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Drug warriors love to speculate about the potential terrors caused by a population trusted to make decisions for themselves, so why aren’t they more inclined to discuss some of this country’s most famous users of these evil substances?
Understanding the drug fiend’s mind should give us an idea of what to expect once our drug laws are repealed, at which point it is expected that half the population will immediately start shooting up heroin and, eventually, try to steal your furniture.
Please note that there is no attempt at ordering the respective effects these criminals have had on society, but as you might notice the list is far from complete. Any additions, comments or even confessions from other evildoers are more than welcome.
Barack Obama; Bob Marley; Carl Sagan; Richard Feynman; Michael Hollingshead; Cary Grant; Woody Harrelson; John Lennon; Stephen King; Marc Emery; Clarence Thomas; Jack Herer; Allen Ginsberg; Alexander Shulgin; Charles Dodgson(a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, who might not have actually used any illicit drugs–yet practically everyone agrees he referenced both cannabis and mushrooms in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland); R. Gordon Wasson; Aldous Huxley; Philip K. Dick; Carlos Castaneda; Willie Nelson; Oliver Stone; Dennis Hopper; Joe Rogan; Dave Chappelle; Jerry Garcia; Jim Morrison;Robert Louis Stevenson; Layne Staley; Jennifer Anniston; Sigmund Freud; Kurt Cobain;Tupac Shakur;Bob Dillon;Mick Jagger; Tommy Chong; George Harrison;Paul McCartney; Matthew McConaughey; Brad Pitt; Snoop Dogg; Thomas Jefferson; George Washington; Benjamin Franklin; Louis Armstrong; Bruce Lee; Richard Alpert; Timothy Leary; Jack Kerouac; Hunter S. Thompson; Robert Anton Wilson; Terence McKenna; Adolf Hitler; Sherlock Holmes; Ken Kesey; Abbie Hoffman; Notorious B.I.G.; Ray Charles; Arnold Schwarzenegger; Al Gore; G.W. Bush; John Belushi; Robin Williams; Tim Allen; Sting; Eminem; Bill Hicks; Wynona Ryder; Neal Cassady; James Brown; David Bowie; Bob Denver; Neil Diamond; Bill Murray; Carlos Santana; Charlie Sheen; Newt Gingrich…
“..In all my years on the streets, it was an extremely rare occasion to have a night go by without an alcohol-related incident. More often than not, there were multiple alcohol-related calls during a shift. I became accustomed to the pattern (and the odor). If I was called to a part of town with a concentration of bars or to the local university, I could expect to be greeted by one or more drunks, flexing their “beer muscles,” either in the throes of a fight or looking to start one. Sadly, the same was often true when I received a domestic abuse call. More often than not, these conflicts–many having erupted into physical violence–were fueled by one or both participants having overindulged in alcohol.
In case you might be thinking my observations are unique, let me share the results of some informal research I have conducted on my own. Over the past four years, out of a general interest in this subject, I’ve been asking police officers throughout the U.S. (and Canada) two questions. First: “When’s the last time you had to fight someone under the influence of marijuana?” (And by this I mean marijuana only, not pot plus a six-pack or fifth of tequila.) My colleagues pause; they reflect. Their eyes widen as they realize that in their five or fifteen or thirty years on the job they have never had to fight a marijuana user. I then ask, “When’s the last time you had to fight a drunk?” They look at their watches. It’s telling that the booze question is answered in terms of hours, not days or weeks.
The plain and simple truth is that alcohol fuels violent behavior and marijuana does not. As described in great detail in Chapter 7, alcohol contributes to literally millions of acts of violence in the United States each year. It is a major contributing factor to crimes like domestic violence, sexual assault, and homicide. Marijuana use, on the other hand, is absent in that regard from both crime reports and the scientific literature. There is simply no causal link to be found.
As one who has been entrusted with maintaining the public’s safety, I strongly believe–and most people agree–that our laws should punish people who do harm to others. This is true whether we are talking about violent crimes like murder and assault or nonviolent crimes like shoplifting or insider trading. It is also appropriate to punish other behavior that threatens public safety such as speeding or driving through red lights. All of these laws are clearly designed to protect our citizens
But by banning the use of marijuana and punishing individuals who merely possess the substance, it is difficult to see what harm we are trying to prevent. It bears repeating: From my own work and the experiences of other members of the law enforcement community, it is abundantly clear that marijuana is rarely, if ever, the cause of harmfully disruptive or violent behavior. In fact, I would go so far as to say that marijuana use often helps to tamp down tensions where they otherwise might exist.
That marijuana causes very little social harm is reason enough in a free society to legalize it for adults. But as Steve, Paul, and Mason so brilliantly demonstrate in this book, an even more persuasive reason is that by prohibiting marijuana we are steering people toward a substance that far too many people already abuse, namely alcohol. Can marijuana be abused? Of course. But, as this book makes clear, it is a much safer product for social and recreational use than alcohol. Where is the logic, then, in allowing adults to use alcohol but arresting them and branding them as criminals if they choose to use marijuana instead?
Let me be clear. The problem does not lie with law enforcement officials. Your police officers take an oath to uphold the law and cannot simply turn their backs when they see marijuana statutes violated. What we need is to replace the current system of prohibition with new laws that permit and regulate the sale of marijuana, an excellent framework for which is provided in this extraordinary book. Read it, and you’ll agree it is time we stop driving the American people to drink. Instead, we should simply and logically allow them to use a safer alternative, if that is what they prefer.”
Norm Stamper
June 2009
I’m happy to join in a conspiracy of the authors to get this book into as many hands as possible. They would like you to consider taking part in The Great Marijuana Book Bomb of 2009 on Thursday, August 20. The authors of Marijuana is Safer are making a one-day push on Amazon.com to drive the book to #1 on the site’s rankings. Just visit the Book Bomb site, and enter your email address and you will receive a reminder on August 20. Or just make a note in your calendar to buy the book on Amazon.com that day. I hope you will support the effort.
Follow Norm Stamper on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CopsSayLegalize
“It’s been 31 years since America got its first whiff of ‘Up in Smoke’ and the herbally-enhanced comedic stylings of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong. Now, in 2009, after decades of very high highs and some behind-bars lows, the toking duo is being heralded for their impact on culture in VH1’s ‘Lords of the Revolution’ (airing Aug. 10-14 on VH1) along with the likes of Muhammad Ali, Andy Warhol and other legends. PopEater was able to chat with Cheech and Chong about the honors, Cheech’s marriage just this past weekend and also how legalized marijuana could kill the recession..”
Click here to read the full article, which also has some interesting videos and links.
