How to win the drug war

[Prophet 451]

Y'know, someone should start campigning on pot. Seriously, single-issue campaign, "Elect us and we'll let you buy a spliff in your local liquor store". Take the voter registration drive around college dorms, Walmart parking lots, clocking off time at Burger King... I swear, man, every stoner and slacker in the country would vote for you, they'd be lining up to register as voters. That guy buying Zig-Zags and a turbo dog from a gas station at three in the morning? Yeah, you know he'd vote for it.

I figure that we can probably count on virtually all of the 18.5 (or thereabouts) million regular stoners right there. Then you just add a second tier with standard liberal policies and presto, you've got the votes.

Now, yeah, I know politicians are terrified of being called "soft on drugs" but pot isn't a drug anyway. It grows on bushes, you dry it, chop it up and smoke it, cook it or make tea from it. Make tea from it? That's not a drug, that's a fucking condiment. And think of the marketing. OK, the drug companies would hate it ("No, Mrs. Cratchett, don't use the cheap, easy-to-grow natural substance. Use our highly addictive expensive pill that doesn't even work as well") but can't you just see the food industry getting into it. Staag Chilli, now with a new hash-flavoured variety. Would you like your hemp juice with or without pulp? McDonalds could add it to their burgers, be more fun than that couple slices of gherkin they put in everything and since everyone would eat them and start craving munchies, more sales! Now, granted, you might have a problem with staff eating all the product. I gather McDonalds gives it's staff free meals (which is good 'cos on their wages, you can't afford to eat anyplace else) but the poor bastards are so overworked and underpaid, they never get my order right anyway and at least they'd smile if they were high.

Those problems in schools? We got all this fear about juvenile crime, start feeding your kids hash cakes. Drunk young men smash each other with glasses; stoned young men eat Mars Bars, watch re-runs and giggle. I'm not seeing much threat to society there. And they're no problem if they do turn violent. Ever see a stoned guy try and have a fist fight? It's like watching a Weeble, you can't even remember where you left your fists, never mind hit somebody. Oil? Who needs fucking oil? You're in no fit state to drive anyway, just sit your ass down and watch Scooby-Doo. No more health-care problem either, cannabis is the new wonder drug. It's been shown to help treat conditions as serious as Multiple Sclerosis and as minor as insomnia, so why doesn't the pharmaceutical industry lobby for it's legalisation? Because they can't patent it. Cannabis is a weed and an especially virulent one at that, it'll grow pretty much anywhere and it's quite hard to stop it growing once it's started. It'll grow in your windowbox, your back garden or behind your trailer and it's real easy to prepare too. You just stretch it out under a heatlamp for a while. A proven treatment that anyone can make? That's far too simple, where's the profit in that? And war? Forget war. If the world got stoned, there would never be another war. There'd just be this gigantic smoke-up, Rizla, Zig-Zag and Zippo would become the new cornerstones of the global economy. You see Bush and Ahmedinajad rattling their sabres at each other. Seriously, just roll those guys a joint and play some Pink Floyd (Music would improve too: My parents got the Stones, the Doors, the Beatles and Pink Floyd. We got Michael Jackson followed by Britney Spears. We wuz gypped). By the time they've finished the bowl, Ahmedinajad's offering to share the oil and Georgie's wondering why he spent so much money on coke.

That's the solution: Not less pot, more pot. Of course, fashion might be a problem.

[Webster Green]

1. Got my vote!........(hold the stereotypes though)

I get more done stoned than most people do straight. Pot does not make me lazy.

I never leave the house without rolling a joint for the road. Pot does not put me "in no fit state to drive".

However....I do get the munchies.

Legalize!

[Prophet 451]

2. Yeah, I know

I know most of the sterotypes are bullshit, I'm just playing with them here because it gets a laugh. People are more likely to listen to what you have to say if you can make them laugh with it.

[madokie]

29. everything I have done these last 39 some odd years is while I was partaking

of the weed. pretty damn good at what I do too if I do say so myself

[EST]

3. Hey, Tommy, where 'ya been?

(This is Tommy Chong, right?)

[Prophet 451]

4. 'Fraid not

This is just me, sat at my desk in England, firing off random thoughts under the influence of nothing but cigarettes and way too much coffee.

Although being compared to Tommy Chong is REALLY flattering. Cheers.

[alfredo]

5. I know Republican stoners. They are economic Reps, not religious.

They got their Republicanism from their parents.

[tridim]

7. AKA Ron Paul supporters.

And after he loses the primary we should work to bring them over to our side.

[alfredo]

8. Not sure if they follow him because of his social/economic issues or his

war stance.

