I love Seinfeld, and can recall nearly every episode. When I see a rerun, within a few seconds I know exactly what episode it is and what’s about to happen. One of my favorite episodes was the one where the Kenny Rogers Roasters chicken place opened across the street and the neon lights drove Kramer crazy to the point he and Jerry switched apartments. But Kramer loved the chicken, and Jerry found out by seeing Newman picking up an order that contained “steamed broccoli.” Jerry pointed out he “wouldn’t eat broccoli if it was deep fried in chocolate sauce.” Newman said he would, biting a stalk and then spitting it out, exclaiming, “Vile weed!”
That’s a long set up for a column about weed – or marijuana – but that’s what kept coming to mind every time I smelled pot on our family trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware for the Independence Day weekend.
The smell was everywhere. Checking into our ocean-side motel I felt like I was going to get a contact high in the parking lot. On the boardwalk the smell was more prevalent than French fries or body odor, both of which are all over the place.
I’m no prude, a late friend of mine who spent time in Korea in the military used to joke that he’d “spilled more weed than most people have smoked,” and I’m right there with him. The “wake and bake,” the quick joint outside the club before heading in to get a head start on a buzz and to save money (not to mention spare the hangover), the getting stoned because you and a friend both had the day off and a Tuesday is as good of a reason as any.
But I grew out of it. People grow up. Or, at least they are supposed to.
That “supposed to” bit is deliberate because a lot of these stoners are older or downright old. As soon as pot became legal, people of all ages seem to have run for it; desperate to get wasted.
I promise that if I still smoked cigarettes and lit up on the sand, a Baywatch SWAT Team would repel down from a helicopter and give me a ticket. But everyone just ignore weed. Why? Smoke is smoke, so why have all the “second hand smoke kills!” Nazis suddenly found their tolerance and inside voices when it comes to pot? There is no “health” smoke to inhale, your lungs don’t care or know the difference between a joint and a forest fire.
Recommended
That always cracked me up about the pro-legalization crowd, there was a huge cross-over with “we must ban smoking in bars, on sidewalks, in apartments and everywhere” crowd. If it was about lung cancer, as they insisted, how did they think most people got high?
Of course, it was never about cancer, it was about money. The complaining about cigarettes was always coupled with a push (usually successful) to raise tobacco taxes. And the calls for decriminalization and legalization were never about “poor black men being put in prison for simple possession of marijuana,” those cases don’t exist (outside of places where Kamala Harris was in charge of prosecuting them).
The concern for black men and criminal records was just cover for a new revenue stream for greedy Democrats desperate to get more money to spend on the causes of their friends and donors. Nothing in politics that increases revenue to, or the power of, government is what they say it is. They used race and something they created as cover, as pretend “compassion,” so they didn’t have to be fiscally responsible or honest.
But ask yourself this: Is anyone’s life better off now that weed is basically legal everywhere?
The answer, unless you’re a politically connected person who got a license to open a dispensary or are a competitive eater, is no.
Governments get more money, and you can’t go anywhere without smelling the set of a Cheech and Chong or Harold and Kumar movie. Stoners with an aura of dope the side of Pigpen’s filth in Peanuts wander everywhere and your kids choke on it. The insistence about the “controls” about public use and driving were a joke to make people who’d never indulged or grew out of it think government would do what they said they would, this time. Remember, this was about “what people do in the privacy of their own home!”
I don’t really care what people do, I care when they involuntarily involve me in it. When my kids cough from a smell. There is a constant breeze at the beach, but the stink won out every time. Loud people, falling over or passing out – it’s not quite San Franscico because there aren’t needles all over the place, but it’s only a matter of time.
State governments saw dollar signs and their stupid gene kicked in. Now they’re used to the money, which means repeal is unlikely, and they’re blowing through it so fast that raising those taxes and looking for new drugs to “legalize” is only a matter of time.
Nothing against that “vile weed,” we had some really good times together, but you have to ask yourself if society is better off now than we were before the munchies descended on the country. I don’t think we are.
Derek Hunter is the host of the Derek Hunter Show on WMAL in Washington, DC, and has a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member