In the Sunday North section of the Jan. 28, 2018 Boston Sunday Globe there is a “debate” about potentially allowing the largest pot farm in the nation in the northeast corner of MA, where I live. Not far from where I now live. The location of this farm echoes from my past, and it highlights the reality of non- linear time, a topic of discussion my wife and I frequently had during our recent cross-country trip. But that’s not why I am writing this piece.
But still the non linear time link is certainly worth telling. About 40 years ago, a friend’s younger brother, (I’ll call him Mark because that is actually his name), told his brother and I that he had seen pot plants growing right off the road in the very same town where this large farm is now being planned. Later that day, Mark and I drove up there to investigate and perhaps save some money 🙂. His brother thought we were both nuts and stayed home. Of course, we never found anything, and that was because Mark had glimpsed through time and what he saw was not yet there.
Back to the article in the North section of the Sunday Globe.
The person against the farm, made one point that has been made 1000 times a day for the past 50 or more years. Yup, the old anecdote about someone who noted they first got high on pot and from there soon became another victim of opioids.
Usually I just let that cliche remark roll away forgotten, but today I considered it and actually thought about it. I’m thinking in retrospect it may have been the effects from my second big mug of strong Indian tea. But with all due sympathy and consideration for those caught up in the opioid crises, I realized that pot was not their gateway drug.
I am fairly certain that approximately 99.99% of all opioid addicts got their first high not from pot, but from ice cream. The other .01% got theirs from Oreo cookies. Does not, even today, the first spoonful or lick of ice cream brings a rush of joy to your brain and throughout your entire body and being? Isn’t Ice cream wonderful; and Oreos are pretty good too!
Of course, I may be wrong, since I have never experienced opioids, so perhaps the comparison is weak. But don’t depressed people gouge themselves on ice cream? Could we can prevent opioid addiction by banning ice cream and Oreos? The pot ban certainly hasn’t helped. Nonetheless, I think we can now officially take pot off the list of gateway drugs.
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