smoked my share of the same damn stuff you think is new to the world, sativa, indica and even ruderalis. The difference now is that quality herb is now widespread among domestic producers; what was once the stuff of legend and a few connoisseurs can now be had in multiple choices and flavors at legal dispensaries or from illegal sources throughout the land.

The potency of this modern high end weed is such that a user needn’t smoke a joint to get high. One puff, you’re all in. And you are going to be there for a while. Furthermore, especially if you’re not accustomed to using the stuff, some effects will linger, to a mild degree, for up to a couple of days thereafter.

Don’t throw rocks.

I know what I am talking about.

However, the drug and its effect is much different than alcohol and therefore can’t be treated exactly the same.

A person driving, high on pot and unaccustomed to being so, probably won’t swerve on the road or drive to excess speed like someone inebriated on alcohol might. But he or she might well drive well below the speed limit, or feel the need to park that car and hide in a safe secure place. A seasoned smoker will likely drive pretty much like anyone else, even when high, not unlike someone that has taken their prescription anti-depressant.

Marijuana is a powerful medicinal herb, with many profound uses. Tell me otherwise and I will tell you that you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. I speak from personal experience, my own and that of others I know on an intimate basis that have used and continue to use the drug for these purposes.

No other drug on the planet rivals its effect on controlling nausea. Not even close.

It is also an appetite stimulant.

Those two properties combined make it very useful for someone suffering side effects of chemotherapy and or radiation treatments.

Pot is a stress reliever and can be useful for those suffering from PSTD or other stress related ailments.

There are reports that the cannibidiol resin, found mostly in marijuana leaves, suppresses cancer cell growth and also is a powerful medicine for those suffering epileptic seizures, once again, unrivaled by any pharmaceutical on the market. For what it’s worth, ingestion of this will not get you high, it’s the THC in marijuana that provides the psychotropic effect, and there are strains of marijuana that contain little or almost no THC.

The herb has another effect that scares the hell out of those in charge. Somehow or other, it alters perception of a user and can radically change a person’s way of seeing this world.

Imagine a war when people throw down their guns and say fuck this shit. I ain’t fighting no more. 

Only you don’t have to imagine it. It happened, in hundreds, thousands of cases, during the Viet Nam war. And guess what; enough people stood up and said enough is enough to stop that war, cold in its tracks.

You may think otherwise, but this is what happened.

And this scared the hell out of the cocksucking warmongers sending someone else’s kids off to expend massive amounts of ordnance and kill people, or conversely, to die in their goddamned war.

Now, the part the pot smokers ain’t going to like.

It’s customary, while watching commercials on some prescription drug to hear a long laundry list of potential side effects, while some good looking actor walks through life in an apparent state of bliss.

Among the side effects a commercial on marijuana might list would be the following: Some people report short term memory loss (where did I put the fucking keys? Did I miss that appointment? Etc.). Coughing, perhaps to the point of rolling on the floor as you try to hold in that hit. Chest congestion with extensive use. Maybe shortness of breath, also with extensive use. The stuff has tar in it. This is not good for your lungs.

This altered perception, (or distorted reality for those in the opposing camp), tends to make a user not give much of a fuck about making a shit pot of money or climbing the ranks in society. People often become “dropouts” for lack of a better word. Detractors would say this is a bad thing, pot heads would say this is an anti-brainwashing, anti-indoctrination effect that makes people more laid back and yes, even more caring about the things that really matter.

Which may include eating a whole damn sack of chips or a carton of ice cream while listening, really listening, to some music while staring at your navel.

But it ain’t like it’s the end of the world when your neighbor sets about doing any of the above.

The bottom line is this: I think you are a hypocrite if you drink alcohol, smoke tobacco or take pharmaceutical drugs for you ailments, both physical and mental, and feel the need to put others in jail for using marijuana.

Legalize the stuff.

Now, please.