I would like to start this week’s column off by first of all thanking the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws representative, Josh Warren, for his comments regarding my last column, “Prop 19 Failure Not All Bad.” I would like to then continue this week’s column by admitting that I am now left very confused.
Though Warren wrote quite emotionally on the subject, I can’t help but notice that most of his letter was a compilation of random facts about the state of affairs in the Mexican drug cartels. These facts are all true (presumably), but they do not relate directly to the point of why you think it would have been better for Prop 19 to have passed. It was actually kind of difficult to see where the letter was supposed to be going but I think the main point is, “I hereby challenge you to a back-to-the-roots duel on the topic of marijuana decriminalization, hoping that you and I can try to share the same frame of mind on the subject for awhile. Also, there’s a NORML chapter here on campus.”
I am an avid fan of relaxed times, vanity and product placement myself, so I applaud your efforts, Mr. Warren; however, it is important to note that at the time that I wrote my column, no one but myself thought that marijuana decriminalization would ever happen in New Orleans. I’m not saying that Prop 19’s failure led directly to decriminalization in New Orleans, but I am saying that correlation isn’t necessarily not causation.
Sure, full legalization would have been great for everyone, especially the people affected in Mexico; but exactly when did marijuana rights evolve from a simple matter of personal freedom into a human rights movement? If states had merely decriminalized marijuana a couple of decades ago as they have done now, stoners everywhere would be ecstatic, I can assure you!
Now, it seems like marijuana enthusiasts not only want the ability to smoke weed with fewer legal barriers, but that they want to be able to walk up to a cartel runner and blow pot smoke into his face while two policeman and a Supreme Court judge watch nearby, unable to legally react.
Why have so many marijuana users become such high-maintenance members of society? It used to be that all they required was a safe, private place to toke and a bag of Munchies. These days you can’t even write a column that puts an optimistic spin on a bit of bad news without weed activists blowing everything out of proportion. We are entering troubling times, to be sure.
I don’t mean to belittle or undermine your stances on this issue, Mr. Warren. I do however feel that for an upper-tier representative of NORML, you are being a little uptight. Can’t we all just, like, get along, man?
To conclude, I’d just like to say that whatever your sentiments are about marijuana legislature, if you feel that something in that area of the law needs changing, you should sniff out and attend the next NORML meeting at your earliest convenience.
Chad Carlile can be reached at
