Will Wilkinson exhorts the Silent Majority to emerge from the Cannabis Closet:
So here we go. My name is Will Wilkinson. I smoke marijuana, and I like it.
Well, fine - I will echo Matt Yglesias, who writes that "I have smoked pot and don't really care for it". In my case, I had serious problems with both time dilation and paranoia - basically, I thought everyone had conspired to stop every clock in every room, which was deeply unsettling to say the least (and how did they get to my wristwatch?). I also didn't have the patience to shell peanuts before devouring them, which is surely an under-researched health hazard.
Well, that was just after the glaciers receded. Whatev.
What do we want? Normalization. When do we want it? Now. Or anyway, after we finish these potato chips, which will be in thirty seconds.
It's all a conspiracy by the makers of Baby Ruth candy bars.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | April 04, 2009 at 11:02 AM
Seriously, I would be interested to know if there are any studies on the potential link between adolescent use of recreational drugs and depression.
Posted by: Greg Toombs | April 04, 2009 at 11:21 AM
Let's see, I have smoked pot and liked it. A lot.
But that was 20 years ago.
Posted by: hit and run | April 04, 2009 at 11:25 AM
I have smoked pot. I didn't like it.
But (in college, natch), I thought it was part of a well-stocked bar (eg. I liked it more than the Midori I kept around for the pretty coeds).
I would like to note that there has never been a war between two contries in which MDMA was legal.
Posted by: Walter | April 04, 2009 at 11:31 AM
I would also like to note that my inability to spell countries is most likely due to overindulging in a mind-altering substance--caffeine.
Posted by: Walter | April 04, 2009 at 11:36 AM
Wimping out:
Since I met the pure intoxicant that is the light of my life, I do not keep the same well-stocked bar. Midori, pot, and pretty coeds are almost never on hand these days.*
I still vote for legalization, though. Think how well Pofarmer could do if he did not have to compete with untaxed imported produce. Hemp was one of Missouri's top cash crops for many years and you can still find it growing uncultivated in the wild. We could increase our GDP and have a positive impact on our balance of trade.
To the extent that there is a domestic supply, it is not fair that only certain farmers are subsidized by royalty-free use of our public forests and tax dollars spent to keep wholesale prices higher than a market-clearing price.
Posted by: Walter | April 04, 2009 at 12:05 PM
I'm for legalization but not if I have to read about or listen to a bunch of pothead yuppies being all proud that they get high and there's nothing wrong with it man. Legalization needs to make a statement about individual liberty not about how hey dude tasty buds are the shit and I'm totally more accomplished than you anyway and you want you can see my degrees so get out of my face.
Posted by: happyfeet | April 04, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Well if the FDA is now being given the power to control tobacco, what's left to smoke but pot?
Posted by: clarice | April 04, 2009 at 12:29 PM
I am a responsible 29 year old with two happy, healthy, little kids. Own my own house, get up and go to work everyday. I don't drink booze and i dont smoke cigerettes. After my day, i enjoy unwinding with a bowl of high-grade hydro, who cares? The fact that it's illegal is ridiculous, how many people are killed every year from Drinking? 2-300,000 every year? It's bizarre there is even a debate about it.It would be wild and new for 2 months if it was legalized, it would then be a casual thing and nobody would pay it any attention anymore. Not to mention wiping out the debt in 5 years. C'mon people, loosen up. The worlds not ending, the markets will be fine, and Obama,as big of a jack-ass as he is, isnt gonna be the end of this great nation
Posted by: Matt | April 04, 2009 at 12:54 PM
What does normalization mean? A possession arrest is about as bad as a DUI. And isn't Soros one of the biggest funders of drug legalization-curious.
In Malayasia and Singapore they execute traffickers;)
Posted by: RichatUF | April 04, 2009 at 12:56 PM
Wanna get high
Posted by: Towelie | April 04, 2009 at 01:03 PM
Love the way journalists fail to do a useful job. There job is to phrase questions in the most useful way possible and then pursue the answer.
Bad Question: Should we legalize pot?
Good Question: As we learn more about brain chemistry, when would it be acceptable for one safely do so recreationally?
The rest is either noise or entertainment.
Posted by: sbw | April 04, 2009 at 01:07 PM
I'm for legalization but not if I have to read about or listen to a bunch of pothead yuppies being all proud that they get high and there's nothing wrong with it man.
ha! I love you, happs.
I still contend those who want to legalize it won't ultimately be happy with the laws that will accompany it.
And it will still be illegal for teenagers (up to 21, I'm guessing).
Posted by: MayBee | April 04, 2009 at 01:20 PM
"Well if the FDA is now being given the power to control tobacco, what's left to smoke but pot?"
