It's All Going to Pot

 

Before departing this green Earth, country music legend Merle "The Pearl" Haggard (he had a minor stint in the NBA)He didn't, but what a life! teamed up with legend Willie Nelson to coin the catchy jingle, "It's all gone to pot." A country tune with groove , and a tongue and cheeck attitude about where our nation is today about legalized Marijuana.

The majority supports it.

I know that if you're like me growing up in Midwest Ohio you thought that the only people who smoked pot were musicians, burn outs,  and street performers. Bill Clinton, when running for POTUS Said he never inhaled.

Cue Dr. Evil "riiiiiiiggght"

I, as a small pubescent, learning about the dangers of hard drugs in Ohio sat through DARE classes in the early 90s.It had a song to it that I can remember being as good as a  Milli Vanilli number. This of course being after the suicide of Milli. Or was it Vanilli?

I digress.

I was taught, by the same people who watched Reefer Madness in high schools, that Pot was a gateway drug to hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. I was being told that if I tried pot, it would be a slippery slope to a harder life style of addiction. Yes, it was like they were telling me, "If you listen to the Beatles it was a slippery slope to the Sex Pistols!"

And everyone knows in America sex and guns DON'T mix.

Of course I grew up never really trying pot until I was 18 and for me, since you know, we are all chemically different, it didn't really spark my intrigue. I felt no need to run for political office. I didn't make a Sgt. Peppers album, nor did I become a writer for the show Beavis and Butt head. I instead felt like NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd and thought I was having a heart attack, True storyso naturally I occasionally tried it again and again, until finally I gave up.
Nope not for me. My calming down with come from over the counter legal meds that will help me fall asleep.

Instead, alcohol was the gateway for many a bad behavior and yet as I read the May 20th edition of my local paper, The Redmond Reporter on the front page is an article reporting the concerns about recreational pot shops in Redmond.

Just say No. Just say children

For those of you who are not from Redmond, Wa it's the ideal suburban town about twenty minutes from Seattle, home of the Microsoft Campus and a million small business in a two square radius with one way streets. The bike capital of the Pacific Northwest, it is also the Slow Lane Drive capital of the PNW.

As I read the article I always want to play Devil's advocate and listen to opposition. The problem I'm having is hiding behind the children narrative, as those who oppose legal Marijuana tend to do, doesn't make much sense in an America where pot is as assessable as an illegal movie download. Successfull comics like George Carlin said it right..
Child Worship

One of the fathers of three kids said in the article  that he has kids in middle school and they already have access to marijuana.
Ahhh Public School.
 I had to go to a private high school to see the harder drugs, but middle school is when I noticed the Ohio drug culture. (Lots of Primus t-shirts and old Grateful Dead shirts) Think mid 90's.

I get it.

Nobody wants their kid to be the next Keith Richards. (Well unless his paycheck is in consideration) but I've been in these legalized marijuana shops and if you're under age, they are harder to get into Coachella underage. (OK, bad example)
My point is that much like gay marriage, the American public, even those who don't personally smoke, see legalizing Marijuana as both safe and good for the economy.
Alcohol is responsible for more deaths and broken homes then any weed only related incident.
It's like saying the Beatles can be compared to the Monkeys.

Well hey, I'm not fooling around.
And I found a 'Day Tripper'.

 I wish the good residents of Redmond who oppose pot try and educate  themselves and their children about the drug.

Yes, you have to be 21 to buy it. As a father you can be real with your kids without having to come across as the Cheech to their Chong.
The truth is, since WA legalized recreational Marijuana they've generated more tax revenue then a Wesley Snipes audit and from what I hear they're funneling that money back into education. And for what you may ask?
For education about harder drugs.

Give me a stoner over a drunk any day.

In that catchy jingle I mentioned earlier both Willie and Merle get to the chorus with a whit and charm two aging pot smokers know to be all real having lived in America that prohibited the plant they see as liberation. Sounding like a cross between Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire and a cross of Snoop Dogg if he went country, the song fires upon the humor that is the illegality of a drug that's caused as many deaths as Cleveland Brown's Superbowl.

It's All Going to Pot
"Well, it’s all going to pot
Whether we like it or not
Best I can tell
The world’s gone to hell
And we’re all gonna miss it a lot."

In other words, there are bigger fish to fry and if Americans want to get fried?

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