It's time to legalize the world's dirty little secret

The New York Times reported that marijuana is a the bottom of a new haute cuisine the Times called haute stoner cuisine. You can read about it here, on my blog at Gather.

As I wrote in my Gather blog, if artsy, creative, and affluent aren't smoking pot, that would be news.

Still...nope, I don't smoke. I guess I'm not artsy and creative enough, and I'm sure as hell not affluent. Yet I know so many people who do smoke. It's the suburb's dirty little secret, that people who you would never guess indulge. Little grannies and so many white collar workers who I guess need something to get through their depressing existence.

I wish I did like it (it seems so hip and cool), but I think I smoked my share way back in high school. By the time I was in college (in my early twenties; I've always been a late bloomer) I pretty much had my fill. I'm totally useless stoned. I can't think, talk, and I have one of those personalities that gets very paranoid and eventually seriously depressed when he's high. So, I learned a long time ago that it's not a good idea for Johnny to be indulging.

As I said to a Rastafarian recently in Costa Rica who offered me some smoke: Yo tengo muy mucho anos por marijuana. Mi cabeza es loco.

Still, I think it's about time we legalized it. What it's going to take is for all those hypocrites who smoke but won't admit it to come forward and raise their hands. But we should legalize it for a number of reasons, even though I'm not so sure about the argument that it's not detrimental to mental health. I know quite a few people who can't get through the day without it, we all know or have seen stoners who just can't motivate. What's all that about?

1) So we can tax the hell out of it, just like alcohol and cigarettes and every other vice tax. There's a huge source of revenue.

3) It's so widely accepted by so many ages and social strata that, despite my reservations, if you're adult enough to make decisions about issues like voting for the president, if you want to risk your brain cells that's your business. See? I really am a Libertarian.

3) To save lives. Yep, you heard me. All you artsy, creative, affluent types: That weed you're smoking might have a few deaths attached to it somewhere along the time it was harvested and you bought it from your "medical marijuana prescriber." Drugs = organized crime, and life doesn't mean much to them.