Show of hands: Who has smoked weed?
Terry Frank takes issue with the Marijuana Policy Project [I bet they don’t get much done – ed.] and their new ad campaign:
A potentially controversial new ad campaign from the Marijuana Policy Project names prominent public officials, including President George W. Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Vice President Al Gore, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as having admitted to using marijuana. The ad then asks, “Is it fair to arrest three quarters of a million people a year for doing what presidents and a Supreme Court justice have done?”
In comments, Terry expands:
I think the point they makers of the ad are trying to make is that all these great leaders used the drug.
If they still used it, there might be a point. But they no longer do, in fact, I think a couple of them just said they only “tried” it.
The ad is using faulty logic in my opinion because they are trying to say great people use pot so pot must be great.
I disagree. I think what they’re saying is that people (even successful and powerful people) have had youthful indiscretions. Who hasn’t? The difference between the folks highlighted in the ad is that they weren’t caught. And, of course, that they didn’t take 10 rounds of 9mm to their chest for possessing less than an ounce of weed.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying weed is all that. Heck, I don’t even smoke it and can count the number of times I’ve experimented with it on my fingers. That doesn’t make me any more or less a person. It just means I’m a person, like most in the country, who has smoked weed. It’s not quite the stigma it once was.
July 5th, 2006 at 8:25 am
I fired it up in college.
July 5th, 2006 at 8:34 am
*raises hand*
July 5th, 2006 at 9:19 am
That statement doesn’t apply to me.
July 5th, 2006 at 9:20 am
though I should point out that I don’t smoke the stuff either.
anymore
July 5th, 2006 at 10:12 am
smoked it a few times in my late teens. Last time I smoked it I had a bizzarro reaction that landed me in the hospital for a few hours. Might be because I rolled it up with a piece of paper that I tore from an envelope 😛
July 5th, 2006 at 10:37 am
Guilty of many childhood indescretions.
I’m all growed up now. =)
July 5th, 2006 at 11:34 am
One could add Queen Victoria to the list too. That little tidbit was popular among the dopers in college.
High school once (got sick as hell so didn’t want to touch it ever again)
College once (got some “high quality” stuff pushed on me by a grateful chemistry tutee; didn’t get sick, but it still tasted like crap and I haven’t touched it since)
July 5th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Never smoked it. But since I’ve been to a Grateful Dead concert, I sure know what it smells like…
July 5th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Not me. Never touched the stuff.
Never done bong hits out of a bong larger than my own body.
Never smoked it out of an apple.
No idea what a “one-hitter” is.
Never bought “pottery” on a trip to Mexico.
“Wake and bake”? Is that when you get up in the morning and make muffins?
“Pink Floyd: The Wall” makes perfect sense.
“Dark Side of the Moon” does not sync with “The Wizard of Oz”.
Never walked down to a 7/11 at 3AM because of wicked munchies.
Or driven to Denny’s.
Never felt the unmitigated terror of seeing the blue lights kick on behind me whilst driving to Denny’s only to be followed up by the most intense feeling of relief as he passed me by only to look down and realize that I was traveling at a blistering 18 mph…
Nope. Ain’t done of that. Nor a whole lot more I would never put into print.
July 5th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
Apparently everyone inhaled. Of course no lawyers have commented yet.
July 5th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
Jay: it sounds like you and I led the same boring, sheltered existence.
To me, one point five is just a number halfway between one and two.
July 5th, 2006 at 11:33 pm
Been there, done that, didn’t much care for it.
As to the ad, I can see both sides of it. It’s nearly as disingenuous to portray those guys as no different than anyone else as it would be to portray them as habitual users.
For the record, criminalization of marijuana is pretty dumb.
July 8th, 2006 at 6:05 am
Never.
Needed all my cash in high school for ammo.