Although my days of toking and boozing are long over I am
fascinated by this whole legal Recreational Cannabis industry. On our recon
patrols for the perfect RV site for the Summer we see the retail shops, the
billboards and pamphlets in the tourist racks at truck stops. Hell, in one
truck stop there was a Starbucks, Cinnabun, Subway and then right there in
plain sight you have the Sweetleaf
cannabis shop with neon signs and daily specials on a board hanging over
the counter. The aroma of the fresh herb is thick in the air.
Now, don’t get me wrong I’m no prude and I’ve done plenty of
my share, but I came from a time when it wasn’t legal, in fact it was so
dangerous that I have had clients who served hard time for an ounce of weed.
Recently, before leaving Nashville for the Northwest I understand that the
Nashville Council reduced penalties to the sons and daughters of white
families, and they think that in the next ten years they will extend that same
courtesy to blacks.
I don’t know if I could even tell you of my experiences in
the legal/penal systems of the South. Think about it, an 18 year-old from some
shithole town in North East Arkansas, not much education and no worldly
experience, pulls a five year stretch in the ADC at Tucker Farm for having a
half ounce bag of pot. My experiences were frightening and often other worldly.
That’s the world that I grew up in so this industry is such a jolt.
The next few years will be interesting if we get this Trump
AG Jeff Sessions from Alabama where one could get a life term for possession.
Jeff Boy says that this industry is going to be shut down because, “…good
people don’t smoke that stuff.”
