Tokin'

The other day, I was listening to Rick Steves on the radio. He was being featured on the NPR station. If you're not familiar with Rick, he's the author of the series of books on Europe through the back door. He also hosts both a television and a radio program on travel. Dude has a great life -- he's turned his passion into his job. Lucky shmuck!

Interestingly enough, this particular day, he wasn't the interviewer but the interviewee because he is also an activist for the legalization of marijuana. He's been an activist for the past 5 years.

How can that be? He is hardly the picture of a MJ activist. He's totally clean cut -- actually a little nerdy to be truthful. He has an elf-like voice and really, you just want to pinch his cheeks he's so darned sweet. He wears glasses for heaven's sake! He's also incredibly well traveled and is a student of humankind. His travels are more about meeting the people than seeing the sights. You can tell by just what he talks about.

He was invited to speak at Hempfest. He said that yeah, he did stick out like a sore thumb, but the people he met there were a vibrant part of Seattle. That they had a peaceful gathering, they left the place cleaner than they found it and it was just a large group of folks enjoying their music. People there are not only environmentalists but human rights activists. How can this be wrong?

What really struck me was how he spoke about the Netherlands. The people of Europe have a much different view of alcoholism and of MJ abuse. They have the same problems as we do. They are just as intolerant of DUI and drug abuse as we are. But they've shifted their thinking. They've shifted it from a problem of law enforcement to a problem of healthcare. And because they've removed the criminal nature of drugs, the government has a chance of regulating it, putting controls into place to reduce the amount in the streets, and generating taxable revenue from it.

Right now, hot button items are overcrowding of prisons, deforestation and global warming, the national deficit. While legalizing MJ wouldn't fix all of these problems, it certainly would help.

With the decriminalization of MJ, there would be less people in prison for possession -- less time for law enforcement to spend with this crime. According to Rick, we've arrested 800,000 people in the last year for MJ possession. We have the highest rate of imprisonment in the world. We imprison the poor and minorities when they are in possession more frequently than we do the wealthy. That is the inherent racism and classism of the war on drugs.

If MJ were legalized, the moratorium on growing hemp for paper and textiles would be lifted. Instead of destroying forests for paper, we'd use hemp which is a harvestable crop within a year as opposed to a 30 year crop of trees. We could grow the hemp here instead of having other countries do it for us.

How much tax revenue would be generated from the sale of MJ? How much easier would it be for us as a society to make sure that it doesn't fall into the hands of minors? That if there is abuse, it is happening where the person can get help. Plus, I haven't even written anything about the medical uses of MJ.

Eh, this whole marijauna thing isn't new to me though. Back in the day, I know this will come to a shock to many of you, I was kind of a nerd. Well, one of the smart kids to be precise. In the 6th grade we were introduced to debating. Now granted, being a kid in Waipahu who could actually speak proper English without a pidgin accent was a huge leg up with the teachers, but a hindrance with the peers. I'm sure you understand. Well, the illegality of MJ came up as a topic for debate. I don't really remember why. I may have suggested it in the first place. I gained a huge amount of street cred with my fellow classmates because this nerdy little girl who always was picked by the nuns to do the readings in church was actually advocating the legalization of marijauna. Sad thing is, I was right about it back then. It should be legalized.

The Seattle Bar Association advocates the decriminalization of MJ. Not surprisingly, the ACLU also advocates it as well. It is nice to know that there is a core of nerds like Rick and me who are out there not because we want our next joint, but because we want to see our society move forward. We're spinning our wheels, people.