Uruguay will soon be the first nation in the world to completely legalize the use, sale, and cultivation of (strikingly affordable) cannabis. Can the first country to fully legalize the sale and use of pot end the illegal drug trade? We’ll see.
In my own case, finishing college, getting a job, getting married, having a family or not serving in the military to fight an illegal war in Vietnam, were major sources of anxiety. And joint by joint, one became ever numbed to it all, “turning on, tuning in and dropping out,” as Tim Leary preached.
One woke up more and more to sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll, the 60s Rx. It seemed the waves of time kept pounding on the beach of my consciousness. All those girls in string bikinis made life seem like an endless summer. Even for a rational guy like me, once studious, even literary, I shed my tortoise-shell glasses, button-down shirts, tweed sport jacket and wool slacks. I was “liberating myself” as Tim recommended, who, by the way ended up freezing-himself after passing, and being shot into space, or was that Hunter Thompson?
Today, as an ex-stoner for 30 years, now 75 years old, I can tell you it won’t be easy for Uruguay. Back in the 60s when I was introduced to cannabis (pot), it felt exciting to break into the mystery of its effects, to go to that other place in the brain where things were calmer, cooler, seeable in totally different ways, leaving you with a feeling of “no pain.” These years did span one helluva time, a broken marriage, the birth of two children, one grandchild, a long-lasting marriage, and a third child, plus a successful career in advertising and painful departure. That’s when I hit the wall and quit to live on my severance money, no pot, no booze, no cigarettes. Caffeinated tea was my strongest stimulant.
Back to the beginning, my initial usage increased and led to a secondary effect, finding a friend who spent time in Mexico and could specially pack and ship back several pounds at a time for only a hundred bucks a pound and I could sell it for a helluva lot more per ounce than ten dollars. Don’t anybody fall over at the price. Those days are gone forever. Or are they? This provided me (sorry Uncle Sam) with a small source of income as well as cannabis. Bad boy! But then pot was a major form of relaxation even for the Nam soldiers, brave and betrayed hearts that they were.
My friends and my only fears were getting busted by the cops, as so many stoners all over the country did, bringing a rising cry for legalization. After all, smoking wasn’t hurting anybody. It was a “victimless crime,” so to speak. But too often it triggered the leap into other drugs: opium, cocaine, horrifying heroine, speed, etc. Being a serious fellow, I stayed pretty much on the island of cannabis’ tropical pleasure. I’d seen enough of my friends fall tragically from the effects of the heavy stuff. And that seemed really sad, reality inducing. But what if I had lived in Uruguay?
In Uruguay, it has long been legal to smoke cannabis; but growing, buying, selling or carrying it can result in prison time. There you go. If you don’t do the last three things, then how do you smoke it? However, the Uruguayan government was hipper and passed a cannabis legalization bill in late July and contingent on a senate vote set for November, Uruguay is readying to become the first country in the world to completely legalize the government-controlled sale, cultivation, and consumption of cannabis. Sales will start at just $1 per gram, so it is likely to provide the most accessible cannabis anywhere in the world. It hopefully will get rid of the gangsters who imported tons of it, making violent fortunes that included drug wars.
Fortunately, the Uruguayan system will operate similarly to the new system of legalized cannabis in Colorado, where people can buy the herb at licensed stores and grow a limited amount in their homes. “Limited” can be a loaded word. One man’s “limited” by another’s “not enough.” What I’m saying is that without a sufficient amount of usage discipline upfront, it is easy enough to become a pothead.
When I quit thirty years after I started, I went cold turkey. I forgot to mention, that in adland the pot led to drinking to mellow the madness (see the hit series Mad Men), which woke me to the fact of my addictive proclivity. In other words, either you’re on the wagon or off the wagon. It’s hard to be on one and off another.
Yet, Uruguay’s move to legalize is an effort to explore alternatives to the unsuccessful global war on drugs. Julio Calzada, head of Uruguay’s National Drugs Board, told the Guardianthe government planned on setting the low price on cannabis sales in an effort to push illegal drug traffickers out of the market. Frankly, I think that will start a drug war for the government with traffickers.
