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pedalmore's comments:
on Meth Laws: Five Years Later
Howdy--
There is so much speculation around the topic of gateway drugs that just doesn't match my decades of experience as a pot smoker. Sam Kinison, the screaming comedian, performed a classic routine on Saturday Night Live back when crack cocaine first made headlines. The gist of his monologue was that crack was a response to border clampdowns which limited marijuana availability. Since cocaine is more concentrated, it was easier to slip into the country. His punchline, at full volume, was, "Give us back the pot! We won't smoke crack! Just bring back the weed!" Not surprisingly, SNL cut the scene when the show was repeated.
Many pot smokers could relate. We smoke because some kitties like the catnip. Many mammals seek a relaxing buzz. Marijuana provides that.
Sure, I've experimented with much of the pharmacopia in search of the right high, including meth. It was a horrible experience. Other hard drugs, opiates, psychedelics, etc., were also all too strong. Even alchohol (or maybe especially alcohol) is too strong, and too toxic. You can fit a lethal dose of alcohol in a pint glass; there is no lethal dose of pot.
In all my experience, pot dealers rarely stock other drugs, except some psychedelics. And the pusher just doesn't exist. In fact, it can be difficult to make the acquaintance of pot sellers--they are justifiably suspicious of new customers. They don't push--we pull.
I'm almost hesitant to post here, because marijuana doesn't even belong in this discussion. It is to alcohol/meth/herion what coffee is to cocaine.
Happy Trails,
(Name withheld, for obvious reasons. I can't wait for the day when I can sign my name to this kind of opinion.)
posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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on Foot Traffic
@ scott--
No, roads were not built for cars, and they do not exist for cars. They predate cars by millenia as much more than walking trails. The Romans built massive roads to display their military might, and the wide roads into Paris have been around for centuries. Many roads in the American West were designed to be wide enough to flip a u-turn with a wagon and a team of horses without unharnassing the team.
Roads have been necessary to human endeavor since long before cars. While their maintenance is often paid for by gas taxes, the real estate they occupy comes from everything to general fund expenses to eminent domain claims. We claim them as public spaces, not automotive conduits. In fact, it would be hard to build a neighborhood without them, whether or not cars are part of the mix. They are like mortar in a wall, the spaces that hold us together by holding us apart.
They are much more important than cars.
Happy Trails,
Ron
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on Foot Traffic
Howdy--
Right clothes and wrong clothes? Please, I shouldn't have to dress like a clown to leave the house by foot or bicycle. A pedestrian's choice clothing is not a mitigating factor when a driver hits someone who is otherwise behaving legally. In fact, we shouldn't look for mitigating factors when drivers are in collisions with vulnerable users; we should accept that the driver has a greater responsibility as the pilot of a potential missile. We need more significant consequences for inattentive drivers.
By the way, while I don't drive much, I do have a car, and it is black. People don't seem to have any trouble seeing it. The problem is peoples' often arrogant belief that roads are for cars, and nothing else belongs. That clouds their perception.
We need to change attitudes toward driving, recognize it as a privilege, not a right, instead of changing the color of my jacket.
Happy Trails,
Ron Georg
Corvallis
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on Oregon on Screen
Howdy--
I understand how important incentives can be to draw business to a state, but sometimes these deals give too much away. For instance, Utah has long been a draw for film producers, both for its natural beauty and its right-to-work policies, which effectively shut out unions. So producers can get cheap labor and stunning backdrops at the same time. Though sometimes it does have to compete with other Four Corners locations, the state tends to sell itself short by adding incentives to the package.
The best example was "The World's Fastest Indian", which featured race sequences on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Since the flats are such a unique location, it would have seemed that Utah had a lock on the deal. Still, the state felt it was worthwhile to pay Hollywood to film in Utah. That's a little absurd.
Happy Trails,
Ron Georg
Corvallis
posted 2 years, 9 months ago
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on Southern Oregon's Green Economy
Howdy--
I hope you'll also be discussing Initiative 73, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, which would fully legalize marijuana. I also hope you'll help cut through some of the hype, so we can have an honest discussion, without opening proponents to the type satire in Jacob's post.
The numbers in a legal market won't look anything like the black market. Prices will fall dramatically if weed can be grown and processed without fear of arrest. So the tax benefits won't be quite the boon some have suggested.
However, there will be significant ancillary benefits. For instance, legal marijuana will take money out of the black market, and lower cost pot will leave users with more money to spend in other areas of the economy.
Plus, those prisons the governor is struggling to keep open could be closed if we stop jailing marijuana growers and sellers. Many of these people would not be on the wrong side of the law if it weren't for marijuana. Once or twice in my life I've been in possession of enough pot to go to prison, but it wasn't because I seek illicit occupations. I'm just fond of marijuana.
Opponents will blow all kinds of smoke about the dangers of pot. They'll make outrageous claims about the strength of modern weed, promising chaos and mayhem. None of it is true. Even the effect of strongest marijuana pales in comparison to a six-pack of beer. While alcohol clouds judgement, impairs motor skills, and lowers inhibitions, marijuana simply shifts our perceptions. Behind the wheel, according to verifiable studies, marijuana users become hypervigilant--the opposite of drinkers (or cell phone users).
All of this applies to medical marijuana as well, but the medical use law doesn't go far enough. Many people are using this drug therapeutically, although they don't qualify under Oregon's restrictive medical use law.
As Jacob notes, with his tongue in cheek, the medical use law is already being subverted and used to generate grey market income. It's much like capital-P Prohibition, when companies like Walgreen's took advantage of medical use clauses to build their businesses by selling medicinal whiskey.
We need to face up to this issue more honestly and end this modern prohibition.
Happy Trails,
Ron
posted 2 years, 11 months ago
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on Reducing Harm
Howdy--
Once more, a drug crusader is whipping out the scare tactics, completely ignoring the evidence. You guest probably expects no one will challenge blanket statements such as "you've got more people driving on marijuana than aclohol."
Whether that's true or not, the fact is those drivers aren't causing the accidents. A recent report by Dr. Andrew Sewell reveals that while drunk drivers are unaware of their impairment, leading them to drive irresponsibly, marijuana users have an opposite effect--they believe they are more impaired than they are, so they compensate with exceedingly safe driving behavior.
However, your guest, realizing that this sort of thing is counterintuitive, knows that she can play on unjustified fears to demonize marijuana users. Harm reduction has to begin with verifiable information.
Happy Trails,
Ron
posted 3 years, 2 months ago
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on The Economy and Domestic Violence
I can't tell you how deeply touched I was to hear your interview with Lynette Fidrych. I was a reporter in Park City, Utah, in 1990 when her mother, Nadalee Noble, was killed by her father in a supermarket parking lot.
I arrived at the scene just after police, and I had my camera. I've often found that the view through a lens provides some distance and detachment, but not in this case. I was so affected by the sight, especially after I learned what had happened, I couldn't go immediately back to work. My editor felt much the same way, and she agreed it would be inappropriate to use the photos, to heap one more abuse on Nadalee.
Given how this event still weighs so heavily on my mind, I can't imagine what Ms. Fidrych has gone through. It was an inspiration to hear her interview, to hear that she has not only survived, but grown into a confident, composed young woman.
Thank you,
Sincerely,
Ron Georg
Corvallis
posted 3 years, 2 months ago
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