The Evils of Marijuana

[BoSoxGal]

Smoking Marijuana for 50 Years, and Turning Out Just Fine
APRIL 12, 2015


Catherine Hiller, author of "Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir," at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, where she believes she first smoked marijuana in the 1960s. Credit David Gonzalez/The New York Times

As much as Catherine Hiller refuses to admit it, marijuana is a gateway drug. Seriously, after smoking more or less every day for the past 50 years, there had to be some consequences. Yet, she did not go to jail after a random police stop. She did not end up strung out on heroin, sprawled in an alley. She didn’t even binge-munch herself into obesity.

Her daily puffs led her to write a book, “Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir.”

Just in case people approached her story waiting for the Lifetime movie moment of regret and picking up the pieces of a broken life, she started her book in the present day, flashing back, if you will, to the rest of her life. As a writer — she has published novels and short stories — the approach was an entertaining challenge. As a wife, daughter of an activist and proud mother of three young men, she wanted to show that her life turned out nicely.

“I wanted to show people that smoking marijuana did not make me hit rock bottom,” Ms. Hiller, 68, said. “My story is the story of so many people who use each day. And so what? What’s the issue? What will it lead to?”

Well, in the case of minority youths, it could lead to jail time and a criminal record, something Ms. Hiller feels is unjust. Recently, a young man smoking a joint in a Bronx building was mortally injured when he fell off a roof while running from police officers who entered the lobby after reports that marijuana was being used in public view. On the other hand, she and other marijuana advocates wonder about the criminal charges attached to using when banks, like HSBC, laundered drug money but got off with a fine and no criminal indictments.

She has experienced the disparities of race and class when it comes to how law enforcement looks at smokers. In her book, she recounts how after she and her first husband lit up in their car, a policeman flashed a spotlight on them, told them to put out the joint and then waved them off. After an essay adapted from her book was published in The New York Times, someone accused her of living in a cocoon of white privilege.

“Maybe I won’t get stopped,” she said. “But I wrote this not because of my privilege, but because I think it’s absurd that anyone would get stopped for this. Whatever I can do to legalize it, I will.”

She had taken a dim view of marijuana when she was a teenager living in Park Slope, Brooklyn, in 1963 and learned that a girlfriend got high at a party. Like someone who took her cue from the propaganda film “Reefer Madness,” she thought her friend would descend into a dissolute life of jazz and juke joints.

But somehow, Ms. Hiller changed her mind not too long afterward. In fact, she practiced by smoking cigarettes, waiting for her chance to get high. That came when she befriended Myles, a young man who showered her with attention. He offered her her first joint, which they shared — she thinks — in Prospect Park in Brooklyn (followed by a trip to a bar).

“I had the world’s best hamburger,” Ms. Hiller said. “Inside, I thought, ‘This is for me.’ Perhaps euphoria is too strong a word, but things just seemed great.”

Since the mid-1960s, her habit — and yes, she admits a dependency, just as she says someone might have a dependency on coffee — has continued for a half century, though she took breaks for pregnancy and for nursing her babies as well as a three-year hiatus soon after meeting Mark, her current husband. She is emphatic that she did not smoke around her boys, but did offer them a joint once they turned 18 (and were already smoking).

People might think she is some sort of party girl, but to hear her tell it, she is somewhat sedate. Ms. Hiller has had the same dealer for 35 years, watching as his regulars have gotten older and grayer. And there are many things she will not do while high, including driving and attending gatherings where she does not know many people.

Ms. Hiller is looking forward to her book tour, which will take her to at least one dispensary on the West Coast. Not that she justifies her use by claiming medical need.

“I don’t need it to relieve cramps,” she said. “I just like the feeling.”

Some of her neighbors in the New York suburb where she now lives do, too, she said. It amuses her to discover “secret smokers,” even if the whole idea of secrecy is, to her, a holdover from an alarmist and judgmental era. She hopes her book and campaign — where she invites readers to share their stories on her website, http://www.marijuanamemoir.com — will lead to a change of opinion and laws.

“It’s hard for people to change their mind-set after so many years,” Ms. Hiller admitted. “But look at marriage equality and how that happened so fast. That was unheard-of five years ago. So maybe smoking pot will be completely normal, and no one will raise an eyebrow when they find out somebody smokes.”

A version of this article appears in print on April 13, 2015, on page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Smoking Marijuana for 50 Years, and Turning Out Just Fine.

[BoSoxGal]

From her website:

Just Say Yes: A Marijuana Memoir will be published April 20, 2015 by Heliotrope Books.

Love the publication date!

[Lord Jim]

Adolf Hitler's birthday?

[Big RR]

I recall something about 420 being a pot holiday, but don't remember exactly what.