Look at cigarette smokers. It says on the box, “Caution: cigarette smoking can lead to cancer and death” and how many people keep on smoking? And the price of cigarettes has soared from fifty cents a pack when I started in the 60s (but fortunately gave it up a few years later), to $4.96 a pack in Kentucy (the cheapest) to $14.50 a pack in New York (the highest) today. Multiply that by a two pack-a-day-smoker.
“The illegal market is very risky and of poor quality,” Calzada said. “The price of marijuana from Paraguay that gets sold on the streets here is about $1 a gram, so we’re going to set the price of government-controlled cannabis at around that same price. We want to snatch the market away from the drug traffickers.” Good luck. And I mean that sincerely. But there is a “cold turkey” journey waiting for anyone who wants to quit (an industry itself). And that’s not just about price but addiction.
“In a few months cannabis legalization will pass the senate, and it will be sold freely at pharmacies,” Calzada told the Uruguayan newspaper El País. The system would take effect around mid-2014 in order to make time to harvest plants.” What does “sold freely” mean. Either it’s sold or it’s free. Does freely mean, it can be sold at any and every pharmacy? You’re going to have a lot of stoned people in Uruguay.
According to the same Guardian article, “Uruguay’s government will also control the psychoactive level of the cannabis sold through the pharmacies to the consuming public by testing the THC content [the main psychoactive element in cannabis] of the plants grown under the new system.” THC had a short run itself as a kind of mini hallucinogenic trip when smoked with some grass. It was about an hour high but one that allowed you to see through the walls of the universe.
Today, “Uruguay’s National Drugs Board is setting the THC content at between 5% and 12%, Calzada told the Guardian.” Other sources tell us there is a bit more “Involved in determining the potency of a marijuana plant, including Typical THC levels, which determines marijuana potency, ranging from 0.3 to 4 percent. However, some specially grown plants can contain THC levels as high as 15 percent. Several factors are
Growing climate and conditions
Plant genetics
Harvesting and processing
The time at which the plant is harvested affects the level of THC. Additionally, female varieties have higher levels of THC than male varieties. As cannabis plants mature, their chemical composition changes. During early development, cannabidiolic acid is the most prevalent chemical. Later, cannabidiolic acid is converted to cannabidiol, which is later converted to THC when the plant reaches its floral maturation.
To determine the average potency levels of marijuana, researchers need to examine a cross section of cannabis plants, which wasn’t done in the 1960s and 1970s. This makes it difficult to make accurate comparisons between the THC levels of that time period and the THC levels of today. Under the new bill, Uruguayans will be allowed to cultivate a maximum of six plants in their homes and cooperatives of 45 members or less will be allowed to grow up to 99 plants for their own use.
Lastly, I can see how cannabis can ease pain, nausea, and general bad physical feelings, but it’s not a free ride to nirvana as Tim O’Leary and my whole generation learned the hard way. Pot, in my opinion, is a gateway drug to bigger and more powerful, more damaging highs, affecting the brain, including memory and creating anxiety and/or mild to strong paranoia. Looking back and looking forward, I find my life without drugs or alcohol has become more fruitful. I have more strength and flexibility without cigarettes, pot or booze. That’s one man’s opinion, but one who’s been there.
I would recommend a course in meditation for anyhow trying to quit taking substances. Getting in touch with yourself can be helpful in getting rid of various addictions. On other fronts, decriminalizing cannabis for those found with small amounts does not warrant long jail sentences in privatized prisons either. That’s a whole new adjunct industry and a drain on social resources. The judiciary and policing systems of individual countries should be schooled in those facts as well.
In the “Stop and Frisk,” process now used in New York City, and which has been declared unconstitutional, minorities (mostly black and Hispanic) have been targeted by stereotyping. Often possession of small amounts can cause big sentences, which cause devastating long-term effects on lives, often incarcerating the occasional with career criminals.
Bottom line, my journey to total sobriety proved to be a wonderful productive one, even with its moments of suffering. Ultimately, whatever you produce, a Pulitzer Prize novel, a family, or a simple life dedicated to simple pleasures, they all come from the core of your being. Stay in touch with it. For it is there, where the yen to “tune in, turn on, and drop out” can begin. Life is beautiful even when it seems ugly. Stay in touch with nature. Enjoy people. Read a poem. And you will find the ready peace cannabis promises. And if you must use it, don’t overuse it.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer and life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.
