A Friend Stopped By | 11/03/2009 4:00 am
Legalize It, by Allegra Huston
What could we do with an extra $2.88 billion of public revenue right now?
Image via Flickr by wallyg
Editor’s Note: Allegra Huston’s new book, Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found, hit bookstores last spring. Allegra is the youngest daughter of film director John Huston and sister of Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston. She was born in London, raised in Ireland and Los Angeles, and now lives in Taos, NM. She was a publisher in London for nine years and has been a freelance writer and editor since 1994.
It’s dark. You’re walking to your car, the subway or just home. You spot a gang of youths out for a night of fun. Your heart races. Then you see what they’re doing: smoking dope. Oh, no! You might trip over one of them. Maybe they’ll philosophize you to death.
Good thing they’re not doing something legal, like drinking, which might get you a broken bottle in the face.
| Reefer madness was a fantasy; if everyone took up pot, we’d have a nation of chilled-out people committing way less violent crime. |
I’m not such a libertarian that I’m arguing for the legalization of all drugs — I’ve seen what hard drugs can do. But let’s be sensible. Why do we criminalize more than a quarter of the population for enjoying a substance whose primary effects are relaxation, the munchies and an overuse of the word "dude"? I don’t use cannabis, but I also don’t jump out of airplanes, go on ten-day fasts, eat peanut butter or engage in masochistic sex; and as people who enjoy those things aren’t hurting anybody but themselves, I don’t see the point of banning them. In fact, I think we should mandate cannabis use for politicians; then they might actually tell the truth, as Al Capone’s henchman did when the FBI gave him a joint to loosen him up for interrogation.
But it’s a Drug — that dreaded word. OK, what’s a drug? "A substance other than food intended to affect the structure or function of the body." Too broad. "Something and often an illegal substance that causes addiction, habituation or a marked change in consciousness." That covers coffee, video games and iPhones, not to mention alcohol and tobacco. OK, I’m queen for a day, and I say they’re bad for people. Now they’re illegal. You’ll call them drugs.
Full disclosure: I have tried, twice, to smoke a joint. I couldn’t; my throat burned, it hurt. I tried hash brownies too, but uttering a sentence was like hauling on ropes to put my brain back together. I ate too many. I couldn’t resist: I’m addicted to chocolate.
That’s my point: A drug would be a medicine, or just a vice, or merely an indulgence, if it weren’t illegal. So why is cannabis illegal?
It’s virtually impossible to figure out why some drugs and not others were made illegal in the first place. The history of criminalization is piecemeal and murky. The first ban on cannabis was a specifically anti-Muslim act, propagated by those guardians of all that is right and good, the Spanish Inquisition — who, when they came to the New World, instantly concluded that the hallucinogenic drugs used in native religion must be tools of the devil. It’s hard not to see racism and power politics at work in all this, especially when you look at old propaganda images of black men high on cocaine raping white women, and sinister Chinese luring the flower of white youth into their opium dens.
Read more about: A Friend Stopped By, Allegra Huston, Drugs, Economy, Health, Marijuana, Medicine, Politics
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- Liz Smith: In a Concert Hall Far, Far Away
- Queen Martha, by Cynthia McFadden
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Remember shopping pre-Internet? What era/memory in the evolution of shopping do you think of most fondly?
- The Love Goddess: In Sickness and in Health ... But Hold the Sickness
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- The World in Vogue (Photos)
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Liz Smith: In a Concert Hall Far, Far Away
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- Queen Martha, by Cynthia McFadden
- Lily Tomlin Is Coming to NYC!
- Joan Ganz Cooney Still Shops the Way She Always Has
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- The World in Vogue (Photos)
- Announcing the Winner of Our 'Caption This' Contest
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- Remember shopping pre-Internet? What era/memory in the evolution of shopping do you think of most fondly?
- Mr. wOw: Falling in Love Again With 'Marlene'
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- The Love Goddess: In Sickness and in Health ... But Hold the Sickness
- Queen Martha, by Cynthia McFadden
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- Liz Smith: In a Concert Hall Far, Far Away
wOw Features
Reader Voices
Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
The Palin Book, as Dear Margo Sees It
142 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
Anyone who believes that legalizing marijuana in our country is a good thing needs to do a bit of research on those countries that have legalized it. For instance:
"The Amsterdam health officials state that the 7,000 addicts in the city are responsible for 80% of the property crime. (Ramon Bracamontes, "Marijuana is as easy to buy as ice cream," El Paso Times, July 24, 1988].
Because of its drug problem, Amsterdam is required to have a police force much greater than those of U.S. cities of similar population. [Ramon Bracamontes, citation above].
The Netherlands is the most crime-prone nation in Europe and most drug addicts live on state welfare payments and by committing crimes. [Robert E. Peterson, "Legalization: The Myth Exposed" in "Searching for Alternatives: Drug Control Policy in the United States," Hoover Institution Press, 1991].
Amsterdam is rethinking its liberal drug policies because of the social ills that result there from. [Robert E. Peterson, "Stop Legalization of Illegal Drugs," Drug Awareness Information Newsletter, July 1988]."
