Arnold Schwarzenegger has been an epic failure as governor of California, but he’ll have one outstanding thing to point to…something that the country will thank him for for all posterity.
Citing the need to reduce spending on prosecution and courts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a measure that makes marijuana possession an infraction, on par with traffic and littering tickets.
The Republican governor’s unexpected support for the measure comes one month before voters decide whether to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana in California.
No one is in a better position to make such decisions than outgoing Republican governors. The criminalization of pot-smoking is one of the stupidest policies known to man. It’s not that pot-smoking is a good idea. It makes you stupid and lazy. But making it a crime? Expending resources to punish it? That’s ridiculous. Potheads are close to the most harmless beings in existence. If they didn’t have to engage in criminal activity to obtain their weed, they’d be entirely harmless.
So often, as California goes, so goes the nation. Let’s hope that proves true again in this case.
I just wish Arnie’s last act as governor was lightin up a fat spliff, Cigar Afficionado-style.
Is drinking alcohol a stupid idea, too? I think they’re both good ideas in certain contexts. I can’t tell if you’re describing their behavior in life or just when they’re partaking.
Drinking in excess is not a good idea unless you have no responsibilities for a while. Of course, smoking pot only makes you stupid and lazy if you do it habitually.
so drinking is ok for the temporally irresponsible?
gotta love that logic!
what about all the poor fucks locked up, do they get to get out now?
next: cali big ag gets it…goes for permaculture.
go arnie, terminate more bullshit before you retire!
so drinking is ok for the temporally irresponsible?
gotta love that logic!
what about all the poor fucks locked up, do they get to get out now?
next: cali big ag gets it…goes for permaculture.
go arnie, terminate more bullshit before you retire!
shite, sorry for the double.
So Jerry Garcia was stupid and lazy? Amazing perception.
The moralizing weirdness of the diary aside, yay for Arnold. An argument can be made that this is a better solution than full legalization — keeps the corporate marketers out of it, for one thing, and still brings in a little revenue.
Yeah, I was wondering about the tone as well.
I think it’s arguable, but I don’t think it’s a better solution. The black market is far more dangerous than any corporate involvement in my opinion, with the crime and lack of any regulation. And the booze industry is obviously against its legalization, and I find them more harmful than a corporate marijuana industry.
Plus, I don’t think the police enforcement issue will go away until it’s just legalized and done with. Police brutality will continue.
+2. The one addition I would do is that the black drug market is the corporate market, maybe at one remove? Legalizing it means regulating it.
But small steps, small steps… and each small step somehow carries the virtue of those that follow!
When I and an older student studying electrical engineering I organized a group of younger students I called cooperate and graduate. We did our own work but were there to help each other if we got stuck. We had a rule of no pot smoking until our work was finished. What would happen was we would finish, light up then work more problems. We were neither lazy or stupid.
Isn’t there a ballot initiative to legalize pot in CA?
Thought I heard it on the radio news.
it’s mentioned in the blockquote.
Oops, my bad.
And winning. Time for the feds come come out with a story about grass causing cancer and dementia before the election.
“It makes you lazy and stupid” is a lazy and stupid comment. The sativa strains energize and sharpen one’s mind and body while the indicas provide “couch lock”, which may be the lazy you are referring to, but it doesn’t make you stupid unless you start from that location. It may loosen up the glue of “up tightness” a bit but that’s a good thing for most and can lead to insights that hold up in the light of day. The breeders have combined the two strains, in all percentages of each, to provide the desired effect. For you to lump the entire plant into one 6 word evaluation is so un-booman like….you usually look a bit deeper into the subject matter. But then maybe you have and that’s your opinion.
Have a great weekend and thanks for all your thoughtful posts.
Lazy and stupid, no, but pot used to make me feel a little paranoid sometimes.
I think the invocation of “lazy and stupid” was one of those “on one hand/on the other hand” moments that Boo occasionally falls into. It is a “lazy” intellectual position but is written to defend against Boo being accused of being too much of a “druggie” or “libertine” or “moral dengenerate”. It’s a necessary evil of having to present oneself as in some way centrist.
There are people who smoke grass and are lazy. Cause and effect isn’t so clear, and certainly there are plenty of legal things that make you lazy, like television, high fructose corn syrup, graphic novels, novels, lack of work and booze.
It’s more about my experience as a teenager and a parent to teenagers. Well, let’s just call it my experience in life. Casual pot smoking does basically no harm. Habitual pot smoking has deleterious effects on your personality, commonly depressing motivation, and almost always damaging short-term memory. I have friends who smoked pot for years and were great friends. Then they stopped and became better parents, friends, and people, who suddenly started excelling where they had been failing.
Sure, “lazy and stupid” is a lazy generalization. But habitual pot smoking is not a good idea and I want to make sure people know that I think that. I’m not pro-pot or anti-pot. And I don’t make a habit out of judging people who smoke it…even potheads. But I don’t want my kids smoking it when the homework and chores aren’t getting done. Know what I mean?
I am neither stupid nor lazy, nor are most of the pot smokers I know.