THE GREEN RUSH

Marijuana goes Mainstream in Amaerica

The casual use of marijuana is becoming increasingly accepted, or at
least tolerated, in the United States.

According to The San Francisco Chronicle, 100 million Americans have
used weed, with 15 million smoking in the last month and two million
more people trying it each year.

According to The New York Times, citing Harvard economist Jeffrey
Miron, Americans spend about $25 billion a year on weed.

Medical marijuana has created what amounts to the legalization of weed
in 14 states so far, including California. Fortune magazine calls it
?the greening of America.?

The widespread use of marijuana seems to have accumulated its own
inexorable force, making most laws on the books regulating possession
of the drug seem increasingly outdated. It also seems absurd to many
that potheads are often put in jail for the possession of relatively
small amounts.

In short, there seems to be no stopping the gradual legalization, or
at least decriminalization, of weed?despite ?Just say no? and a
decades-long federal drug war. As columnist George F. Will says in a
recent column about the folly of Prohibition, ?In the fight between
law and appetite, bet on appetite.?

One small sign of marijuana?s increasingly comfortable fit in pop
culture is the appearance of such mass-market paperbacks as Weed: 420
things you didn?t know (or remember) about Cannabis, by an author
laboring under the ridiculous pseudonym of I.M. Stoned. The book is
published by Adams Media.

Stoned evinces a predictably positive attitude toward weed. ?This book
reinforces the fact that you have done no wrong by smoking a bong,? he
(or she) says. Stoned also delivers a gazillion little weed-related
tips, tricks, recipes, word origins and factoids in a light, breezy
tone.

Stoned discusses the origin of the term ?420.?

?The generally accepted story is that 420 began as a way for pot
smokers at California?s San Rafael High School in 1971 to discretely
communicate to each other that it was pot-smoking time,? according to
Stoned.

Stoned discusses DIY bongs and bowls, including pipes made from
apples, as well as treats for those suffering with the munchies,
including raw chocolate chip cookie dough. There are tips on ?dealing
with your dealer,? ?sniffing out a narc? and avoiding people who are
?buzz killers.? You get the idea.

Stoned also regurgitates the usual arguments for liberalizing
marijuana laws.

?Smoke local,? Stoned urges?meaning that growing weed in the United
States keeps our drug money at home and undercuts the profits and
power of murderous Mexican drug cartels.

?Uncle Sam would get his grubby fingers in the act, too,? Stoned says,
arguing that taxing pot would give the feds more money to pay down our
huge national debt, build high-speed rail, fund rehab for users of
dangerous drugs like crack, etc.

Stoned also argues that letting stoners out of jail would drastically
reduce our prison populations.

According to Stoned, legalizing weed would allow us to grow hemp, an
eco-friendly source of paper and fabric made from the roots, stalks
and stems of the plant. Hemp is effectively outlawed in America along
with marijuana itself.

Of course, not all is groovy on the weed front, and some of the
information Stoned supplies from various studies about the possible
health effects of smoking weed doesn?t make you want to immediately
run to the ATM, buy a quarter ounce and host a bong-a-thon. In a
section called ?High Hazards,? Stoned notes that pot can screw up your
lungs, since it contains more cancer-causing chemicals than tobacco.
It can also boost your heart attack risk by four times, weaken your
immune system and adversely affect your reaction time, judgment and
perception.

My prediction is that lots of people will continue to smoke weed,
regardless of any health warnings, because they love the way it makes
them feel. For some people, weed enhances their feelings of creativity
and their sense that all kinds of groovy things are not only possible,
but have been lying at their feet unnoticed until they took a bong
hit.

Perhaps more important is the fact that, as Stoned says, weed ?makes
life more bearable.? In other words, if you?re sick of your job, your
boss and maybe your worthless boyfriend, if you don?t quite have the
strength to get up one more day and take another bite of the shit
sandwich that is your life?don?t worry, just get baked. ?Pack a bowl
and smoke it,? Stoned urges. ?Weed makes it all a little easier.?? Is
this psychologically healthy? No. But in examining this oft-repeated
ritual of temporary psychic renewal through weed, one gets to the
heart of the appeal of this apparently irresistible drug.