By: Ernie Hurt
Inhale….Hold it…..Exhale……
Pot,weed,cannabis,smoke,chronic,that keisha cole,bud,dank,good good,reefer,Indo,buddah, so many names for it. So many people for it, so many people against it. Im talking about marijuana,hemp,dat piff,mary jane,cheeba. I feel like most that will read this may be “down” with the current state of Cannabis in contemporary America.
Pot is a drug, at least to the great gods of ye White House. States have legalized the medical and recreational use of pot but Big brother can still smack that ass on its own discretion. I picture sickly, mangy beast huddled around some red telephone wearing DEA shirts.
They sit snarling amongst each other brimming with excitement for their next bust. Waiting for that red phone to blaze alive with a call from a rat… squeaking a cryptic message that will send the group into a loud angry frenzy… Someone is growing pot!!!
For those who may not be weed savvy, cannabis was used as a medicine in ancient China some 4000yrs ago. Ancient civilizations,’ to many to count, have come and gone while cannabis remained a sacrament, a medicine and a main staple of everyday people’s lives.
The Great Prohibition began as a way to keep white youth from the weed toking habits of the Mexican immigrants and stoned-to-the-bones black jazz musicians.
It all started with good old Government trickery. You could grow marihuana as it was called by Mexican farmers, then transport your crop to the U.S. capitol and buy a tax stamp…
Simple, yet dubious (no pun intended), it was a felony to travel with said marihuana. And so began 70+ years of up and downs regarding legality of Cannabis. Millions arrested, billions ticketed and trillions hassled for no more than smoking a plant. A plant like tobacco or opium. As opium has fallen off as a smoked plant in most of the civilized nations, tobacco has a firm foot hold in the lives of Americans far and wide.
I tried tobacco as a youngster of 7 or 8. My parents both smoked. My dad preferred Marlboro reds in a box and my mother enjoyed the Salem 100 in a soft pack. I haven’t smoked a cigarette in nearly 2 weeks in my latest battle with tobacco. Not the first and knowing me, not the last.
My experience with pot began sometime before puberty with the assistance to an uncle out on parole and a few misplaced roaches. For the straight readers that may read this piece, I mean a “reefer butt” or unfinished marijuana cigarette. I ran across a couple of old High Times magazines during this strange, mostly forgotten time of my life which showed me that the evil, addicting plant from the multiple D.A.R.E classes of the time could be enjoyed with responsibility, and in most cases enhanced life.
I tucked that thought deep into the depths of my mind. A couple years after my uncle went back to the penitentiary, I was volunteered to help a new family move into there new home a couple houses down from ours, in a peaceful Cleveland neighborhood. I say family but in reality it was a well employed woman and her Ex con boyfriend.
When I say ex con I mean no negative connotation, as many of my best friends and inspirations in life have been ex convicts. She worked while he held down the fort. As I was carrying a box up the stairs to their new apartment, I spotted a bong! I didn’t believe nor could I have imagined seeing a bong let alone carrying one. Despite being ex hippies, my parents held firm on the belief children should hold no stake in the drug culture. Other than a couple parties we attended when I was young I wasn’t to be exposed to drugs according to my mother.
After I broke the ice about the pipe, he opened his book of stoner knowledge to me. Over the many foggy years to pass and decades seem to have become nothing but short glimpses from a poorly written book. I sit and reflect with another hit from my pipe, on the current and recent past’s of cannabis use and I cringe. Maybe I was geared towards pot from embryo, maybe it was a way to rebel such as most youth does.
I know I’m not alone in the world of pot advocates, as the voting in quite a few states will show you. When will the Government just give up the “War On Drugs”?
I understand that humanity need to have differing opinions, conflicting views… But may I reiterate it’s a plant.. nothing more nothing less.
Coming from the “Just Say No” generation I ponder on how I will deal with the drug issue with my own son. Will it even be an issue or will he overlook it on his path to adulthood. I know quite a few 13-17 year-olds that live in my area of Ohio that are daily smokers, could my son fall in with this group in which I was a part of… I guess ill cross that bridge when I get to it… but for now I tap the ashes out of the pipe and take a short pause for the troubled, misunderstood plant known as schwag, dro, hydro, fire, da bomb, funky stuff, good shit… kush… haze…