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Freeing pot from the illegal drug trade
Posted on November 1, 2013 by Jerry Mazza
Uruguay will soon be the first nation in the world to completely legalize the use, sale, and cultivation of (strikingly affordable) cannabis. Can the first country to fully legalize the sale and use of pot end the illegal drug trade? We’ll see.
In my own case, finishing college, getting a job, getting married, having a family or not serving in the military to fight an illegal war in Vietnam, were major sources of anxiety. And joint by joint, one became ever numbed to it all, “turning on, tuning in and dropping out,” as Tim Leary preached.
One woke up more and more to sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll, the 60s Rx. It seemed the waves of time kept pounding on the beach of my consciousness. All those girls in string bikinis made life seem like an endless summer. Even for a rational guy like me, once studious, even literary, I shed my tortoise-shell glasses, button-down shirts, tweed sport jacket and wool slacks. I was “liberating myself” as Tim recommended, who, by the way ended up freezing-himself after passing, and being shot into space, or was that Hunter Thompson?
Today, as an ex-stoner for 30 years, now 75 years old, I can tell you it won’t be easy for Uruguay. Back in the 60s when I was introduced to cannabis (pot), it felt exciting to break into the mystery of its effects, to go to that other place in the brain where things were calmer, cooler, seeable in totally different ways, leaving you with a feeling of “no pain.” These years did span one helluva time, a broken marriage, the birth of two children, one grandchild, a long-lasting marriage, and a third child, plus a successful career in advertising and painful departure. That’s when I hit the wall and quit to live on my severance money, no pot, no booze, no cigarettes. Caffeinated tea was my strongest stimulant.
Back to the beginning, my initial usage increased and led to a secondary effect, finding a friend who spent time in Mexico and could specially pack and ship back several pounds at a time for only a hundred bucks a pound and I could sell it for a helluva lot more per ounce than ten dollars. Don’t anybody fall over at the price. Those days are gone forever. Or are they? This provided me (sorry Uncle Sam) with a small source of income as well as cannabis. Bad boy! But then pot was a major form of relaxation even for the Nam soldiers, brave and betrayed hearts that they were.
My friends and my only fears were getting busted by the cops, as so many stoners all over the country did, bringing a rising cry for legalization. After all, smoking wasn’t hurting anybody. It was a “victimless crime,” so to speak. But too often it triggered the leap into other drugs: opium, cocaine, horrifying heroine, speed, etc. Being a serious fellow, I stayed pretty much on the island of cannabis’ tropical pleasure. I’d seen enough of my friends fall tragically from the effects of the heavy stuff. And that seemed really sad, reality inducing. But what if I had lived in Uruguay?
In Uruguay, it has long been legal to smoke cannabis; but growing, buying, selling or carrying it can result in prison time. There you go. If you don’t do the last three things, then how do you smoke it? However, the Uruguayan government was hipper and passed a cannabis legalization bill in late July and contingent on a senate vote set for November, Uruguay is readying to become the first country in the world to completely legalize the government-controlled sale, cultivation, and consumption of cannabis. Sales will start at just $1 per gram, so it is likely to provide the most accessible cannabis anywhere in the world. It hopefully will get rid of the gangsters who imported tons of it, making violent fortunes that included drug wars.
Fortunately, the Uruguayan system will operate similarly to the new system of legalized cannabis in Colorado, where people can buy the herb at licensed stores and grow a limited amount in their homes. “Limited” can be a loaded word. One man’s “limited” by another’s “not enough.” What I’m saying is that without a sufficient amount of usage discipline upfront, it is easy enough to become a pothead.
When I quit thirty years after I started, I went cold turkey. I forgot to mention, that in adland the pot led to drinking to mellow the madness (see the hit series Mad Men), which woke me to the fact of my addictive proclivity. In other words, either you’re on the wagon or off the wagon. It’s hard to be on one and off another.
Yet, Uruguay’s move to legalize is an effort to explore alternatives to the unsuccessful global war on drugs. Julio Calzada, head of Uruguay’s National Drugs Board, told the Guardian the government planned on setting the low price on cannabis sales in an effort to push illegal drug traffickers out of the market. Frankly, I think that will start a drug war for the government with traffickers.
