(I've edited this post a little. It originally included a chart about the economic benefits of legalizing marijuana.The chart was added at the request of someone I hadn't heard from before, but the information seemed interesting enough, so I built the following post around it. But on second thoughts, there are just enough unknowns about the whole thing that I've decide I'd rather not put in a link to a website that is a bit puzzling to me. The discussion in the comment field had very little to do with the chart anyway, but I'm sure you can Google the chart if you miss it.)
But then last night I was at a party, and someone reminded me that today was 4/20. Even though I have heard of the date before, I am not insider enough to have it engraved on my brain that this is the big 'marijuana holiday'. This is the kind of holiday Santa Cruz really gets behind. The tradition, although personally I don't know how long it's been a tradition for, is that students and others head up to the Porter College Meadow to, uh, celebrate pot in some way. The police turn a blind eye unless things get completely out of hand. Which doesn't seem all that likely to happen....
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of marijuana. I don't really like its effect, either on myself or people I'm attempting to interact with. I don't mind the smell, but the stale marijuana smell that lingered in the halls of the last place I lived in bugged the hell out of me. I mention this only to show that, though I am far from being a stereotypic Santa Cruz stoner, I think it is completely absurd to criminalize this drug. A lot of unnecessary tragedy has resulted from treating cannabis, which undeniably has beneficial uses, as something worse than alcohol. Personally, I like alcohol. That doesn't mean that I think it deserves a status superior to pot. And we all know what happened with Prohibition. Don't we?
(To make up for the lack of the chart, I am adding this research I did on the whole beginnings of 4/20, which I dug into in response to Julie's comment below. Frankly, it's more what I do here anyway.)
Although at first I thought the origins of 4/20 would be obscured by rumor and legend, both Wikipedia and Snopes.com say there is a specific if unlikely source--it it all started in San Rafael, California in 1971. It was just a time designation that 12 high school kids used as a code for when they would meet up to smoke. Wikipedia says that the original code was "420 Louis", which meant to meet by a statue of Louis Pasteur. It also says that originally they were meeting not to smoke but to search for a rumored abandoned pot crop. It also suggests that the lingo spread from San Rafael courtesy of the wandering fans of the Grateful Dead.
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ReplyDeleteI wonder if the long, slow growth of acceptance of marijuana will yield the potent buds of decriminalization in our lifetimes.
ReplyDeleteNice pun, Peter. I think the worst thing about the current situation is that it leads to this kind of odd situation where normally fairly law abiding people find themselves breaking the law all the time. There's a kind of dishonesty attached to the whole situation, leading to presidential candidates having to tell lies that everybody knows are lies about never having inhaled. The whole medical marijuana idea, which has passed in California only seems to make the situation murkier, as of course a lot of people who just want to get stoned have to invent a medical reason for it, leading to cynicism on all sides. One of my friends is a city planner, and she says the current situation with ordinances and zoning is a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteNew Jersey has legalized medical marijuana but has had problems putting the law into practice.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could remember more specifically what the details were in the Bay Area, but I'm hearing echoes of it in that New Jersey story.
ReplyDeleteI think the story to which I linked mentioned earlier controversies: towns that vetoed clinics and dispensaries, a governor who was in no rush to see the law put into practice, etc.
ReplyDeleteYes, it did. I don't think these are quite the same issues in California, which seems to me to be largely pot tolerant, so I'm guessing the issues arise between the cities or counties and the federal government.
ReplyDeleteThat came into play in the New Jersey case, too, to the point where the Justice Department left it unclear whether it prosecute growers and sellers and then finally issued a statement that it would not, if I recall correctly.
ReplyDeleteHere is a pretty up to the minute article on the situation of legal marijuana in California.
ReplyDeleteIt reminded me that one of the issues my friend the city planner brought up is that all medical marijuana has to be grown on site here. But judging by the article, even "on site" is a hazy definition.
Once again, zoning has been an issie in New Jersey as well, with one set of advocates insisting that legal sites for growing medical marijuana be treated no differently from any other agricultural site.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't seem that the enactment of the law has been very well thought through anywhere.
ReplyDeleteEither that, or political timidity on the part of exectives after legislators have passed laws.
ReplyDeleteY'know, despite some of the most draconian laws in the world regarding not only marihuana, but also other substance use, the US is at the forefront of a lot of forward thinking ideas. That is at least a dialogue is being created and people are ready to start using the ballot box to affect real change.
ReplyDeleteMedical usage is good, but I would like to see it taken that one step further and have it completely decriminalised and eventually made just another cash crop.
