The War on Drugs Marches On
Friday, June 25, 2010
Here in beautiful San Francisco one of our local newspaper, The Examiner, (once really good, now Republican.) is running a story about how our inner city kids have to walk by drug dealers to get to their school. The drugs being sold? Percodan, OxyContin, Vicodin, and for some of the older kids being held back, Viagra. That’s right, pharmaceuticals. Mommy’s and Daddy’s little helpers have made it to the streets, and how. And the City doesn’t know what to do? That sounds like a drug problem. I have six nephews under the age 20. Three of them are on some form of so-called legal drugs. Prescribed for them by their parents, no less. It’s amazing.
I know the kids these days are very hip to pills but my lord, there are so many different kinds and names. In my day we had about four or five pills to choose from and we were happy to have a choice between Tuinols and Sopars (Quaaludes). Today you have to a PDR in your Hello Kitty backpack to tell the little guys apart. Good Luck Kids!
This column has been missing in action due my recent trip to the Emerald Triangle. I am going to be doing this more and more. It was in that area that I learned my craft and the industry when I participated in the trade, back in the Eighties. As the WEED industry changes daily with new dispensaries opening up in California and elsewhere, and the demand becomes greater for product, we can’t forget the players who brought us to the dance in the first place. Everything happening today we owe to the pioneers in Northern California who took on the law, the weather and coaxed a black market business out of the shadows, creating what we have now. A society on the verge of Legalization.
While I was gone, an article I wrote was quoted by the SF Weekly concerning people I knew who were boycotting High Times Cannabis Cup that was held here a couple of weekends ago. The gist of my article was that by holding a Cannabis Cup in June, this prevents your outdoor grower from competing. While this competition did make my Emerald Triangle friends slightly perturb, it mostly, in my words, hurt their collective feelings. They felt really left out.
In the next couple of blogs, I am going to go into details about my trip north. The people I know and the ones I met for the first time. What is happening up there and of course, what they think their position will be after Legalization.
I think you can tell my heart is with the outdoor growers up north. I shall not hide that. I am a patient and purchase my medication from a dispensary. I am not against indoor growing. Indoor growing is saving Detroit and most of Northern California. While state and city budgets get sliced like roasted lamb on a spit, some smaller towns up north are being totaling subsidize indirectly, if not directly by growers.
We are in very heady times. The lure of cash and the chance to land on Boardwalk is very real for some Marihooey Merchants out there. As I’ve said before, the gold miners didn’t make any money. The storeowners did.
In some places we need to take baby-steps. In other areas we need to bust on down the doors of perception and show the straight world that heads can be responsible. Like getting high without running everyone off the road.
Also, many occasions in this column I fault Los Gangaleses for screwing it up for us in Northern California. Yesterday two dispensary workers were murdered in robberies. The close proximity of the two dispensaries and the same M.O. for both robberies makes me think they were done by the same people. D’uh. I feel really bad for the Marijuana Industry Workers who died, but I’m kinda hoping this is an isolated event. Not something we’re going to see more of in the future. Because L.A. is so expansive it is a different game down there, I get it. But L.A. is greedy and feels they deserve everything that they can get their little tinsel-tainted hands on. This makes it harder on the players that are trying to bring this issue in without too much blowback.
Violence can never be tolerated. We have to come together and make sure security is in place and that the dispensary is legal. Too many Pot Shops are invitation for trouble.
I don’t know how Tom Ammiano does it.
Finally I like to take this time to thank all my readers. I started with two, then it went to three and four, and the other day I broke a hundred for the first time. Please feel free to comment and tell me what interest you.
Once again thanks to all those in the Triangle in made my stay so perfect. Peace.
More Later.
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