The hippies’ big dream came true! Marijuana’s becoming legal.
Right now in six states, you can walk into a “drug”store and buy a baggie of marijuana as easily as buying a bag of potatoes.
California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Colorado and Washington, D.C are all smoking it for fun with more on the way. In 24 more states it’s medically legal.
These states broke the ice and made pot legal, it will eventually be the law from coast to coast. Hawaii will soon be rolling up joints and burning away.
We can finally drop the false belief that weed is harmful. Compared to booze that kills more people than all the wars put together, pot is a stick of gum. Some will continue dragging out the tattered arguments against it, but this is only the last gasp of the dinosaurs as they go extinct.
Pot can’t hurt you — deal with it. That’s why it’s legal in half the country, and why almost 90 percent of Americans want it decriminalized.
So what will legalization mean to the social scene? There can be no more drug-testing for jobs. It’s legal, so what’s the point? It will mean you can say right out loud in church or school, “I smoke pot and I’ve been smoking it for years.”
I can’t say this because it makes me physically ill. But I lived through the ‘60s, back then pot-smoking was practically a required course in college. The whole country was in a purple haze.
Legalizing marijuana is yet another example of society coming to its senses and admitting it was wrong all along. It’s mankind marching forward and evolving.
For centuries in Hawaii women could not eat a banana or coconut, it meant death. Dancing the hula and speaking Hawaiian was illegal in Hawaii. Also, there was a not-too-distant time in our country when an African-American could not sit down in a restaurant for a cup of coffee, and a time when women could not vote. All were stupid laws but we swore by them at the time. Back then, it’s hard to believe now, they were considered right and moral.
But morals change. If mom and dad in the ‘50s had seen a bra or condom commercial on TV, they would have dropped dead.
Today’s sins are tomorrow’s grins. We look back and smile at how foolish our beliefs once were.
We now see how ignorant it is spending billions to fill the jails with millions of people over a harmless little plant. Future generations will laugh at us like we laugh at mom and dad in the ‘50s.
We are growing up as a country and it won’t be easy.
Much aloha and courage will be needed to smoke it in front of friends and family melting away the ignorance of those still condemning marijuana. And much more will be needed from those whose old-fashioned beliefs are shaken up as the evil weed becomes an innocent pasttime.
Like a big wave at sunset, legal pakalolo is rolling into Hawaii. Let it roll, I’m sure it will be a big hit.
Dennis Gregory is a writer, artist, singer, teacher and Kailua-Kona resident who mixes truth, humor and aloha in his biweekly column. He can be reached at makewavess@yahoo.com.