[SergeyDovlatov]

24. similar to the wife of Prince of Pot Marc Emery?

Image is too graphic. I had to put an extra t in http to prevent showing the image by default.
Definitely not an attempt to appeal to traditional social conservatives.

;)

htttp://a919.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/83/l_6971168fffde0fa2165fb5cf8329c85e.jpg

[dkofos]

31. YUM dessert!!

[Prophet 451]

33. Get in line n/t

[Lyric]

6. I don't think I've ever heard you speak about this topic

Which is surprising, 'cause I thought I'd had at least one discussion with you about *every* controversial issue at some point or another.

Hi, btw! :hi: :yourock:

[Prophet 451]

9. Hi yourself

I don't think we have discussed this one but never mind, you just read my opinion (and I haven't smoked pot in over a decade).

[Lyric]

10. It's been about 10 years for me, too.

I seriously think that the paper industry (particularly Hearst) is largely to blame for the criminalization of cannabis. Hemp is incredibly useful, easy-to-grow, it replaces itself a LOT faster than trees, and paper made from hemp is stronger and more durable. It was a threat to business.

I bet if George Washington knew that the government had banned hemp, he'd be rolling in his grave.

[Prophet 451]

11. Not just paper

There's a multitude of things that can be made from hemp. Paper is an obvious one but you could also add:
Basic nutrition (gruel is made from hemp seed), textiles (more hard wearing than cotton too), paint, cooking oil. Oh, there's no limit to it and that's leaving out the MASSIVE amount of money teh pharmaceutical industry had to gain.

[Lyric]

13. Oh, I know.

Eventually we'll have to start growing hemp again, because we're going to run out of trees. Sad but true.

[Prophet 451]

16. It would be nice if we caught on before that n/t

[EST]

14. !

And just what, pray tell, would he be rolling in his grave?

[dkofos]

34. A big FATTY

[Solon]

12. I agree 100%, and I only smoked weed twice, not counting contact highs...

I'm a happy drunk, and, as far as I could tell, the effects on me were the same for both, I relax, lay back, and laugh at everybody and everything. So that would be my "drug of choice" so to speak, though I haven't been drunk in quite a few years now.

[EST]

15. Hell gettin old, eh?

[Prophet 451]

17. Aren't we all?

Dunno about you but I'm looking forward to being a bitter old fart. The freedom to be incredibly rude to anyone I like, harass people to let me sit down on the bus and hit guys with my walking cane when they pissed me off.

I'm really looking forward to it, the last of the punk pensioners, studded jacket that reads "SENILE DELINQUENT"

[EST]

18. Heheh!

Of course, if it turns out that you are stricken with arthritis or something else nasty and can't swing a cane and have to sit around in a wheelchair while dogs piss on you, all you are left with is bitter.
I guess a little smoking hemp about then would be a comfort.

[Prophet 451]

21. Yeah dude, hook me up

Just strap this big hash burner under my wheelchair like an oxygen tank. Run a tube up the side and I'll sit there puffing on that thing like a hookah.

[Solon]

20. Actually, it was more a matter of economics and interest...

First, I can't drink carbonated beverages in general, this has been true since childhood, which was annoying when going to friend's houses and all they had was Coke or Pepsi. I would get severe hiccups and/or an upset stomach. So you can imagine what beer does to me, especially American beer, let's just say it isn't pretty, and that's on the first half of can of beer. So, generally, what I drank was hard alcohol, Vodka, Tequila, etc. It wasn't an everyday thing, but a party thing, my friends and I would have a house party at one of our houses and crash there as well. This was a strict rule, everyone left their keys in a jar, on top of the fridge, and no one leaves the house until the next morning.

Oddly enough, I did the hardest partying, and drinking, before I was 21, most of my friends were around 21, I was 18 or so, and they would bring the alcohol. Anyways, interestingly enough, AFTER I turned 21, about 6 months afterwards, I stopped drinking on a weekly basis. I could say it lost its allure, but I don't think that's it, just lost interest, I soon enough became a designated driver at the parties, and to be honest, I still had fun because I could make fun of everybody who acted stupid at these parties. The economics part came from my alcohol tolerance level, which was quite high, basically I'd have to spend well over 20+ dollars to get drunk, and that was simply too expensive.