[BoSoxGal]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_%28cannabis_culture%29

420, 4:20, or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) is a code-term that refers to the consumption of cannabis and by extension, as a way to identify oneself with cannabis subculture or simply cannabis itself. Observances based on the number 420 include smoking cannabis around the time 4:20 p.m (16:20) on any given day, as well as smoking and celebrating cannabis on the date April 20th (4/20 in U.S. form).[1]

Contents [hide]
1 Origins
2 April 20 observances
3 Impact
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Origins[edit]
A group of people in San Rafael, California,[2][3] calling themselves the Waldos[4] because "their chosen hang-out spot was a wall outside the school",[5] used the term in connection with a fall 1971 plan to search for an abandoned cannabis crop that they had learned about.[4][6] The Waldos designated the Louis Pasteur statue on the grounds of San Rafael High School as their meeting place, and 4:20 p.m. as their meeting time.[5] The Waldos referred to this plan with the phrase "4:20 Louis". Multiple failed attempts to find the crop eventually shortened their phrase to simply "4:20", which ultimately evolved into a codeword that the teens used to mean marijuana-smoking in general.[6] Mike Edison says that Steve Hager of High Times was responsible for taking the story about the Waldos to "mind-boggling, cult like extremes" and "suppressing" all other stories about the origin of the term.[7]

Hager wrote "Stoner Smart or Stoner Stupid?" in which he called for 4:20 p.m. to be the socially accepted hour of the day to consume cannabis.[8] He attributes the early spread of the phrase to Grateful Dead followers, who were also linked to the city of San Rafael.[8]

April 20 observances[edit]
File:420 event in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, April 20th 2013.webm
420 event in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, April 20, 2013

Students and others gather for a "420 Day" event in Porter Meadow at the University of California, Santa Cruz, campus on April 20, 2007.
April 20th has become a counterculture holiday in North America, where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis.[9][1][10] Some events have a political nature to them, advocating for the legalization of cannabis. North American observances have been held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park near the Haight-Ashbury district,[11] the University of Colorado's Boulder campus,[3][12][13] Ottawa, Ontario, at Parliament Hill and Major's Hill Park,[14][15] Montréal, Québec at Mount Royal monument,[16][17] Edmonton, Alberta at the Alberta Legislature Building,[18] as well as Vancouver, British Columbia at the Vancouver Art Gallery.[19] The growing size of the unofficial event at UC Santa Cruz caused the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs to send an e-mail to parents in 2009 stating: "The growth in scale of this activity has become a concern for both the university and surrounding community."[20]

Events have also occurred in Auckland, New Zealand at the Daktory[21][unreliable source?] and Dunedin, New Zealand, at University of Otago.[22][23][24][25][26][27]

Impact[edit]
In Colorado, the Colorado Department of Transportation replaced the frequently stolen Mile Marker 420 sign on I-70 east of Denver with one reading 419.99 in an attempt to stop the thievery.[28]

[Joe Guy]

At first glance at this thread title I thought it said, "The Elvis of Marijuana".

So I thought of this guy....

[BoSoxGal]

Willie Nelson will launch own brand of weed, chain of marijuana stores in US
BY MELISSA CHAN NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Friday, March 27, 2015, 9:29 AM


American country singer Willie Nelson takes a drag off a joint while relaxing at his home in Texas, 2000s. A large amount of marijuana is spread out on the table before him (Photo by Liaison/Getty Images)

Country music legend Willie Nelson is launching his own brand of weed and a chain of marijuana stores across the country.

The 81-year-old longtime cannabis enthusiast plans to open up shops in states where pot is legal starting in 2016, he told the Daily Beast.

The Texas trailblazer wants his new signature brand, called Willie's Reserve, to be something that's "reflective of his passion," his spokesman told the publication.

"This is a culmination of Willie's vision, and his whole life," Michael Bowman said. "Really he wants it, at the end of the day, to envelop what his personal morals and convictions are."

The brand was developed with the help of Nelson's family in an attempt to "extract" themselves from the "goo of prohibition," he said.


Willie Nelson performs in concert at The Grand Opera on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014, in Wilmington, Del. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP)

It will be sold alongside branded bongs and other strains of marijuana, starting in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, where pot is legal.

The "Always on My Mind" singer has a memoir titled "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings From the Road" and claimed during a taping of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" to have once smoked pot on the roof of the White House.

Nelson is performing in Brooklyn at the Prospect Park Bandshell on Aug. 12.

He was busted in 2010 for possessing six ounces of marijuana on his tour bus in Texas, officials said.

mchan@nydailynews.com

[wesw]

oh great jim....

I discovered that april 20 was hitler s birthday while reading encyclopaedias in my elementary school days, then the 4/20 thing came along and my birthday became much more cool. why did you have to go and bring up the hitler connection again, huh?