Let's talk about marijuana

I can't talk about pot because someone will tell on me. Am I in elementary school again?

One could take the stance that it's nothing short of a bad idea to document illegal activity online, on a public forum, simply for safety's sake. Or, one could take the stance that honesty is the best policy, for oneself and the world, that talking about your life is therapeutic, and that it's really stupid that marijuana is illegal.

Frankly, I'm torn.

One fact encourages me to stifle myself: I have a family now. It's time to be careful. Authorities are busting pot growers left and right--check this 2007 blog entry from Bad Guys by David E. Kaplan:
"Homegrown Pot Seizures Double."

The article gives a sense of what authorities are able to find, and what growers are able to do, given the ever increasing technological advances in pot cultivation.

Currently, the issue of marijuana use in the U.S. is focused on whether California will make pot possession legal this November. If so, it could have all sorts of implications for the U.S. and Mexico, specifically for Mexican Drug Trafficing Organizations (DTOs) that make money hand over fist smuggling it north. A blog entitled "The Great Debate," via Reuters, has recently posted a well-written entry by Bernd Debusmann about this issue. Find it here:
"California Vote and Mexican Drug Cartels."

So can I yet say on my blog that I use the drug too? Well, after all this research, I still don't have an answer, except for a wary feeling that says, "NO." My question boils down more to social norms that can affect how easily I can get a job, than law.

Trouble is never what people seek with pot, but it always seems to find them. If you want to avoid trouble and still smoke pot, you'd best be prepared to hide it. You've got to keep it in your home, keep it well hidden in your home, and not talk about it. Ridiculous!

It's not because the cops are necessarily going to hunt you down--it's that you won't be taken seriously by your peers. This can hurt your reputation, which we all know, can hurt your standing in business relationships. When you ban something, you also cast a hex on it.

But this does not happen because pot is bad. It happens because pot is illegal.

What if one tries to land a great job and the employer researches one's blog and says, "This guy cannot work for me, given his irresponsible and brazen blog entry about how he uses illegal pots."

What if one already works for a company and a higher-up hears that one smokes pot? You're fired!

Say the police catch wind (pun) of one's habit and start watching you? Jail! (Unlikely for casual smokers, but not out of the question.)

What if you get pulled over and caught with it? Jail!

So can we talk about pot? No. We can't. Something totally normal and accepted by the vast majority of people everywhere as no worse and less addictive than alcohol, or tobacco, or caffeine, or Prozac, cannot be spoken of in public forums.

The day is not yet here when people can openly admit to the public that they're a user of pot who enjoys it,  is comfortable with it, that it causes no serious problems in their life, and that they have no intention of stopping. And that's fucking bullshit.

Okay, on a more funny note, check out this link for the political Pot Party. I think whoever designed the site was really high--look how the white letters on the left column fade into the white page and become unreadable.