Since about the age of 22, I only drank occasionally, and generally it was at some parties, or during holidays, and even then it was pretty mild. A few glasses of wine, maybe a screwdriver, whatever. In fact, the most recent time I got drunk was about 3 years ago now, it was at my apartment with my buddy Dave, and my best friend and roommate Lanetra all hanging out at the apartment getting drunk and playing Scrabble. We're all dirt poor, but Dave's dad makes his own wine, pretty good stuff too, and Dave brought a case over, and we ended up finishing it that night. My most vivid memory of that night was when Dave was talking about a previous girlfriend of mine or something and then backhanded my knee, making a joke or something. I just started giggling, non-stop, for over a half hour, it wasn't even about the joke, I think, but the backhand. Good times. :)

[EST]

30. Strange the way life works.

I was twenty five before I took up drinking and twenty seven before learning to inhale smoldering drugs other than nicotine.
I no longer imbibe, not because of any particular strengths on my part, I have just lost the taste for it. I tried three cans of beer last spring a year and a half back. The other three are still in the fridge. I think there may be some everclear floating around here somewhere-a leftover from a lot of keyboard cleaning, when such things were necessary. There's some rum-my wife drinks a shot or two a month-and that's it.
I almost feel I've let the boomers down.

Since becoming disabled, my need for pain mitigation has necessitated a steady stream of poppy derivatives, all of which have really nasty long-term effects. It is a real pity that governmental types are so poorly informed and feel the need to say yes to everybody, particularly those who don't see things my way.

[Prophet 451]

32. With you there

I was a semi-pro wrestler at one point. Know what forced me out? Addiction to narcotic painkillers (painkiller abuse is even more epidemic in wrestling than steroids).

And that stuff is legal! Admittedly, the way I was getting it was illegal but the thing itself is legal. You can become physically addicted to opiate derivatives in under a month. Meanwhile, the completely natural, cheap and easy to grow herb with a billion useful effects and a pain-relief record going back to the dawn of civilization is banned (and you have to smoke loads for ages to be addicted to it).

Most of us don't really notice because we're used to it but how fucked up is it that we're forced to use the highly addictive, less effective substance?

[EST]

35. Stranger, even.

I had a mortal fear of hookedness, necessitating a lot of worried conversation with caregivers. Turns out they're right. When the pain is general and severe enough, for me, at least. there is no indication of addiction or even dependence. I just hate the stuff. Trying to get anything accomplished with a head so dizzy and non functional is too difficult and debilitating.
I make my prescriptions last for several months and, with as good grace as I can manage, accept the pain that I can't alleviate with nsaids and home created pain remedies for considerable periods of time.

I wouldn't say that alkaloids are less effective than herb, but their power is also their shortcoming. A bulldozer does a poor job of sweeping the floor.
Maybe, after thirty years of fighting and resisting the various drug wars, there will be constructive change. I'm not, however, holding my breath.

[Prophet 451]

36. That's the weird bit

At the time, I was drinking like a fish too (locker room culture is incredibly macho) but I never had a problem with the booze. These days, I have maybe a beer every couple of months, enjoy it and think no more about it.

That's the really weird thing about humans. We've all met those guys who get drunk just from looking at a bar but I've known people go the other way too: Take packs full of opiates and never have a problem.

[Vincardog]

22. When we grow up and take over. Oh yeah too late. Great post

[TimBean]

19. The drug war needs to be ended yesterday

Not another day of this fucking facism.

[superkia]

23. Dennis Kucinich says that he would decriminalize marijuana.

Hes also against the patriot act and the attack on our constitution and rights by the government. He also wants everyone to have health care and wants to take the profit out of it, no other candidate wants to see the corporations profits hit, wonder why?

Pass the word to anyone that smokes the ri-ri!

[eridani]

25. Yep, pass it on

Dennis is right about everything except appearing on Faux Noise.

[Prophet 451]

28. I love Dennis

Dennis is one of those guys where I agree on almost everything and the stuff I disagree about is relatively minor. Right now, he is my preferred candidate by a LONG way. Even if Gore jumps in, I'd probably still support Kooch.

[Bennyboy]

26. This guy could be the spokesperson!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mVqzhKtsH5c Ha! ha! ha!

[Swamp Rat]

27. Throw seeds EVERYWHERE!

:D

[Prophet 451]

37. Hell yeah

That's the great secret. Cannabis will grow pretty much anywhere. Kids, plant some in your granny's flowerpots, head for your local park after it rains and chuck a couple handfuls around! Make the country green again!

[tridim]

38. One of the side effects of sensimilla.. No handfuls of seeds to throw around.

I like the general idea though.

[Romulox]

39. More triangulation: the Clintons are bigger drug warriors than any Republican

Yet another reason a Clinton/Guilliani ticket makes sense. :sarcasm:

[Prophet 451]

40. I'm still batting for Kooch

And it's actually not because of teh pot. I think the whole culture of politics has become a cult of worshipping wealth and free market uber alles capitalism. The only one who seems to see that and want to change it is Kucinich.