Under an O is an Infraction

The law signed late Thursday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reduces possession of an ounce or less of pot from a misdemeanor to an infraction with a maximum punishment of a $100 fine.

it reminds me of when we were in the fifth grade and the teacher asked us what items we would bring to the moon. you see, we had the capability of carrying 50lbs on our back but had many items we could bring-- unfortunately, all of them added up to well over 50lbs.

we had to decide which were the most valuable, what we'd take, and what we'd leave.

we could grab the extra oxygen tank, or food supplies, or rope, and we could put together a little backpack full of must-haves. but we couldn't take it all.

it was a lesson in prioritizing and strategic thinking. and i mostly failed.

i chose the extra oxygen tank thinking no matter what happened, we would need that. the truth is, i chose to carry one of the heaviest items in case of a situation highly unlikely. and i opted not to take the rope, which was not only light-weight, but would've been my only way out of some very large craters-- something i was almost bound to run into.

the world and marijuana sounds a bit like that. the plant has been deemed illegal since the mid-thirties and if you ever take the time to research why you'll find a glorious story of racism, sensationalizing, and mormons. but, despite its admittedly ridiculous origins, it's remained illegal throughout the decades. they say 50,000 marijuana-related arrests happened in 2006 and i was three of them.

but now that we're in a recession and california continues to climb into debt, priorities are rearranging.

"In this time of drastic budget cuts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement and the courts cannot afford to expend limited resources prosecuting a crime that carries the same punishment as a traffic ticket," the governor said in a statement.

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we all had one goal for our fifth grade moon mission and that was to survive. maybe some wanted to colonize and others wanted to look for aliens or strange and magical rocks-- but we all aimed to survive.

in america, it seems despite our morals and philosophies, we all want money. not everyone wants the bettering of others, unfortunately, but everyone wants and needs money.

well, the economy plummeted and now what?

we're looking at our backpack of items and deciding which we should've never carried and if any can still be dropped.

originally, we came in and decided to make rigid rules about marriage, drugs, and overall censorship. and, while realizing we'll never get rid of censorship we've started discussing marriage and debating that it may just be time to also drop our thoughts on drugs.

at least certain drugs. namely the one that has no history of overdose issues, no direct link to deaths or murders, and is the friend of the beatles.

if you've ever been to jail on account of pot, you should agree that the experience of being surrounded by wife-beaters, car-thieves, and coke-heads is much worse than what brought you there in the first place-- not to mention inexcusably expensive considering your friends will roll a fat blunt to celebrate your return and you'll likely be back again without any lessons learned beyond the fact that the 2003 camry is one of the easiest cars to steal.

arresting potheads-- while calling them lazy and forgetful-- is an odd thing. what was the worry? that they would forget to pay their rent and then lazily rob a bank? i'll tell you i was probably better at managing my money when i was a pothead because i knew i needed to set aside some of it for weed, dvds, and a shitload of candy.

in fact, the worst thing about weed is that it makes you really hungry and you find yourself at 7-11 dropping $50 on an entourage of nerds rope, slurpees, doritos, sourpatch kids, and cheap burritos-- but i thought spending the american dollar was a good thing.

the president of russia has actually thanked cigarette smokers and alcoholics for continuously supporting their economy while everyone else has panicked and stopped spending money.

but outside of the munchies, the only problem i had with weed was that it was illegal. i couldn't stand the treatment it earned me. there were no side affects or days that i lost jobs or girlfriends because of it. and i never hurt anyone, stole, or did anything i wouldn't have done sober. the worst part of weed was being a criminal and having to lie to my mom.

i think this dewey cox scene put it pretty well:

there are those who make outlandish claims that if we legalize marijuana, we'll just be opening the doors and it'll only be a matter of time before we legalize heroin and cocaine. those people are likely the same extremists who think legalizing gay marriage will magically turn their children gay.

overall, i'm really excited that weed has been reduced to an infraction. and i'm anxious to see what happens with prop 19's attempt to legalize the herb for recreational uses, too.

i just wish all this happened back when i was still a pothead. that would've saved me quite a bit of money and time. and my 20th birthday which was spent in an anti-drug class with crackheads and a handful of husband-beaters.