Turning Fears into Hope

This past weekend 500 reasonably sensible kids gathered at Fort Mason to participate in ‘Students for Sensible Drug Policy.” This is the 11^th conference of this kind that they’ve put on. Alongside with tours of Oaksterdam University and other dispensaries and patients group throughout the Bay Area, they had breakout discussion groups concerning all things Weed. These kids are the future. For the war on drugs, there’s nothing like articulate, sane, level-headed pro-Weedheads at the wheel. I’m going to be able to roll better tonight knowing the flame is being passed from one joint to another.

From Babes to the Woods...

As the air clears while we try to navigate the new rivers of Legalization and the new responsibilities of having our wonder crop finally at our reach without incrimination, we must take control of our issues before the Man does.

Weed has mostly had the guise as goofy, little potheads giggling and laughing at Air, or their stoned hands. We are seen as harmless and almost too stoned to get off the couch. If you’ve been in the business for the last forty years or so, you know that is not always true.

I started dealing at sixteen. Even then I saw a few handguns and maybe a shotgun or two, but never on display or for protection. Just for safety reasons, if you will. As the product got bulkier and we were now dealing pounds instead of ounces, I knew guys who were strapped but it was never a gansta thang. I know there has been violence associated with Weed since Day One, but that is the nature of a black market.

Here’s my point...

We in NorCal have known for years what is happening in our National Parks. Mexican gangs come in with machine guns, a kilo of beans and rice, and enough tubing and seeds for a plantation of illegal Weed. In the old days, rangers and hippies could walk through the Mendo woods worried mostly about human traps and the occasional warning shot. Now the gangs have bazookas and anti-aircraft armament. The rangers are flying overhead in gunships with fifty cals. This is not the hippie dream.

In the past ten days in Washington state, the violence surrounding Weed has been off the charts. A man in Tacoma died after trying to defend his Medical Marijuana plot on his property from people trying to steal his crop. In Seattle another man was shot trying to enter a suburban home, again, trying to heist someone’s legally grown MM crop. There are more accounts of violence in the Emerald State that can be found in the article below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/us/17marijuana.html?ref=us

There’s new crop of kids trying to do the right thing. Bring the issue of Weed to the mainstream in the most positive light. The general public’s support of either decimalization or flat out legalization is gaining ground every day. It behooves us to work with law enforcement individuals. That’s right, the cops, The Man, if that is what is needed.

We’re all on the same side in one way. The cops want to go home safe at the end of their shift and the Pot Smoker wants to smoke their Weed safely and free from being busted. The more we can do to bring those to realities together, the better we all will be.

We shouldn’t narc on the bad guys, but not close our eyes to them. Let us be as a nation like North Carolina is to tobacco. Let’s make it our business to get this legalize and into a business model we can all live with and still keep the world safe. No one should ever die over Weed.   

More Later...