Even if we don't think we do we all have an agenda about something. There will always be something we as individuals are passionate about and we want to share our knowledge for the betterment of mankind, or at least for the sake of a spirited argument. I once knew an old timer who had memorized every train that had run through his town since 1869. His wife couldn't care less about trains. She did love him, although sometimes while biting her bottom lip. Case in point, my son is fascinated with the Fast & Furious movie franchise. I tend to think that watching Vin Diesel try to act is painful. Watching the man try to act is the equivalent to watching paint dry. Any string of movie sequels has probably run out of fresh ideas if they have arrived at number ten. Call me weird. Do you remember that Vin was in Saving Private Ryan? NOPE, nobody does, and that's my point! The point is sometimes we agree to disagree simply for the sake of social and domestic harmony.
Not so many years ago a person who is very close to me came and stayed the weekend. When he left town, he anonymously left me a book titled "The Little Black Book of Marijuana." This book told you everything you ever wanted to know about weed, one might say it gave you the DOPE on POT. I apologize profusely about the punny dad joke, I won't let it happen again. Now I have had many conversations with this person about this subject and I am well-versed in their bias. It was chalked full of information, some of it useful, some of it not worth the dirt to bury it. But I stand by the old idea that you should never believe everything you read, excluding the 66 books of the King James Bible. I would never purposely mislead my readers. This is to say I'd never lie to you on purpose, but I have been known to stretch the truth like Silly Putty in the name of artistic license just for the sake of humor. Ingesting any text and buying it 100% without question or research is like the time granny gave me too much Castor Oil, it was 100% memorable but only 5% enjoyable.
On our last visit we discussed the fact that while so many individual states have been legalizing the devil's lettuce that it would likely just be a matter of time before the federal government will follow suit. We all know if they regulate it, they can tax it nearly into submission. However, the taxation rate for growers at the state level is already ridiculous, nearly 90%. The taxation rate on medical cannabis last year alone surpassed a billion dollars, yes, I said billion as in BONG. As we have all surmised by now, it doesn't matter if it is cotton, peanuts, wheat, or just hemp the government will figure out a way to get their cut.
Then came the portion of the book that we all knew was inevitable, the hippy portion. The quote I saw went something like this: "there is nothing like the full circle of enjoyment of putting a seed in the soil, watching it sprout, develop, reach maturity, and produce beautiful flowers that can be ingested." Well, the same can be said about carrots and potatoes, but you don't have to grind them up and smoke them. All you need is a saltshaker and an appetite. I find it interesting that people who partake in the funny green stuff these days tend to lean on the medicinal aspects of the weed. Whatever happened to the days when people who liked to get high simply did so because they liked it? It seems these days everyone is looking for an excuse. But we should never lose sight of the fact that smoking in any form isn't healthy. An iron lung holds no political or social bias, and cancer is an equal opportunity destroyer.
Within the book there was a study done by Dr. Vera Rubin. He claimed that Jamaican cannabis users worked even harder than non-users. I am not even sure just how one would go about doing such a study, but I'd like to point out three things. #1) Dr. Rubin is now dead, #2) the study in question was done fifty years ago, and #3) they had to travel 1,600 miles from home to prove their point. I have personally been to Montego Bay six times and a person can get a contact high just by stepping off the plane. Keith Richards owns a home in Ocho Rios because (and I quote) "the warm moist air helps his arthritis." Yea, that's his story and he is sticking to it. One would think that of all the people who need an excuse to get high Keith would be well past that phase. His name is practically synonymous with weed.
Now having hated on pot smokers I'd also like to pay them a compliment. If anything, they are VERY chill. You won't ever see a couple of dudes that have just smoked some "pink and wet" get in a scuffle. People who are high are too busy buying Visine, swilling Yoo-Hoo, eating chocolate donut gems, and laughing at topics that really are not all that funny to be ruthless or contrary. People who are high are always in search of the ultimate patty melt not anarchy. This is to say that their goals are lofty. They leave the fighting up to the Jack & Coke crowd. As a side note, once I got done reading the book in question, I had to slide it into a Ziplock bag and hide it in my tool chest in the garage as it smelled vaguely like Willy Nelson's tour bus. I wish I'd just made up that part of the story, but sadly I did not.
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