Fucking Hippies

From a policy perspective, it's clear that we need to legalize marijuana.

However, the behavior of hippies almost makes me want to keep the drug criminalized, just as an excuse to throw them all in jail where hopefully they will be severely beaten every day.

See for instance, this "debate" about California Prop 19, which would effectively legalize the drug, at the International Cannabis and Hemp Expo:

As an emcee tried to introduce the first speaker, Prop. 19 architect Richard Lee, he was overwhelmed by boos and jeers. Some pot farmers, doctors, and pot-dispensary owners fear that legalizing the drug will eliminate their jobs or expose them to competition from industrial-scale growers. "I need everyone in the crowd to act like an adult. Right now!" the emcee yelled fruitlessly. He then asked "the adults" in the crowd to raise their hands. The room grew quieter.


But not for long. Lee, the founder of Oaksterdam University, a marijuana cultivation school in Oakland ("Quality traning for the cannibis industry"), wore aviator sunglasses that made him look like a fighter pilot about to strafe the crowd. "We're all for legalization here, right?" he began, mildly enough, before exploding: "We're all for fucking legalization! So fuck these guys who want to keep fucking up out of Mexico!" He went on, a bit cryptically, "Thirty thousand people are dead! We've got to move to legalization, it's that simple. This is the best we can do right now." Applause and cheers clashed with cries of "You suck!"

"I'm hiding behind you if a fight breaks out," Derek Oppedisano, a Prop. 19 supporter and co-owner of weGrow, an Oakland hydroponics store, told me. "I'm too stoned to throw punches." I pointed out that pot smokers are supposed to be peaceful. "I'm telling you, man, when economics gets involved, it changes everything," Oppedisano said. A year from now, he predicted, the pot business "is gonna be as ruthless as Wall Street."

Christ...