Much more here…
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/DEBATE/myths/myths4.htm
This is just another reminder of how the liberals think….legalize drugs and prostitution which will grow the number of people supported and maintained by our government through our welfare program….. Is this what you want for our country? Is this what you want for our children and grandchildren….the easy access to drugs at a young age? Breathtaking….that anyone in their right mind would agree to legalizing drugs in this country….
Why are you citing studies that are 20 years old and written by Americans?
Have you been to the NL? Have you talked to any Dutch people? Did you know that the NL has a MUCH lower drug use/abuse rate than the US? Did you know that the NL actually has a low crime rate, especially in violent crime?
I’m guessing no, no, no and no.
I have a feeling that my Dutch partner will have a hearty laugh when I tell him about this.
Deber, when I left home and joined the Navy pot smoking was done everywhere. You couldn’t go to a concert with out getting high just because your in the same Auditorium as them. My older sister took me to a concert when I was 16 and told me if I didn’t try her pot cigarette she was going to leave me there. I wouldn’t and she left me in Canada with no way home. After leaving home I found out she had turned my younger siblings on to smoking it (nine and ten yrs younger then me), two of those siblings still smoke the stuff.
I tried it a few times when I was young and I didn’t like the way it made me feel, in fact I hated the way it made me feel, the hangover was worse then from booze.
The only time in my life I smoked Pot on a regular basis was when I was going through chemo, and I’ll be honest, I hated it, but it was the only thing that kept me from ralphing nonstop, and it helped me to eat, because for six months I couldn’t eat without it. But once the chemo/radiation was over with, whatever was left was flushed and I’ve not smoked any since.
I don’t think it should be legal, it’s bad enough we have drunk drivers on the road, we don’t need stoned ones as well.
I sincerely hope you are well now, Deniseann. That must’ve been a very difficult time for you.
Deber, Thank your for your concern. I’ve been fighting cancer (4 different kinds) for the last 27 years. I’m in remission now but it was touch and go with the Breast Cancer, I just past the five yr mark only to find another tumor this past summer. I underwent chemo for 2 months for safe keepings and it’s seems to have done the trick. But I am being closely monitored at Duke Medical in Durham NC. I am very lucky in regards to the surgery and treatments has allowed me to go on. I’ve had a total of 21 operations to date.
Next monday I will 54, an age I wasn’t sure I’d see for a long time. There is no genic reason for me having cancer, I’ve been told it’s due to things I was exposed to while in the Navy and living in base housing (worse then some projects), environment has a lot to do with my illness.
Regardless to say I can no longer work, sometimes I can’t even walk far without pain. I’ve been delt some bad hands, but my faith and will to live have keep me around. I’ve only a few goals left that I want to achieve and the most important one is being a Grandma :)
Deniseann, you are a brave woman. I am a grandmother and I want that for you, too. With your strength and strong focus on your future, I have no doubt that you will be around to witness the birth of your grandchildren as well as watching them grow and prosper.
Thank you so much for sharing your story. It has touched me and I know it will touch everyone on this site.
Given the number of lives that are destroyed by alcohol I really don’t see why people shouldn’t be allowed to destroy their lives with their drug of choice. The reality of illegal drugs is they are big business. They also are the number one source of funding for the CIA as it spreads certain people’s definition of democracy around the world.
Not everyone who uses cocaine, for instance, ends up skid row after hocking everything they own for another hit.
Sigmund Freud didn’t. People don’t realize he was "addicted" to cocaine although in reality he just used it. The way quite a few others have and always will.
As for liberals versus conservatives I think most everyone is getting tired of having conservatives tell liberals, and everyone else, how to live.
Baby Snooks…I had to chuckle at your last sentence. I would agree that hard core religious right Republicans (different creatures than conservatives) do want to legislate our morals because they believe their morals are correct, the left wants to control so many details of our lives including healthcare which will lead to more legislation to control what we do under the guise of controlling healthcare costs. I won’t even get into cap & trade legislation.
Please understand that the major issue for conservatives is FISCAL conservatism. We want the fiscal insanity to cease and government to go back to doing its very limited job, and for those a$$holes in D.C. to be thinking at all time that they work for us. Both sides of the aisle think we work for them.
Baby Snooks…I had to chuckle at your last sentence. I would agree that hard core religious right Republicans (different creatures than conservatives) do want to legislate our morals because they believe their morals are correct, the left wants to control so many details of our lives including healthcare which will lead to more legislation to control what we do under the guise of controlling healthcare costs. I won’t even get into cap & trade legislation.
Please understand that the major issue for conservatives is FISCAL conservatism. We want the fiscal insanity to cease and government to go back to doing its very limited job, and for those a$$holes in D.C. to be thinking at all time that they work for us. Both sides of the aisle think we work for them.
And of course illegal drugs are a wonderful means of coercion by despicable prosecutors as Allegra’s sister found out when the Los Angeles district attorney told her he wouldn’t charge her with cocaine possession if she "testified against" Roman Polanski.