I’m in the midst of reading Cannabiz, a book about the new legitimate marijuana industry and the battle for legalization.
Now make no mistake, I’m in favor of full legalization of weed, mostly because I believe in Darwinism. People dumbing themselves down makes for less competition for the rest of us. And since they’re going to do it anyway, they can at least pay sales tax for it.
But in the introduction of this book it states, “The industry has begun to attract college graduates who are not only eager to be a part of what the regard as an exciting new enterprise, but who also view full legalization as comparable to the civil rights movement of the 1950’ and 1960’s.”
WHAT!!???
I don’t remember seeing a special bathroom for stoners.
I’ve yet to see a dead stoner swinging from a tree.
The KKK doesn’t stand for Ku Klux Kush.
You’re trying to tell me that the segregation and disenfranchisement of a group of people based on the color of their skin equates to a white guy with dreads whose best friend is a bong and a Big Gulp?
San Francisco, of course, is at the forefront of this stuff; a city that’s trying to ban cigarette smoking everywhere. Apparently second hand smoke is only dangerous if it doesn’t also give you a contact high. It’s like a bad ironic hipster t-shirt being played out on the national stage.
We’re not talking about medical marijuana here. Even this pro-weed book acknowledges that the medical argument is only a stepping-stone to full legalization. Stoners are saying, “I should have the right to get fucked up if I want to.” They’re DEMANDING the right to a leisure product!
That’s all well and good. But don’t compare it to the plight of a class of people that are discriminated against for something that they don’t have control of.
Are they going to have a march on Washington that has to stop at every 7-11 on the way? Sit-ins will probably work better. Getting high doesn’t really lend itself to a lot of effective marching, but sitting is all good.
And the big speeches… oh, the speeches… “I have a dream! A purple unicorn with the face of Bob Marley told me how to make a bong out of a crazy straw and one of those egg-shaped pantyhose containers. And he said, ‘Dude! The health of millions of already healthy people depends on having access to pantyhose bongs!’”
Comparing the Civil Rights Movement to the battle for legal weed is like comparing the Civil War to an arm wrestling match.
I imagine I may have more to say on this. I’m only on page 52.
Phil Johnson
http://www.RoadsideAttraction.com
I love the cliche’ picture you paint of a “stoner.” It helps me to hide among the masses who don’t smoke weed when you and the media portray pot smokers as such blustering imbeciles who can’t muster the strength to feed our ravishing hungers. Most marijuana smokers that I know don’t fall into any of those categories; instead they have degrees, work jobs, pay bills, and raise families. Instead of drinking a glass of wine or smoke a non-Cuban cigar, they choose to smoke a bowl instead. It is really not that much to ask.
The fact is that’s the way people think of marijuana smokers. I probably look more like a stoner than you do. Defying that public image is what it will take to get legalization. The problem is I know just as many smokers that fit that image to a T as those that don’t. And I’m sure you do too. Like I said, I’m for legalization because those that want to get numb will do it anyway. My problem is with this particular author likening it to the civil rights movement.