A change is a gonna be coming with regards to the way pot is perceived

I don’t use marijuana, largely because I find the thought of smoking anything to be repulsive and I’m not thrilled about the concept of substances that alter one’s perception of the world around us.

PRITZKER: Backs 'home grow'

I want my senses at full power, and not altered into a haze. It’s not something I’d find relaxing.

BUT I’M ALSO realistic enough to know that many of the laws that exist to criminalize the drug’s use come from an ideological mentality that thought marijuana was only used by certain types of people – and harassment of those individuals was what the laws really were all about.

So we’re bound to have partisan political fights in coming years as we try to reach some realization that a person has some sort of right to get themselves stoned into oblivion. If they’re that stupid, who are we to really stop them.

After all, we did away with Prohibition decades ago. Some of those who argue vehemently about wanting to crack down on drugs will also argue one’s right to get themselves intoxicated beyond belief.

Then again, getting drunk is “cool” and a sign that one is an adult. While getting “stoned” is for hippie freaks still trying to live the Haight Ashbury lifestyle – failing to realize that truly trendy people are ridiculing them. Or if we’re talking about the more bigoted amongst us, we get the old allusions to jazz musicians (who were nothing but Negro ‘hopheads’) being the only people who get stoned.

From the Hippie perceptions … 

ALL OF THESE thoughts popped into my mind when I learned of Gov. J.B. Pritzker saying he supports the concept of “home grow.” As in the right of people to grow marijuana plants within their own homes for their own personal use.

With some of the state legislators who have supported measures to permit medical use of marijuana now talking about changes in Illinois law to allow for one to have their own pot plants in the house.

… to those of age-old prejudices … 

We’d have to stop thinking of the person with special lamps and ventilation systems set up in their closets to allow for marijuana growth (in part because the dark conditions can be prime and because of the lack of attention) as being some sort of criminal.

Those ads for the marijuana grow lights would take on a less-sinister connotation. Although I’m sure the ideologues amongst us will forevermore view it as their life’s mission to keep such changes in perception from ever fully taking place.

… to the ludicrousness of certain Mexican cinema

AS FAR AS the legislative process in Illinois is concerned, officials are contemplating a measure that would let people have up to five marijuana plants in the home. Similar to how possession of a tiny amount on one’s person is now considered a minor offense worthy only of a small fine.

Some states that already permit “home grow” allow more, with Michigan law permitting people to have up to a dozen plants in their homes.

In short, nobody is talking about allowing someone to convert the entire basement into a dark, dank pot farm of sorts.

I use that particular image because of a personal, of sorts, experience. When one of my grandmothers died and the family ultimately sold off the house in which she lived at the end of her life, we got our shock a few years later when we saw the house on the television news.

IT TURNS OUT the new owners bought the home because they liked its big, huge basement already broken up into several rooms, and turned those rooms into a sophisticated operation for the growing of marijuana.

I wonder what my grandmother would have thought of the idea of a police raid at her one-time home. But then again, I seem to recall those new owners paid cash up front for the home. It’s no wonder. Business must have been good.

Will its gags become obsolete?

But for those people who want to retort to all of this that marijuana legalization or decriminalization of any sort is an encouragement to inherently criminal activity, I’d argue that it only takes on its criminal essence because we make it so. Making such changes in law might actually undermine the ability of criminals to make money off drugs. Taking away the financial incentive would go a long way toward reducing crime.

Then again, it would make the old Cheech and Chong film “Nice Dreams” seem obsolete – future generations might not get the gag of the scene where the namesake characters were growing marijuana in their swimming pool, with a pool cover meant to make it appear from the air that the pool was filmed with water.

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Everybody wants to believe everyone ought to be just like themselves

Megyn Kelly, the blonde babe news anchor for Fox News Channel, is getting more than her share of ridicule on the Internet these days for her statement on air this week that both Santa Claus and Jesus Christ were white.

Believe it or not, I’m not about to join in the abuse. Yes, it’s a nonsense-thought to have when you think about it.

YET I DON’T doubt that many a person just perceives things this way. It’s that instinct amongst us that everybody has to be just like us. Otherwise, maybe it means there’s something wrong with themselves.

That is what makes the modern-day reality of the 21^st Century in our society so scary for some – we’re not all alike. Nor should we have to be.

We’re at a point where we ought to quit thinking of the concept of a “Black Santa” as some sort of joke, and maybe a recognition of what we all are. Besides, we all ought to realize that Santa Claus is a Latino, flying around the skies in a sleigh pulled by reindeer fueled with “Magic Dust” (or so said Cheech Marin of the Cheech & Chong comedy team).

For Kelly to want to perceive Santa as a fat old white man is just a realization of who she is. Anybody who’s surprised that she’d think that way is the one I would want to question.

WHAT ELSE WOULD you expect from her?

Actually, my initial reaction when I learned of Kelly’s comments (which were in response to a commentary published at the Slate.com website and written by a black woman who wrote about being confused as a child because Santa in her house was black, while he was white everywhere else) was to recall a moment from my own college days.

