While in Amsterdam I went to some coffeeshops (i.e. hash dens). How bizarre for me, an American who’s been puffing pot regularly since 1975, to sit outside a nice ‘shop off the Liedesplein in a nice chair, with a nice cup of coffee and puff on the joint that I’d bought for 3 euros (about $5.25) with cops standing 20 feet away and not panic. Good smoke too.

A few days later I went to a smartshop and bought some mild magic mushrooms. 8 to a carton; I followed the dealer’s advice and took half. I hopped on a train to The Hague (beautiful, I really want to go back for a more extended visit) and, while on the train, the ‘shrooms kicked in. After arriving, I went to the glorious Mauritshuis and looked at Vermeer’s, Rembrandt’s and other Dutch master paintings while tripping. Before I left, I went to a bathroom stall, took the other half, waited a bit outside at the amazing Hofvivjier (Water Court) park while waiting for the second batch to kick in and then went to the M.C. Escher museum. I was back in the ‘dam by dinner, smoked the rest of the joint while walking through the Museumplein park and went to the Van Gogh museum. An amazing day I’ll always treasure and the best part: not a whiff of paranoia about being busted. As long as you’re not loud, obnoxious and stupidly fucked up, they *don’t care*.

Maybe one of these centuries, America will stop being Puritain assholes about pleasure. As Morrissey croons, “Oh very nice, very nice, but maybe in the next world, maybe in the next world….”

People forget how pervasive alcohol was throughout early American history. Part of it was because it was a means of converting their crops to cash in the easiest way possible (Whiskey Rebellion, anyone?), but also because it was a way to attack the blues that sometimes can come with the rigors of being an individual (a very American concept, individual rights and responsibilities), and with that, the feelings of failure that can come with not being able to achieve the goals you might want to achieve. After all, you only have yourself to blame under such a model, right?

And it’s no coincidence that most of the American temperance organizations were organized and led by women, who were usually using drunk, dissolute husbands as an example of the evils of strong drink. Alcohol equaled the creation of a weak character, or worse yet, the facilitation of making a weak character worse. And that, in turn, could lead to the destruction of a family.

I think a lot of the pro and con perceptions regarding alcohol transferred over to marijuana over time, especially with the outbreak of Prohibition, then, later, it’s end. Instead of images of dissolute drunks, we’re now more likely to see images of dissolute stoners. (Think about that – have you ever seen, for example, a pot-based version of Nick and Nora Charles? Fully functional people, yet happily making recreational drugs part of their daily lives?)

Add to that such foolishness as a Federal ban on funding for research to determine such things as what the long-term effects of smoking marijuana are, if any, and you have a situation shoehorned into place by a refusal to see beyond the facade for fear of giving countenance to being a “weak person”. (And I say this as a person who’s never used recreational drugs or even done much alcohol.)

My two bits…

So I guess my question is: Why is pot illegal, exactly?

I’m gonna go with big pharma not being able to monopolize it, and lobbying politicians to keep it illegal.

How many plants were left when your landlord returned with the shovel?

Well, I couldn’t say for sure, but it looked like that unicorn ate about a dozen or so plants while he was gone.

To put the stats in context, though… that 600% increase in likelihood of schizophrenia? The average person with no family history has a 2% (roughly) likelihood of developing schizophrenia. 600% is a massive increase, but it still only leaves that average person at a 12% likelihood. Still, stats are a bit bogus when used this way…. the person who develops schizophrenia doesn’t give a damn what the stats said, believe me.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the prohibition and war-on-drugs shit when it comes to pot does more harm than good. It’s near impossible to target people with family histories of mental illness and signs of childhood pre-schizophrenia when there’s this insistence that we pretend pot is evil and awful for everyone. Many people can use it without problems… just some people shouldn’t touch the stuff. Try slotting that into an awareness campaign that won’t be shouted down.

Not that there’s anything wrong w/being a wine or pot connoisseur, and there’s definitely a difference between an aficionado and a snob for both. Enjoying your hobby is fine and dandy, but the people who look down on others who happen to drink PBR or smoke whatever they happen to be able to get their hands on are insufferable for so many other reasons.

I’m kind of wondering why they decided to switch to pounds from kg, if that indeed is the source of the “missing” 8 pounds. After all, such news stories are often meant as scare stories, and what could possibly be more scary than drug dealers, other than drug dealers who use the metric system? (Really, what better way to imply that scary foreigners are behind the whole thing?) Esp. since most Americans don’t have a good grasp on the conversion factors, and are just as likely to think that 450kg is a helluva lot more than almost 1000 pounds?

I wish I had tried marijuana when I had the chance.

Unless you’re dead, I don’t think it’s ever too late to try marijuana.