As previously stated, I have never smoked pot nor do I have any inclination to ever alter that condition. Nevertheless, I have become convinced that it’s time to change our nation’s destructive, expensive, and ultimately futile drug policies. Consider the following (just ignore the psychadelic animation, retro film clips, and moldy damn-hippie music, which regrettably trivialize the otherwise rational argument being presented):
Here’s a little more food for thought: that promised $6 billion in annual tax revenue is exactly the amount by which President Obama is proposing to expand NASA’s budget. You want to go back to the moon or to Mars? It just might be possible — or at least a little more plausible — if we get practical about turning mary-jane and other assorted money-sinks into revenue streams.
My thanks to Sullivan for posting this video. Oh, and if you’re wondering about the “4/20” reference in this entry’s title, it seems that this date, April 20, a.k.a. 4/20 or just 420, has become a sort of counterculture holiday. The University of Colorado in Boulder hosts the pre-eminent celebration of this day; every year, thousands of people gather on the U of C’s quad and light up at exactly 4:20 PM in a sort of communal mass toke. Not my sort of thing, but hey, I’m basically a live-and-let-live kind of guy…
4/20 is also Hitler’s birthday. Nutcases sometimes choose this date to commit atrocities–Columbine is the most notorious, and there have been several attacks on synagogues and Jewish community centers here in L.A. I always breathe a sigh of relief when we get through another April 20 without incident.
Ah, yes, the Hitler connection… I don’t think we’ve ever had any anti-semitic activities here in Utah on this day, but we do have a fairly notorious creature in the Utah state prison, a white supremacist looney-toon with tattoos over his entire body including his face and scalp, who recently announced his announced his intention get married(!) on Hitler’s birthday.
A few years ago, this sweetheart killed a corrections officer who had escorted him to a hospital for an MRI. The dude had complained of back problems; apparently, that was just a ruse so he could try to escape. He was recaptured the same day, but occasionally gets back into the news for one reason or another.
Here’s an article, if you’re at all interested: http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_14920198
I love how the writer felt it necessary to identify Hitler. The sad thing is, there probably are (younger) people who don’t know…
As far as the pothead connection to 4/20, I guess it was originally a slang term referring to a time of day (4:20) when a particular group of high school kids would meet to toke up. Somehow it got into general usage in the subculture.