The Great Weed Debate:
Don't Legalize It
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/The-Great-Weed-Debate-Keep-98357769.html
I'll take my chances with the game.
By Nina Sachdev
Jul. 13, 2010
It's Christmas Eve in Philadelphia and weed is legal. Problem is,
I've got 20 minutes to get it. The state store is on holiday hours
and I still need to pick up the egg nog. No biggie, I'll just swing
by Wawa on the way home.
I check my watch. Shit. I sigh. This is gonna be a long Christmas.
I pull up to the dispensary to what looks like a flash mob. It's not.
It's the longest, most annoyed line of people I've ever seen. I
panic. Please don't be sold out. It's Christmas! A worker announces
that production has been reduced for the holiday season, and the G-13
is quickly running out. But I keep waiting because this is the only
way to get weed now. The only other dispensary in the city has
already been shut down. The operator is being charged in a kickback
scheme. Typical Philly.
Five minutes later, another announcement. No more weed until Dec. 26.
The government is having a dry spell. Are you kidding me? A bunch of
us bow our heads in defeat. Somebody lights up a joint but gets
yelled at for smoking weed within 1,050 feet of the building.
Feeling sorry for myself, I head to Wawa. I want Doritos. I think
about how they used to be $2.99, but ever since the government
legalized marijuana, the price has skyrocketed. Couldn't the feds at
least give out some coupons? If not for the weed, then for food?
Whatever. I'm going to splurge.
The Wawa is packed. I fight my way to the snack aisle. The Doritos
are gone. You just can't find any good snacks any more . Wonder Bread
is back to its 1980 price of 50 cents. I throw it in my basket. I
don't even like white bread. But that's all that's ever left these
days. Why the hell did I vote for this?
Pot smokers, is this how you want to get high? You're deluding
yourself if you think this kind of stuff won't happen. We're talking
about the U.S. government. They are not to be trusted. If you really
think legalizing marijuana is the answer, you've forgotten how good
the game has been to you over the years.
Harold and Kumar played the game once. It was epic.
Harold and Kumar smoke their remaining weed after work and spend the
whole night trying to a) get more weed and then b) get to a White
Castle in New Jersey.
Yet, despite all of their misadventuresHarold is bitten by a
raccoon; Kumar ends up performing surgery on a gunshot victimwould
they have done it differently if weed were legal? Fuck no. They
didn't call it Harold and Kumar Go to the Nearest Legal Weed Shop and
Order Up a Couple Spliffs to Go for a reason. No.
If you're still not convinced, let's look at some of the financial
aspects of legalization. Class, raise your hand if you think pot
smokers will go along with paying a sales tax for something you can
grow in your basement. (You can get seeds mailed to you from
Amsterdam in a CD case). Don't think for one minute that the feds
won't raise that tax. (Unless you live in Delaware, where the
shopping is tax-free.) As long as we are broke, they will. That's what they do.
They will tax us so much they will tax the high right out of us.
Then, after they get our money, they'll use some of it to fund
programs aimed at counteracting that vice because, again, that's what
they do. Don't believe me? Think cigarettes (that campaign has been
going strong for years); gambling (the feds are allowed to tax your
winnings at the highest rate possible); and fatty foods (that's why
they want you to eat at White Castle). The government will tax
everything you do. So, just to recap: You want to pay the feds to
smoke weed so that they can tell you to stop smoking weed. OK.
Don't get me wrong. The game has dry spells, too. Your dealer will
run out; his dealer will run out; the Colombian cartel or whoever the
fuck is above that guy will run out. But thisnot taxes, not waiting
in lineis the price worth paying.
As I pull onto my street, I remember that I forgot the egg nog. Ugh.
Just then, I pass a liquor store and slam on the brakes.
Surprisingly, it's open.
This Christmas, I vow to always appreciate what I have.
--------
The Great Weed Debate:
Legalize it
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/The-Great-Weed-Debate.html
Marijuana prohibition is more dangerous than you think.
