I don't know many, if any, habitual users of pot. The users that I've observed over the years were not the most impressive people, particularly when they were using. Maybe that is the source of my dislike of the drug.
Alaska legalized it for awhile, then retracted.
I agree that drug abuse should be viewed as an addiction and treated medically. Putting pot smokers in jail isn't a good use of our jail space.
It seems to me that if pot had redeeming virtues to the extent that you say it does, the mainstream community would be pushing for it, and it's not, at least to my knowledge. I'm not opposed to medical applications, if they follow the same standards that other medical drugs are required to follow.
There is a compound called thiram that nurseries sometimes put on forest seedlings in order to repel deer nibbling on them. It is chemically similar to antabuse, which is used to treat alcoholics. I understand that it makes a person sick if he ingests alcohol, thus preventing abuse. One time a contract tree planting crew I was inspecting thought the seedlings had thiram on them. (They didn't.) One of them suggested they might get sick by absorbing thiram from the seedlings. They all sat down, lit up a roach, and decided to walk off the job. I thought it was rather peculiar behavior, but I was not a bit surprised.
Tree planters run the gamut. I've planted a good many myself, now that I think of it. Many of them are fine people.
However, some characters I've known over the years bear mention:
Talking Tom. Tom looked like a college professor in dirty clothes. The entire time he planted trees he talked. To himself. Nothing he said made sense, so it's a good thing nobody was listening.
The Beast: Beast planted shirtless. It didn't matter if it was raining, snowing, sleeting, cold or warm, he was shirtless. And dirty. No dirtier at the end of the day than when he started it.
The Hoedads: The Hoedads were actually a contracting firm and may still be in business. They were mostly college age kids who spent their off hours being hippies. If it became warm, the women would take off their shirts and plant topless. If they had to pee, they took down their pants and peed. It didn't matter if I was standing there or not. Usually I was too busy to notice, but a conventional guy like myself couldn't help doing double-takes. Hoedads made liberal use of marijuana. I could usually smell it wafting up the slope. |
