Let's Go Green!

Mr. Obama is facing a ridiculous number of challenges all at once. I have an idea that could tackle several of them at once: immigration, prison overcrowding, budget deficits, and drug-related violence in Mexican border towns.

I would like to preface this by saying I do not condone drug use in any form and am not an advocate of using marijuana. I think the drug makes one lazy and I don't use it or like it. Of course I have tried it; anyone who says they haven't tried it is either lying, over 50, or a fundamentalist religious zealot.

Here's my Plan:

1-Let's legalize marijuana in the U.S. and convince Mexico it would be in their best interest to do the same. Of course it should only be legal for persons over 21 and law enforcement could focus on more serious problems. This would loosen the stranglehold of the drug cartels. Sure, they will continue to smuggle and sell other drugs, but weed is a major source of their income.

2-Let the FDA regulate it so it is safe (to my knowledge, no one has ever overdosed on pure marijuana).

3-Tax the sh!t out of it. Revenue from taxing marijuana could drastically stimulate the economy.

4-Release all non-violent criminals who are in prison for possesion or use of marijuana. It costs tax payers much more to house a criminal than to keep tabs on him on probation.

5-Let Mexico grow the marijuana. It would create jobs there and lessen the need for Mexicans to cross the border to find work.

Some say you should not legalize marijuana because it is a gateway drug, and if you legalize one drug it will be a slippery slope to legalizing all drugs. Where do you draw the line? I'll tell you- you draw the line at marijuana. It is less dangerous than either alcohol or tobacco. Most other illigal drugs are synthetically produced and create a physical addition (weed is merely a mental addiction). Chemical dependence like on meth or heroine leads to an increase in the crime rate because junkies will do anything for the next fix. Potheads on the other hand or nonviolent. They may not ever amount to anything, but they are not hurting anybody. Why not let them them help pay down the national debt?

Snowplay

A friend and I took advantage of perhaps the last major storm of the season and got out in the backcountry powder.


Exhausting and exhilarating.

On the lighter side

I was upset today by stories emerging from Sudan and Zimbabwe and considered penning my thoughts on the subject, but it was making me physically tremble, so I switched gears to maintain my sanity and thought of pleasant memories. There’s nothing wrong will forgetting about the ills of the world occasionally, right?

So here is something on the light side, or rather the wrong side of the light-read on.

I thought back to one of the best weeks of my life (before I knew of the absolute joy and contentment of marriage), my senior trip. The year was 2 B.C.* and my friends and I were 18 with the accompanying gallons of hormones built up. There were about a dozen of us (half of which were female) from my high school that had convinced our parents we deserved a week in Hawaii for a graduation present. This was it; the big show. The first time any of us would be left completely up to our own devices for a whole week with no parental supervision. Luckily, my older siblings had worn down my parents’ resistance to things that were physically or morally dangerous. Before I got on the plane my Mom gave me a hug, gave me that all-knowing-mom glare and told me to “be good.” My friend Craig’s mom on the other handed each of us guys a bandolier of condoms and told us to stay safe and have fun.

Oh yes, there would be underage drinking and debauchery; we were on a mission to do everything we had never been able to get away with before. It was the Mormon equivalent of Amish Rumspringa.

Actually, my fondest memories of that week are the wholesome activities we engaged in and not the checking off of the seven deadly sins. We did it all: snorkeling, sailing, surfing, cliff diving, dancing (both at night clubs and at a luau), shopping (for the girls’ sake, of course), and we visited the Dole pineapple plantation and Pearl Harbor (not to equate the two in significance).


We were on the island of Oahu, and we heard about a great spot called Hanauma Bay, so we rented some scooters and took off for the beach. I have no idea why any company would rent anything to an 18 yr-old male, let alone a vehicle. For some reason the rental fee didn’t include helmets, but we were indestructible so that didn’t matter. A couple of my buddies raced motocross back home so these poor little scooters were pushed far beyond any safety and durability standards they may have had. We were jumping off curbs playing cat and mouse with maniacal grins on our faces. I happened to get the fastest scooter which topped out at a blinding 40 mph. We eventually found the bay and had a great time playing in the water all day. In the evening, we hiked around to a point overlooking the ocean and stopped to watch the majestic beauty of Mother Nature. –Then she tried to kill us.

We were on a cliff 20-30 feet above the ocean when a rouge wave suddenly appeared 10 ft higher than the cliff. I instinctively crouched down and grabbed a hand hold on the rock. I was able to hang on, but I watched helplessly as three of my friends were being pushed on a water slide of death toward the edge of the cliff. One of them was about a foot from the skull-crushing drop when the surging sea finally relented. If you want to see where we almost died, cut and past these coordinates into Google Earth or Maps.

21 16' 8.5"N 157 41' 24.8"W


Here’s the Aesopian lesson: enjoy nature, but never turn your back on it.

Shaken, but laughing by the time we remounted our hogs (the scooters, not the girls with us who were very cute) and headed back to the hotel. Once we regained the city, we decided to drag race. If you have ever been to Waikiki, Hawaii then you know that traffic lights are on the side of the road, rather than overhead-I did not. At least that was my excuse to the cop, because I must have noticed the lights when we used one on the previous block as a starting gun. I was way ahead of everyone laughing over my shoulder when I heard the pull-over siren. Apparently I had gone 38 mph through a red light without even slowing down. It really sucks to be pulled over on a scooter because you can’t even slink down in your seat to hide your face from passersby. Luckily, I only got a warning a great story out of it.

I could go on and on about the strip poker game or the party cruise, but we all took an oath on the flight home…What happens in Hawaii, stays in Hawaii. You know, long flights are surprisingly enjoyable when you are with a group of your friends and there are enough empty seats on the plane to comfortably lie down. Ah, memories- thanks for listening, I feel much better.

*Before Cindy