Well done Seana...I agree with you and am of the same thought when it comes to ingestion...I can't handle it and end up a babbling wreck, but hey if people wish to use it for medical or 'medical' reasons, let them do it!
I do like the poster and its economic argument...very smart!
I wrote a rant on this a while back if you care to read it:
http://dansdirtbox.blogspot.com.au/2010/01/on-drugs.html
Dan, I enjoyed the 'rant'. I'm reposting the
ReplyDeletelink so that people can just click on it.
I've always thought the whole War on Drugs idea was very unfortunate, just as the idea that you can have a War on Terror is. I just saw a piece on one of the news shows the other night about how even the officials are now calling it a failed undertaking, but I suppose it is now a case of switching the perspective of the electorate which has been propagandized for so many years about it. Here's a link to a related piece by Bernd Debusmann. One quote for anyone who doesn't want to bother with the article:
By some estimates, the war on drugs has so far cost close to a trillion dollars. What has that vast expenditure bought? Very little. According to the government's latest "Survey on Drug Use and Health," more than 22 million Americans - nearly 9 percent the U.S. population - used illegal drugs in 2010, up from 8 percent in 2008.
Funny. I was at a meeting for all middle school parents the other day given by a drug counselor. He was prepping us on what's going on in the middle school drug culture, etc. He asked us if anyone knew what the number 420 meant. Not a single parent knew, including me. Then he explained that it was a euphemism for pot.
ReplyDeleteThree days later, Steven Colbert talked about 420 (to hilarious effect), and now you! I can't believe that I never heard of it before but now hear it almost once a day...
So...does anyone know how "420" came to be associated with marijuana?
Julie, yes, I think my trajectory of knowledge was similar to yours, although it was a few years ago now.
ReplyDeleteI didn't put the origins of the word in because it seems there are various legends around it, but in fact there is a clear source according to both Wikipedia and Snopes, and unlike your L.A. friends, you and I should probably both have known it forever because it all started in San Rafael, California in 1971. It was just a time designation that 12 high school kids used as a code for when they would meet up to smoke. Wikipedia says that the original code was "420 Louis", which meant to meet by a statue of Louis Pasteur. It also says that originally they were meeting not to smoke but to search for a rumored abandoned pot crop. It also suggests that the lingo spread from San Rafael, courtesy of the wandering fans of the Grateful Dead.
So yes, we should have heard of it through one of many sources, but in fact I never heard of it till a few years ago, when some of my younger coworkers were hip to the goings on up at campus. I mean, actually it even shows up in the newspaper here bcause there is always concern about controlling that large a group of people, but I just didn't pay any attention.
About 2000 people showed up this year, but partly because it was a very beautiful day.
Enjoyed the post and the commentary!
ReplyDeleteI see you're back from your retreat, Kathleen!
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked on the floor I administered marinol to patients with various ailments - completely legal to my knowledge. I always thought it was odd that it could be given in pharma form but that patients wouldn't be allowed to smoke it at home if they preferred. I'm not a conspiracy-believing type generally but I'm also aware there's money to be made if a certain substance is tightly controlled.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, funny we grew up in the 70's so close to San Rafael and I've never heard of the 420 before!
Ann
That's a nice little additional piece of information, Ann.
ReplyDeleteI think it's funny how none of us East Bayers were clued into this word. It wasn't like we'd never heard of pot. I guess Marin and Alameda Counties were a lot further apart back then than they are now.
You know, now come to think of it...our nephew Evan did tell me that story. When he was about 14. So I guess Idid hear about 420 5 or so years ago.
ReplyDeleteI always felt like Monterey Peninsula was a total pot culture, much more than East Bay. But that might have had to do with our nefarious friendships with the likes of Kevin and Michael from the place we three worked...("our" meaning the Graham sisters)
You know, now come to think of it...our nephew Evan did tell me that story. When he was about 14. So I guess Idid hear about 420 5 or so years ago.
ReplyDeleteI always felt like Monterey Peninsula was a total pot culture, much more than East Bay. But that might have had to do with our nefarious friendships with the likes of Kevin and Michael from the place we three worked...("our" meaning the Graham sisters)
Julie, a funny thing about all this is that I brought up this whole 'origins' story at a dinner I was at the other night, and my friend Tom asked, so how do you know this is true? I said, well, it was on Wikipedia and Snopes.com. He basically said, "So?" The whole thing got us talking about this kind of story and how we know what's real. I kind of assume that Snopes checks out its sources pretty carefully from other stuff I've heard, but Tom said "Has anyone interviewed any of these original "Waldoes" as they were called to hear their version of events?
ReplyDeleteWell, probably, but it's not in the reports I've read. So we still have what is basically lore.