Who’s REALLY going to wait ‘til turning 21 before taking a ‘toke’ of pot?

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed off Tuesday on the measure making Illinois the 11^th state allowing people to get themselves high on marijuana – if they so choose.

Will people take a toke for Gov. Pritzker … 

Under the new law, people ages 21 and over will be able to walk into properly-licensed dispensaries and buy small amounts of marijuana or marijuana-laced products for their own personal use.

THEY WON’T EVEN have to put up the pretense of having glaucoma or some other medical condition that would make marijuana use have a medicinal value.

Not that it means there won’t still be issues involved with marijuana use. Those people who want to view it as inherently a criminal act will still be able to get all bent out-of-shape.

Because the part of this new law that has always attracted my attention has been the provision of a minimum age. That’s 21! Which is a concept that I find ever-so-incredibly laughable.

Personally, I recall people being around 11 when they first insisted on taking a toke. Those inclined to want to be heavy users of marijuana usually were regularly (or at least as often as they could afford it) consuming it by about 14 or 15.

DOES ANYONE REALLY believe that people inclined to want to use the stuff really are going to wait until they turn 21?

Somehow, I suspect the age restriction is going to become one of the most-ignored laws we’ll have on the books. Just like the laws that say people aren’t supposed to have their first legal alcoholic drink until turning 21.

Will people start regarding their 21^st birthday as an excuse to not only have their first “official” beer, but also their first smoke? Unless they find quirks in the law – such as I did with regards to alcohol.

… when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's?

For my first legal beer came three days before I turned 21 – because I happened to be in the District of Columbia at the time, and the drinking age there then was 18. So they regarded me as having been legal for years, rather than waiting another three days before selling me that beer.

WHICH ACTUALLY TURNED out to be a rather anticlimactic moment, to tell the truth.

That could turn out to be a positive for marijuana use, to be truthful. Legalizing the product would take away the stigma that would make many people think they just HAVE to give it a try.

Or maybe we’ve just increased the desire of 12-year-olds to want to take a smoke to show how grown-up they are – even if all they’re really going to provide is that they’re as ridiculous as those pre-teen girls who wear too much makeup, or youthful boys who drown themselves in cheap cologne.

But then again, the old laws (which still technically apply until Dec. 31) added to the stigma of drug use to make many would-be adults behave like teenaged halfwits at the very thought of getting high. Probably thinking they’re as entertaining while impaired as Cheech and Chong at their 1970s peak.

PERSONALLY, I’M NOT going to be inclined to rush out and get a legal stash, largely because I find the habit of smoking anything to be grubby and stinky, if not outright repulsive.

We're not all funny like Cheech & Chong

But I also don’t doubt that offending the political sensibilities of people who wanted marijuana use criminalized because they liked the idea of certain types of people being harassed to be a worthwhile concept, in-and-of itself.

So for all I know, New Year’s Day may very well come about this year with many people feeling the urge to light up and get “stoned” right at the moment the countdown reaches zero and “Happy New Year.” Just don’t bother to invite me. I can’t think of anything more deadly dull than a pot party, with people drugged into a nonsensical stupor.

Besides, it would still be illegal because it’s unlikely the pot purchase would have been made from a licensed dispensary. And in the end, Illinois did all of this because it wants the tax money!

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