Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

In response to pressure from the United States, even though it has hundreds of years of cultural history here, long ago and still today, Mexico degraded itself by making possession of marijuana a serious crime. It's gone even further by agreeing to destroy the runways of small airports up and down the coast (the Baja used to be a paradise for private pilots because every hotel had an airstrip). When I was in Canada I smoked pot every day for the last five years, and during that period I was in great shape mentally and physically, and generally felt good about myself and the world. Now that I don't smoke pot because of being in Mexico (because of the risk mostly), I've gained fifty pounds (because I drink instead, which is an atrocious substitute) and feel pretty terrible most of the time.

Now, you can say that I shouldn't do either if you want to, but you have to understand as well that it's not as if I smoke pot only because I like getting high (and I do really like it). I have degenerative neurological disorders that I've mentioned here before and are, well, pretty damn unpleasant, and smoking pot makes them a lot easier to deal with (to say nothing of helping with stress — I pound through incredible amounts of data on a daily basis and I don't want to drop dead like some Korean), I have chronic pain from bad joints, and so on… But I don't want to make this a oh, sad me, complain-a-rama entry, that's not my point. What I'm saying though is that marijuana helps me and improves my life, I enjoy it, and I think my productivity and ability to work over the last five years speaks for itself.

I'd wager to say that if you look at people who've changed the world for the better that you'll find a high percentage of them have smoked marijuana regularly, to say nothing about the famous scientists that were tokers. Now that they've shown there is no lung cancer risk even from heavy smoking, the “gateway drug” effect has been thoroughly debunked, and given that with marijuana being an easy drug for anyone to grow there's not even a need for anything but local distribution if it's decriminalized (etc, etc), one has to ask oneself why it stays illegal (especially when far, far more documentably dangerous drugs like alcohol and tobacco are legal and readily available).

Let's look at why marijuana is was made illegal and how it escalated from there.

At the turn of the 20th century, marijuana was legal in America, and especially among the Mexican immigrant population it was smoked regularly. Put simply, a few racists in the government hated the Mexicans — and hated it even more that their kids might hang out with Mexicans, smoke pot, be friendly with them, and pick up some of their culture — and pushed through legislation banning it. Its political value in getting easy arrests among dissidents, racial minorities, and lower classes became immediately apparent to the ruling class, and it snowballed. The economic benefits to the prison lobby — well over a billion dollars per year — helped it snowball further. Other industries like plastics and logging profited as well and had equally powerful lobbies. In addition, marijuana prohibition pushed people into alcohol, tobacco, and heavier drugs, pushing upwards of two hundred billion dollars per year into the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Marijuana prohibition, while no good for the people has been incredibly lucrative for big business and has even helped the ruling class maintain power. Legalizing it would be profitable as well, but for different people — small farmers have no power in comparison to megacorporations (except maybe at the height of a megawar when they're desperately needed).

Let's rewind a moment though and wonder — what if the American ruling class of the twenties hadn't hated Mexicans quite so much? How different a place would the world be if marijuana had never been criminalized in the United States? Is it a pipe dream to imagine that maybe people wouldn't be so uptight, that maybe we'd not be drowning in war after war after war? That maybe we wouldn't have a destructive class system that's currently playing out in the most miserable of ways in Louisiana? That maybe the world would be a more loving, egalitarian, and less short-sighted money-obsessed place?

Before you tell me that it is a pipe dream, understand that marijuana prohibition has been a key cog in the megacorporations of today getting its grips into the government. So not only has the prohibition of marijuana cost the People a total of at least $5 trillion over the last century, but it has helped reshape society in ways that amplify our current problems. I'm lowballing by the way with the figure of $5 trillion — I suspect that when you include the damage that the plastics industries, the logging industries, and all the other industries that fought to keep industrial hemp off the market in the equation (on top of potentially saved healthcare costs, prison costs, and so on), that the number is dramatically higher. Ah, the damage that a few bigots can do once big business figures out how to manipulate them…

Well, I'm off to Amsterdam, where I plan on doing what's right.

I'll be online periodically over the next two days but won't be resettled there until some time on Saturday.

I mentioned recently the funny murals at the German restaurant here in La Paz, Mexico and tonight I had a chance to take a few pictures of their interior design sensibilities. Personally I like the hotdog guy a lot, but the dude on the toilet is a little crass in my opinion.

Here's two quick photos from the drive home. The first is just a shot of the malecon just before sunset, and the second is of a big boxing or wrestling ring that was set up down the street… It hadn't gotten going yet when we were there so I don't know if we'd just missed El Serpento or if something else was about to happen.