Potheads

First things first. Full disclosure: YES. On more than one occasion in my lifetime I smoked pot. Yes, I inhaled. Did I like it? Not really. All it really did was dry my mouth out and make me hungry and all you need to do is take one look at me and know I don't need any assistance in finding a reason to eat. What were my reasons for smoking it? Peer pressure mostly. I didn't want to be the oddball in the group. I don't care about things like that anymore. Frankly I don't give a shit what you think about what I do or don't do or whether I'm cool or not. I view the whole pot smoking thing to be something you do when you're young and rebellious and worry about things like peer pressure. I thought eventually you grow out of it and move on. Apparently a lot people never grew out of it. Pot is bigger than ever and its not just young folks. I'm actually amazed at how many people my age - boomers - still partake of the weed on a regular basis while they worry about their own kids and grand kids drug use.



I honestly don't know what the lure marijuana is. Its supposedly not addictive yet I find the number of people who don't seem able to give it up utterly astounding. One of the situations that I found to be ironic was the fact that for over 20 years I was a law enforcement officer and was charged with arresting people who broke the drug laws and I never once had to submit to drug testing. Upon retiring from the police and entering the trucking business I was constantly tested.

Go figure. I knew that many other drivers and applicants for driving jobs were regularly testing "hot" for drugs. I had no idea how ridiculous it was until I got into a management position at a trucking company and was responsible for conducting the pre employment drug testing program. On average during my tenure of approximately 18 months between 2 and 3 of every 5 applicants failed the drug screen. A test they KNEW they were going to take. In my time there I terminated the employment of 3 drivers, who after being hired, were caught hot in random tests, again they KNEW they were subject to this testing. How stupid is that? More importantly, how stupid is it that their love or need for weed was stronger than their desire to attain or retain a relatively high paying job with good benefits? Its not a rheortical question. I really want to know. Can someone explain it to me? I'm not a prude or a religious nut or against having fun. I smoke cigars, drink whiskey, ride a motorcycle and am heavily tattooed. I'm not exactly a poster boy for conventional behavior but I really have a problem with the whole pot thing.



The thing is, there's a whole lot more at stake here than just a few knuckleheads losing a truck driving job. Unless you're living under a rock you have to know that violence along the United States/Mexican border is at an all time high. Murders are an every day occurrence. In some areas of northern Mexico many towns and villages are under absolute states of siege with running gun battles, kidnapping and murders at such a rate that Mexican Army troops have been sent in to make some sort of attempt to restore some semblance of order. Its not working. The source of all this violence and mayhem is fighting among the big drug dealers for market share. In the drug business you don't eliminate the competition by building the proverbial better mousetrap or by providing superior customer service. You eliminate the competition. Literally. Secretary of State Hillary (Mrs. Bill I did not inhale) Clinton makes a state visit to Mexico and rather than address the underlying causes of the street wars, accepts American responsibility for the carnage because so many of the weapons being used in the war are being purchased in this country. Its all the fault of the NRA. And the fault of law abiding, non mentally ill gun owners and sportsmen. Like yours truly. I fail to see how further restricting the type, amount or frequency of my firearms purchases is going to do anything to stem the carnage along the border.



Its not my fault, folks. Its yours. By yours I mean all you people who still find it necessary or whatever you find it to purchase and consume marijuana. Unless you're growing and processing it yourselves the weed you're smoking is highly likely to have come into this country by way of, or originated in Mexico and is being grown, processed and imported by the big time drug businesses that are murdering, kidnapping, raping and terrorizing entire areas of Mexico and southern America. You may not feel that the little bit that you consume has anything to do with this but you are wrong. I don't care how much you buy. Unless you can prove to me that your weed was grown and processed domestically by someone you know personally then I submit it was supplied by one of these blood thirsty murderous animals. YOUR pot smoking is financing this war. YOUR pot smoking contributes directly to the bombings and drive by shootings and intimidation and murder. YOUR pot purchase money goes to the drug dealers who use the profits to hire crooked police and soldiers. YOUR pot purchase money goes to the drug dealers who use their profits to hire paid assasins to kill honest police officers, soldiers, prosecutors and judges. Its all a matter of record. I'm not making this up, folks. Its happening every single day.

If they had no customers (YOU) they would have no reason to be in the drug business, and no reason to be trying to eliminate their competition.



Legalize it you say. I say, "no problem". I don't care if its legal. I don't care if you want to use it. I really don't give a shivering shit whether you get so stoned you can't remember your own name as long as it doesn't affect me. Don't do it while driving or working and if its legal I'm on your side. What pisses me off is that so many of the people who do smoke it on a regular basis actually believe that their use is harmless and has no consequences and that is just plain wrong.
Dead wrong for a lot of people. Just go ahead and keep burying your head in the sand. Sign a petition to make gun laws stronger. Do you honestly think that they won't get the guns they want and use if they don't get them from sources in the USA? Do you really think there aren't thousands of arms dealers around the world willing to supply guns for money? Support "common sense" gun legislation; and then abandon all of your common sense when you think that your recreational drug use has no impact on anyone outside your little circle of stoned friends. You're kidding yourself. You're helping to get people killed.



In the eyes of the law if you are only driving the get away car when your partners go into rob a bank and one of them kills someone during the commission of the crime you are just as guilty as murder as the one who pulls the trigger. Even if all you did was help them to plan the crime and never even went to the scene if it can be proven that you were part of the conspiracy you are again just as guilty of murder as the guy who shot the gun.

By buying your little ounce of "harmless, recreational" weed you are directly aiding and abetting the people who are committing the murders.

As far as I'm concerned you should be tried, convicted and put away. Yo, asshole. Don't bogart that joint....pass it over to me.....you murdering motherfucker.