What's left to tax but pot?
Posted by: Jinny | April 04, 2009 at 02:23 PM
Well--there's the plan-- a new source of revenue..
Posted by: clarice | April 04, 2009 at 02:28 PM
Seriously, I would be interested to know if there are any studies on the potential link between adolescent use of recreational drugs and depression.
There have been several studies; the causal direction appears to be that depressed kids self-medicate.
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | April 04, 2009 at 02:39 PM
Are the studies about increased schizophrenia diagnoses in teen pot smokers related to the same phenomenon (self medication), Chaco?
Posted by: clarice | April 04, 2009 at 02:52 PM
When Bill Clinton said he didn't inhale, he showed he was untrustworthy and did not respect either the American people or the press.
Posted by: sbw | April 04, 2009 at 03:07 PM
I wasted about 10 years of my life getting high. Escaping reality is fun, but un-productive. I wish I had all the minutes, hours and days back to do over again that I wasted getting high. Life is short. Live it in the real world rather than escaping from it. The freedom of sobriety is empowering and that is something the government will never offer it's citizens that they claim to care about so much. I have one more addiction (tobacco) to quit and I start right now.
Posted by: DaveinPhoenix | April 04, 2009 at 03:12 PM
This is all about revenue, folks. Sort of like the whole gay rights meme. Legalization = money + control.
In the case of gay rights, my father pointed out 30 years ago that it was about money and social acceptance. The problem is that there is a finite resource and the gays want their share, so do we fund programs that promote certain values and modes of conduct or do we promote all values and conducts? We have to look at the value equation to society and make those judgments, and there is a huge divide.
In the case of pot, government is desperate for revenue and we have a weak willed and dissolute generation who grew up with pot. This has influenced following generations as well. Little consideration is being given to the moral and ethical aspects of the issue. Consider that the marijuana industry is huge regardless of the legality. A very nice target for the statists, I say.
The only way that responsible government will return is when the money faucets are shut down. If you will, money is government's heroin. They are like children who must learn to make responsible choices. Accounting is, in fact, a zero sum game. It eventually has to balance one way or the other.
Posted by: matt | April 04, 2009 at 03:16 PM
From what I understand there is a direct link between bi-polar disease and early (adolescent) pot use. Some in the substance abuse counseling field believe that it can make one 700 times more likely to develope a mental illness (including depression)sometime in the users life. Although there appears to be little damage caused when used responsibly (?) by a mature adult. Adult users of marijuana have been known to give up their children to state & county authorities rather than stop its use. Many other people have allowed themselves to be repeatedly incarcerated for minor pot infractions especially those who continually "drop dirty" while on probation. Many others too experience difficulty in the work place where smoking pot is usually dicouraged for saftey reasons. Often times adult chronic users will experience financial difficulties that would otherwise not exist if not for smoking marijuana. All these negatives would suggest that a responsible adult should not partake in marijuana use wether legal, decriminalized, or any other circumstance.
I'd be delighted if the feds would decriminalize pot charge exorbinate taxes and import fees to the importers, slacking off those who produce it locally. But I also believe there should be a HUGE tax on fast food resturants (maybe in the 50% range.
Posted by: tonynoboloney | April 04, 2009 at 03:18 PM
I believe there is emerging evidence that teenage brains are still developing and that their lifetime brain chemistry can be affected by alcohol and drug use.
Which would get us to legalizing pot for 21 year olds and then losing the battle over teenagers (which is not exactly being won right now, anyway.)
Posted by: Tom Maguire | April 04, 2009 at 03:24 PM
Stuff it, tony. I really oppose the use of taces to force people to eat in certain ways and forego eating other things. Fat people are fat for many reasons--generally eating more calories than they use up, but if people want to eat chick fil a's or whoppers or whatever, it's their own damned business.
Posted by: clarice | April 04, 2009 at 03:25 PM
TM: The specific mood altering effects of marijuana seem to depend largely on how you feel before that first drag. Back in the pre-warming era, my own anxiety and trepidation mostly hinged on getting caught. A decade latter, cooking up a storm with friends out west, it was a far more congenial experience -- and one with a far more reliably positive end result than breaking out the booze at dusk.
happyfeet: LOL! Jerks will be jerks under any circumstances. The flip side is that we won't have to listen to the jerks protesting that they didn't inhale. I'll second your individual liberty stance. I'd just add that legal alcohol and illegal marijuana = cognitive dissonance of the first order.
