Comments on: Smoke ‘n’ Guns

By: scarshapedstar

scarshapedstar — Sat, 20 Dec 2003 22:09:39 +0000

“The idea that pot is to be enjoyed in a mellow, hippie-culture way is a cultural construction, not a pharmacological reality.” Umm, okay, maybe I’ll be inclined to believe you when you actually smoke pot. Here’s my reality: When you smoke pot, you want to sit down and watch Winamp visualizers, and eat oreos. Not kill somebody. Jesus christ, it’s really that simple. Anyway: If you’re going to blame all of Afghanistan’s drug problems on hash, well, what about all the OPIUM? That just might have something to do with the killings. Also, maybe some African rebel kids toke up, but it’s the whole thing about cutting their foreheads and rubbing cocaine into it that really causes problems. Not pot.

By: Ophelia Benson

Ophelia Benson — Sat, 20 Dec 2003 19:49:03 +0000

Well of course he did, and went stumbling around the snowy fields mumbling to himself, ‘I just had it, a minute ago, I think, or was it an hour, or yesterday…’ Performance-enhancing? Hm. Depends on what kind of performance you have in mind.

By: Zizka

Zizka — Sat, 20 Dec 2003 16:31:46 +0000

A snowboarder lost his medal at a recent winter Olympics because of marijuana use. Does that mean that marijuana is a performance-enhancing drug?

By: Snot Rocket

Snot Rocket — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 17:43:47 +0000

Does Afghanistan also have a long history of hashish use? Their affinity for weaponry being well understood, the combination of AK-47’s and hashish doesn’t seem to have mellowed anybody there.

Well, I think there are other circumstances that might apply. Such as, “Jesus fucking Christ, this is a really unpleasant place. Why are all you paranoid nutcases so hot to run all over it? Leave us the fuck alone already!”

By: John Isbell

John Isbell — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 17:26:27 +0000

On a related note, there were stoned players on the field during the 1991 European Ultimate Frisbee Championships (which I admit is not a surprise), whereas the game collapses if you’re drunk: it’s all dropped catches and laughing. Playing stoned IMO clears the mind of clutter and lets your hand just make the catch, as it wants to. You also get a vivid sense of where your teammates are on the field. It’s the zone. This thread conflates various different drugs, such as the LSD Leary referred to, as pot, which does not really further the discussion.

By: snoey

snoey — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 16:00:28 +0000

The Euro 2000 soccer tournament may be one valid test. The Belgians let the beer flow and got the usual rioting from the English louts. In Eindhoven, the Dutch served extra week “festival” beer but let the coffeeshops run wide open and had a peaceful match day.

By: serial catowner

serial catowner — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 15:14:05 +0000

Choosing Afghanistan as a place to learn anything is just plain weird. What’s next, Colombia as an example of what happens where pot is legal? Reality flash- Dutch cabbies would like to see alcohol sales restricted on holidays, because drunks act like dangerous morons. What about pot? “We never have any trouble with the marijuana smokers.” Set and setting- it’s not just for use in the home.

By: dsquared

dsquared — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 09:19:00 +0000

Or for that matter, check out what an extraordinarily high proportion of 50s ska records are about violence. Pleas to Jamaican youth to stop killing each other are practically a subgenre.

By: dsquared

dsquared — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 09:17:44 +0000

I don’t agree that cocaine “ruined a wonderful island”. Becoming a secondary theatre of the crack wars is clearly the biggest factor in the really scary violence, but Jamaica has always been a very violent place; check out any biography of Bob Marley.

By: Nabakov

Nabakov — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 05:27:51 +0000

Zizka, Herman Kahn was a pothead? T’would certainly explain his 44 rung escalation ladder…and his weight. And in a stoned aside, I once saw a T-Shirt that said “Why are more Americans killed by guns than anywhere else? Because we’re better shots.”

By: John Isbell

John Isbell — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 00:31:36 +0000

“And I have to throw away – My little herb stalk.” Bob Marley, Rebel Music. You have to take a toke before you may visit Bob Marley’s tomb in Nine Mile. And take your shoes off.

By: ja man

ja man — Thu, 18 Dec 2003 21:19:05 +0000

Jamaica is NOT a good analogy. It’s cocaine that has these guys shooting each other, not ganja. IMO, cocaine has nearly ruined that wonderful island. That and the horrible fact that the police are responsible for 50% (at least that was true 5 years ago) in Jamaica. shoot,if weed was legal…can you imagine stopping at the airport gift shops to bring home a souvineer lb. of weed? Jamaica would be pulled right out of poverty.

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 18 Dec 2003 20:10:03 +0000

Are you really saying that it doesn’t make a difference if someone gets off their head with, say, tamazepam rather than amphetamines? Or just that an aggressive SOB on drugs is likely still agressive? I think Jamaica has problems with turf warfare between criminal gangs of smugglers making money that is illicit mainly because the drugs trafficed are illicit. I also imagine that crack is the biggest moneyspinner nowadays and that beer and rum are consumed in significant quantities too.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 18 Dec 2003 19:31:13 +0000

In some of the subSaharan Africa death states like Liberia, young men high on pot enjoy machine-gunning people to death. The idea that pot is to be enjoyed in a mellow, hippie-culture way is a cultural construction, not a pharmacological reality.

By: paul

paul — Thu, 18 Dec 2003 18:27:29 +0000

“Personally, I think that the USA needs to look around the world for a better gun policy.” What a dumb idea! If we don’t currently make the best guns in the world, why would we want to look elsewhere? So we can encourage someone else by buying theirs? It’s just another case of shipping high-skilled r&d, design and manufacturing jobs overseas. I’m sure that traditional American know how will triumph when combined with that good ol’ can-do, take no prisoners mentality.