Random thoughts in response to the comments since my last post:
No, I never felt guilty about breaking the law by possessing or using pot at that age.
But I had a lot of growing up to do. I also didn't feel guilty about driving like a maniac.
Regarding enforcement, here are the two encounters I had with The Law:
It was the early 1980s, right before Nancy Reagan's "Just Say NO."
My friend and I were on our way to Disneyland with six joints rolled up but hadn't smoked any yet. I was driving too fast on a curve when a vehicle coming the other way "straightened the curve" by crossing the centerline by about two feet (it was the 1980s, so it was a HUGE square grill facing my poor little Pinto).
I jerked the wheel to the right, hit the gravel shoulder and was heading toward a fence and trees, so I jerked the wheel back to the left — and saw a SUV coming. As I was almost at right angles to the roadway, I turned a bit more left to try to enter a side street in the hopes that the SUV would go behind me ... but he also swerved to HIS right.
My Pinto hit the rear driver side door with my passenger side headlamp, denting his door and totaling my Pinto.
With fluids leaking out of the Pinto, we jumped out in a panic.
The other driver was cussing me, I was apologizing, and the cops showed up.
He looked over the scene while my friend assured me had gathered all the joints up.
So the cop walks over and says, "So how much marijuana do you have?"
"Marijuana I don't have any marijuana sir!" I white-lied. (I didn't have any... it was my friend's ...)
"Oh really?" he said and opened his hand in front of me to show me the one joint my friend did NOT gather up in his haste to evacuate the vehicle.
"Um.. ah... OK. Yes," I said. "We did have a joint.. But that was not a factor in this accident! Look at my eyes: we haven't smoked ANY yet!"
He nodded (it was the truth; we hadn't smoked any yet so we didn't have stoned eyes or any smell on us) ....
and HANDED ME THE JOINT.
I thought it was a trap so I made a big show of breaking it in half and tossing it over a fence. In hindsight, I should have said "Thank you, sir" and put it in my pocket
The second encounter was when I took dad's station wagon with three of my buddies up into new subdivision (streets and curbs, no homes yet) to park and smoke pot.
We were very high when we spotted headlights coming into the subdivision. Because we were young and high, we thought it would be a good idea to jump in the vehicle and drive away.
So I ran around the back of the car, jumped behind the wheel and remembered I had left the keys on the roof over the passenger seat.
So we all jumped out like a Chinese fire drill to find the keys ... and about that time, the headlights and spotlight hit us.
In hindsight, they must have paused to wipe laughter tears from their eyes and put on their Cop Faces.
"Whatcha doin' out here?" they asked.
"Oh, nothin' ... hanging out..talking..." we answered.
"Can I see your license and registration" they asked.
At that moment I realized that the car's registration was in the glovebox ... where we had tossed the sandwich bag with marijuana after rolling up the joint.
Being young, stupid and high and not realizing that NOT producing registration would be a much bigger problem that being caught with a bag of weed, I handed him my license and said, "I don't think I have the registration with me, sir..."
My friend said, "Sure you do: its probably in the glovebox!"
So I opened the passenger door, reached in the glovebox while the officer shined the light in the box over my shoulder, and slid the envelope with the registration out from under the bag of weed and handed it to him, pretending the bag of weed was invisible.
He looked it over, handed it back and said:
"OK, well you guys need to go somewhere else. There is no reason to be out here. When we see someone parked up here in the dark we can only think they might selling stolen cars or.. smoking dope or something."
We promised, in earnest, to never return there or to any other place like it ever, ever again.
So...what kind of message was law enforcement sending me?
And now, after all these years, my heart tells me:
Running a stop sign is WORSE that smoking weed. Blowing through stop signs KILLS PEOPLE, directly.
Speeding is WORSE that smoking weed. Speeding KILLS people, directly.
And that some laws are SILLY and aren't worth enforcing — and need to be changed. Legislators are NOT doing their jobs and amending the laws of their communities to reflect the principles upon which this country was founded and/or the will of the people when that will does not conflict with the principles of the Constitution.
It isn't the government's business what kind of sex acts my significant other and I enjoy together, for example. Some of them are against the law but people know today those laws contradict the principles of the pursuit of happiness and liberty and today those laws aren't enforced — and rightfully so as it isn't anybody else's business and does not directly affect anyone else's sphere of freedom (Locke's phrase, wasn't it?).
So tell me, those of you who are in law enforcement: since you are so dedicated to following the letter of the law, if you spot someone admits getting a blow job and that is illegal in your state, are you going to cite them? Haul them in? Why do you not pull over each and every driver who exceeds the speed limit?
I suspect for whatever reason you pick and choose which laws you choose to enforce based on your inner convictions.
Now before you whip out the cross and nails and castigate me for actions roughly 30 years ago, let me state that
I respect LEOs with deep respect and admiration.
And I realize that a lot of the people I had associated with because of my involvement with marijuana were criminals — not BECAUSE of marijuana, but were criminals in other ways — but I was hanging with them because of pot. I am so glad to be away from that drug culture and those people.
But I also met and associated with GOOD people who smoke marijuana on a daily basis who did a great job of raising their kids, doing their jobs, who were in every way assets to their community. They aren't criminals and shouldn't be classified as such by our laws or our attitudes.
I probably won't ever get to smoke pot again because my girlfriend doesn't like it and I like her much more than I like pot. But I will continue to speak in favor of liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the hopes that embrace the freedoms our forefathers fought and died for.
I wouldn't expect you Brits to understand. But that's who we Americans are supposed to be and am disturbed that any of my countrymen would be so willing to sacrifice those freedoms for what they believe to be a greater good.