Look at cigarette smokers. It says on the box, “Caution: cigarette smoking can lead to cancer and death” and how many people keep on smoking? And the price of cigarettes has soared from fifty cents a pack when I started in the 60s (but fortunately gave it up a few years later), to $4.96 a pack in Kentucy (the cheapest) to $14.50 a pack in New York (the highest) today. Multiply that by a two pack-a-day-smoker.
“The illegal market is very risky and of poor quality,” Calzada said. “The price of marijuana from Paraguay that gets sold on the streets here is about $1 a gram, so we’re going to set the price of government-controlled cannabis at around that same price. We want to snatch the market away from the drug traffickers.” Good luck. And I mean that sincerely. But there is a “cold turkey” journey waiting for anyone who wants to quit (an industry itself). And that’s not just about price but addiction.
“In a few months cannabis legalization will pass the senate, and it will be sold freely at pharmacies,” Calzada told the Uruguayan newspaper El País. The system would take effect around mid-2014 in order to make time to harvest plants.” What does “sold freely” mean. Either it’s sold or it’s free. Does freely mean, it can be sold at any and every pharmacy? You’re going to have a lot of stoned people in Uruguay.
According to the same Guardian article, “Uruguay’s government will also control the psychoactive level of the cannabis sold through the pharmacies to the consuming public by testing the THC content [the main psychoactive element in cannabis] of the plants grown under the new system.” THC had a short run itself as a kind of mini hallucinogenic trip when smoked with some grass. It was about an hour high but one that allowed you to see through the walls of the universe.
Today, “Uruguay’s National Drugs Board is setting the THC content at between 5% and 12%, Calzada told the Guardian.” Other sources tell us there is a bit more “Involved in determining the potency of a marijuana plant, including Typical THC levels, which determines marijuana potency, ranging from 0.3 to 4 percent. However, some specially grown plants can contain THC levels as high as 15 percent. Several factors are
The time at which the plant is harvested affects the level of THC. Additionally, female varieties have higher levels of THC than male varieties. As cannabis plants mature, their chemical composition changes. During early development, cannabidiolic acid is the most prevalent chemical. Later, cannabidiolic acid is converted to cannabidiol, which is later converted to THC when the plant reaches its floral maturation.
To determine the average potency levels of marijuana, researchers need to examine a cross section of cannabis plants, which wasn’t done in the 1960s and 1970s. This makes it difficult to make accurate comparisons between the THC levels of that time period and the THC levels of today. Under the new bill, Uruguayans will be allowed to cultivate a maximum of six plants in their homes and cooperatives of 45 members or less will be allowed to grow up to 99 plants for their own use.
Lastly, I can see how cannabis can ease pain, nausea, and general bad physical feelings, but it’s not a free ride to nirvana as Tim O’Leary and my whole generation learned the hard way. Pot, in my opinion, is a gateway drug to bigger and more powerful, more damaging highs, affecting the brain, including memory and creating anxiety and/or mild to strong paranoia. Looking back and looking forward, I find my life without drugs or alcohol has become more fruitful. I have more strength and flexibility without cigarettes, pot or booze. That’s one man’s opinion, but one who’s been there.
I would recommend a course in meditation for anyhow trying to quit taking substances. Getting in touch with yourself can be helpful in getting rid of various addictions. On other fronts, decriminalizing cannabis for those found with small amounts does not warrant long jail sentences in privatized prisons either. That’s a whole new adjunct industry and a drain on social resources. The judiciary and policing systems of individual countries should be schooled in those facts as well.
In the “Stop and Frisk,” process now used in New York City, and which has been declared unconstitutional, minorities (mostly black and Hispanic) have been targeted by stereotyping. Often possession of small amounts can cause big sentences, which cause devastating long-term effects on lives, often incarcerating the occasional with career criminals.
Bottom line, my journey to total sobriety proved to be a wonderful productive one, even with its moments of suffering. Ultimately, whatever you produce, a Pulitzer Prize novel, a family, or a simple life dedicated to simple pleasures, they all come from the core of your being. Stay in touch with it. For it is there, where the yen to “tune in, turn on, and drop out” can begin. Life is beautiful even when it seems ugly. Stay in touch with nature. Enjoy people. Read a poem. And you will find the ready peace cannabis promises. And if you must use it, don’t overuse it.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer and life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.