Hope all is well.

And very interesting post.

Annie

1. Huge cash crop? Sure.
2. Lots of revenue opportunities? Definitely.
3. An “awesome herbal remedy for most ailments”? Hardly. It works very well for lots of people and for lots of different things, but it’s hardly a miracle drug. Also, using marijuana is not “just like” getting a massage or using LSD. But his point is right on–there have to safe spaces for all kinds of things.
4. Gateway drug? No. Neither is alcohol. There is no such thing as a drug that in and of itself causes or even predisposes one to going on to other drugs.
5. It’s true that alcohol is far more dangerous than marijuana, but that’s a terrible reason to argue for legalization. There are plenty of other reasons.

Thanks!

vaqkiddo: what is your stand on legalizing marijuana?

Marijuana is already one of the largest cash crops in the United States – I would love to see Farmers thrive and not be jailed.

It would be beneficial for the whole to not spend millions each year incarcerating and rehabilitating growers and users. I think it would actually stimulate the economy to have another taxable good on the market, much like tobacco and alcohol are taxable.

Marijuana is an awesome herbal remedy for most ailments and should be taken very seriously. Its recreational purposes should not be abused and those committed should clear the space for it, just as you would if you were going to have a 5-hour massage or take LSD. In every case, I think it needs to have an intention for use; a time and place, for spiritual and healing purposes.

In my opinion, marijuana is NOT a gateway drug. Most people experience this euphoria through alcohol first.

One in 25 deaths around the world is caused by alcohol consumption, and booze is now as damaging to global health as tobacco was a decade ago, according to a new study in the British medical journal the Lancet. – June 29th, TIME.com

let me know what you think. TTYL.
=)

Another example of controlled addiction: the “functional drunk,” or for that matter, “the functional junkie,” who is able to nurse a habit while keeping their shit together, that is, while holding down a job, paying their bills, raising a family, etc. Functional = productive member of society; not hustling, stealing, or dealing; not locked up in an asylum. Methadone treatment is another form of controlled addiction: it’s been called a “functional drug” – one that allows the addict to function in society, to be productive (and Eli Lilly makes a lot of money marketing drugs targeted at controlling the self in the interest of social function and productivity). Control, then, while it has something to do with managed uptake (unlike lab rats self-administering cocaine until their hearts stop), is transcribed into categories of social functionality, which are often measured in terms of productivity – that is, the productive relation of the self to the social within established institutions of production and reproduction.

So, coffee addiction is cool, and so were cigarettes until we started looking at the social cost. And methadone’s great because even though it’s an endless deferral of dependency, it gets the addict back in the workforce. Alcohol, pot, coke, junk… all tolerated until the point where “a deterioration of self, health, or mentality” becomes evident, which is usually determined at the point where the addict can no longer function as a productive member of society.

To translate writing (as logos) into action (as ethos) is not to somehow assimilate every word, to incorporate every every morpheme of what is written — it is to have faith, to surrender (without throwing in the towel) to the play of words. Words (and worlds) have their own agency, their own desire to move thought and action, to render logos different from what it is.

So, we’ll talk. Maybe surreptitiously, after a few beers, at a science studies colloquium.

-Mark-