By Dan McQuade
Jul. 13, 2010
It's Christmas Eve and I want some pot brownies. Problem is, my
dealer got pulled over last night for speeding. The cops found his
bowl in the center console. Dumbass.
Now what? Well, I'm out of pot and I got no connections. Shit. I
sigh. This is going to be a long Christmas.
Weed smokers are being cited, arrested, locked up. And for what?
Something that grows naturally in the earth? Marijuana prohibition
needs to end. Now.
In the onslaught of the War on Drugs in the '80s and '90s, marijuana
legalization was a pipe dream. In fact, anti-marijuana rhetoric has
been the most visible drug policy issue in the U.S. since Ronald
Reagan. It was only 12 years ago the United Nations held a conference
calling for a drug-free world by 2008. Now, though, it's closer than
it has been since the 1970s. Californiawhose medical program is
almost de facto legalization for manywill hold a referendum in
November on whether to fully allow it.
Smokers, unite. The end of marijuana prohibition has got to be on its
way. Sure, it would be a complicated transition to a legal marijuana
market, but just think of the benefits: No more drug corners. No more
waiting. No more getting pinched for an eighth. No more guesswork.
Just good old legal weed.
Now let's lecture you for a paragraph. Just because your drug of
choice is definitely the most awesomesuck it, beer geeksdoesn't
mean you can go smoking it 24/7. You need to sleep.
It's not a good idea to wake-and-bake every day, either. Yes, one can
smoke enough marijuana to ruin your life (or, at least, lose your job
and girlfriend and get fat thanks to a too many days of pot, pizza
and Law & Order marathons). Even if it can't cause an overdose, one
can smoke too much weed.
Fortunately, "smoking too much weed" about the worst-case scenario
for marijuana use. There's no evidence it causes cancer, but
marijuana smoke isn't good for the lungs. Driving while high is a bad
idea. Pretty much everything else marijuana is blamed forbrain
damage and memory loss, crime, a gateway to more dangerous drugs,
"amotivational syndrome"has been debunked. (There's a whole book on
this: Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts.)
So, yeah, weed can make you fat if you consume half the Wawa every
time you smoke. Is this something we should be fighting a war on?
Marijuana prohibition is far more dangerous than marijuana. Weed
dealers can't settle their differences through the courts. The media
calls it "drug-related violence," but in reality it's drug
prohibition-related violence. Sometimes innocents are caught in the
crossfire. Far too frequently, people (or their pets) are killed by
SWAT forces raiding a house where the police believe there is
marijuana. It's impossible to overdose and die on pot, but pot laws kill.
In 2008, the most recent year data is available from the FBI Uniform
Crime Reports, police arrested 847,864 people for marijuana law
violations; 89 percent of those arrests were for simple possession.
No, most of those arrested do not go to prison. UCLA public policy
professor Mark Kleiman estimates there are about 30,000 people behind
bars for cannabis law violations.
Some may not have sympathy for those killed in drug raids or the
thousands arrested for weed. After all, they broke the law. But we
have to be realistic. Cannabis is much less harmful than both our two
primary legal drugs; hell, it's much less harmful than speeding.
These pointless arrests harm the lives of hundreds of thousands of
otherwise law-abiding productive citizens. They have to suffer the
experience and embarrassment of an arrest and possible criminal
record. Some may lose federal funding because of a simple pot arrest.
And for what?
There are almost too many arguments against marijuana prohibition. It
does tremendous collateral damage. It blocks people from a medicine
that works wonders on certain debilitating ailments. It prevents
farmers from planting industrial hemp. It festers a black market that
allows marijuana to be sold in every high school in the country. It
costs a ton. It doesn't even really stop anyone from smoking pot.
You'd have to be stoned out of your mind to want a system that has
failed so spectacularly continue.
And then, one day, we can maybe have a second drug celebration event
in this town. It's just a dream, but who wouldn't enjoy Philly Weed Week?
.
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