One day in a class where we were engaged in a conversation either about Aristotle or Plato (I’m not sure exactly which one), somebody made a comment in support of the philosopher and referred to his “Christian” values.

 

To which the professor tried to hold back a laugh when he explained that the philosopher in question was not of any religious faith that could be called “Christian.”

THAT STATEMENT PROVOKED a debate amongst the students that took up the entire rest of the class session.

“Of course he’s Christian,” some students said. “We wouldn’t study him if he weren’t Christian,” others wanted to believe. “He’s a good person, so he has to be Christian,” was also heard.

There were some students who were not in agreement, and even tried arguing back that the words “Christian” and “good” and “moral” were not necessarily synonymous with each other.

Not that any of the initial group wanted to hear of it.

PERSONALLY, I RECALL that day in class as one of the most humorous moments of my academic life. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that others probably viewed it as some sort of moment when they were exposed to subversive thought.

Just like I’m sure that some people probably want to view the idea of a non-White Santa Claus as violating everything they want to believe about our society.

I ultimately came to realize that “Santa Claus” is about a concept – one of sharing and giving, which is what the upcoming Christmas holiday can be at its finest. (At its worst, it’s nothing more than a greedy gift grab – but that’s a commentary for another day).

If some people feel the need to believe that “sharing” and “giving” are concepts only relevant to themselves, then perhaps they’re saying more about their own hang-ups, and we should pity them for being so close-minded.

BESIDES, DIDN’T THE whole concept of Santa Claus and Jesus being either “white” or “black” get resolved all those decades ago by the “Archie Bunker” and “Henry Jefferson” characters on “All in the Family.”

 

At least when actor Carroll O’Connor’s Bunker character persisted in claiming that both Jesus and Santa were white, he was just going for a cheap laugh!

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Governor makes up mind on medical marijuana – bad jokes bound to follow

I fear we’re going to have to dig up our old VHS copies of Cheech and Chong films – along with having to put up with the rants of the socially-conservative-minded ideologues who desperately want to believe that MARIJUANA!!! is some sort of liberal, hippie-freak drug that no sane person would ever want to touch.



QUINN: Digging up his bill-signing pens?

I write that because it seems that Gov. Pat Quinn is going to take action on Thursday that will make it possible for people to gain a prescription, of sorts, to use marijuana as part of their treatment for assorted medical conditions.

HIS PUBLIC SCHEDULE for the day indicates two events – the latter of which is an appearance at the University of Chicago Center for Care and Discovery, where he will appear with “veterans and people who are fighting chronic illnesses.”

These are the people who think that the marijuana high helps them to cope with the pain of their various medical conditions.

That is a concept that infuriates the ideologues because they want to believe that marijuana has no medical purpose whatsoever and is just the way certain people flaunt their disobedience to morals and all that is “good” about society.

Which is a bunch of bunk. Some people have watched “Reefer Madness” way too many times!

PERSONALLY, I EQUATE the concept that marijuana has no possible useful purpose with those same medical professionals of decades ago who argued that homosexuality was a mental illness – we know better now, and should quit listening to the quacks of the past whose theories have been disproved with more research.

Now before anyone goes any further, I don’t have any medical condition for which a marijuana prescription would be useful. I don’t anticipate taking advantage of the bill that was approved by the General Assembly this spring – which would allow people to purchase up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana.

Provided, of course, that they get a prescription from a medical physician and who suffer from some three-dozen specified medical conditions.

In short, the spaced-out guy who gets pulled over by the police (causing the cop to catch a whiff of smoke) is still going to be in trouble with The Law. Although with more and more communities heading in the decriminalization direction, it seems that marijuana is headed the way of being treated like alcohol.

THE PEOPLE WHO take so much that it impairs their judgment can face legal problems – particularly if their impairment causes them to have an “accident” of some sort.

We’re not exactly at the forefront of this issue – Illinois will be the 20^th state to permit marijuana use under limited circumstances. I can’t help but wonder why it took the state so long to get around to this.

Although at least we’re not state number 48 or 49 to address this issue; that would be embarrassing!

Because while some people are determined to see some sort of cultural issue at stake, it really isn’t. Personally, I have known people of every political persuasion who want to get high – even including a few who like to believe they’re “strict law-and-order” types on everything else.

PERSONALLY, IT BOTHERS me (again!?!) to think that we have been denying some people medical relief from their pains – all because some people are desperate to cling to the image of aging hippies. Even though many of the biggest hippie-haters are probably toking up while also ranting.

So Quinn, barring any unforeseen change-of-heart, is likely to give his approval. And many of us will respond with the cheap druggie joke.

All I have to say is that if one does have to dig out a “Cheech and Chong” film to watch, go for “Up in Smoke.”

It’s not high art. But it’s about the only one of their films that has much of a story-line – while also giving us Cheech Marin’s take on his song “Mexican Americans.” It’s always worth a giggle.

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