I see a separate set of downsides when people end up tapping into an illegal trafficking network to buy it. That's the real gateway. I also believe that teens are going to self-medicate and experiment with risky behavior, one way or the other, whether it's sex, drugs or rock 'n roll. If we can't inculcate some sense of responsibility in them by age 18, we shouldn't be giving them guns and sending them off to war. Raising drinking ages to 21 is just another form of statist infantilization -- expecting government and law enforcement to take up the slack for our collective failure to cultivate adult behavior.
Posted by: JM Hanes | April 04, 2009 at 03:28 PM
My bad Clarice. My suggestion to charge exorbinate taxes on fast food is not about "fat people" as much as it is about avoiding exorbinate taxes as I do not eat at the FF's. Don't drink or do drugs either, maybe I'm on to somthing just charge people taxes on products I don't use. Makes sense to me.
Posted by: tonynoboloney | April 04, 2009 at 03:37 PM
I'm sure you're right, TM.
But then we can add the pot smoking classes to those which teach whatever they do with cucumbers and condoms in schools these days.
Works so well--what was the figure? FORTY PERCENT of the babies born last year in the USA were born out of wedlock.
So, I am sure the smoke pot responsibly program will work.
Actually, I think we cannot find a way better than responsible parents to raise responsible kids so the die is unfortunately cast. Responsible children will be picking up the cost for irresponsible onws unless we get sick of all this folderol and tell people they are responsible for the consequences of their own stupid behavior, and except for charitable institutions, people who abuse alcohol or drugs or are unemployable because uneducated or who have kids they can't afford are just going to have to manage on their own.
Posted by: clarice | April 04, 2009 at 03:44 PM
Reefer madness? boloney, tony.
Posted by: JM Hanes | April 04, 2009 at 03:45 PM
Killing the government monster is best done by starving it to death.
No taxes, no new taxes.
Prop 13 worked well for a while. It forced a cap on spending. Commiefornia squirmed by "inventing" imaginary revenue to justify spending until 30% of the budget was spending without actual revenue. The wheels came off first in income tax shortfall in the dot com crash, and now with both that and property tax shortfalls.
screw 'em! Let the greedy b/tards fail. This must end or they will enslave us to their socialist wheel.
In Washington the problem is magnified. They have spent, loaned, and guaranteed the entire $12 trillion GNP! We need a balanced budget amendment. It was the same over spending with Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter...
Posted by: torabora | April 04, 2009 at 05:37 PM
No,I am Pot-acus and I am everywhere
Posted by: A.W. Patterson | April 04, 2009 at 05:59 PM
maybe I'm on to somthing just charge people taxes on products I don't use. Makes sense to me.
Of course it does. Translation: Government should regulate other people, not me.
Posted by: PD | April 04, 2009 at 06:26 PM
"C'mon people, loosen up. The worlds not ending, the markets will be fine, and Obama,as big of a jack-ass as he is, isn't gonna be the end of this great nation."
Nice bit o' optimism there, Nostradamus, but what makes you so sure?
In 1940, the Germans thought the world was their oyster.
In 1860, predicting a cataclysmic civil war would have gotten you laughed out of any respectable New York drawing room.
If you'd predicted in 1914 that, five years hence, Nicholas II, of Russia, and his family would be shot and hacked to pieces, and his country henceforth ruled by a goateed cafe revolutionary guided by the scribblings of an obscure German, you'd have been committed to an insane asylum.
Capisce, paisan?
Posted by: MarkJ | April 04, 2009 at 11:19 PM
Years ago our local YMCA had a Christmas tree with pledges from members to contribute money helping local unwed moms.
As I was adding my gift a prominent local OB/GYN doctor's wife announced her opinion that people ought to have a license to have a child. Obviously I've not forgotten that moment or the irony.
Posted by: glasater | April 05, 2009 at 03:19 AM
Well, I'm 49 and just gave it up this past year. For legal reasons. I"m not happy about it, but I've found that I dont' miss it. But you know what? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it's stupid. It doesn't matter if it's not healthy. It doesn't matter if it costs a fortune.
All that matters, is it's none of the government's business what any adult chooses to do as long as that adult is not harming the rights, liberty, or property of another person. Our country doesn't recognize the constitution anymore. Even bright people just skim right past that huge elephant when discussing this issue.
Bottom line, if I'm drinking, and I crash into somebody, I need to pay a real heavy price. If I'm smoking pot, same thing. Cocaine, same thing. Heroin, same thing. Yeah, I'm saying it all should be legal. It's all about individual rights and responsibility. Let's make people pay for real crimes.
Posted by: Donald | April 05, 2009 at 08:36 AM
The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride f*cking with you. F*ck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps.
485a988b2f8e4a5d0988a55e2b9120b8
Posted by: Armani | April 06, 2009 at 08:31 AM