Well, At Least We Can Get High (Legally) Now!

The Soviet state let Russians have their vodka. It kept them in a stupor and that served the interests of the Soviet state. The state of Virginia will let Virginians buy pot – recreationally now – which will serve the interests of the state once again. The common denominator is that whatever the state does, it does in its own interests.

The interests of the people are always incidental.

Virginia previously “decriminalized” small-scale possession and use of pot. The word is bracketed within air fingers quote marks to mark the state’s habitual and characteristic creation of “crimes,”  which very much serves the interests of the state. Most people are not criminals in the sense that most people aren’t thieves, don’t physically assault or threaten to assault other people. Such crimes are relatively uncommon, which is why the state creates more “crimes.” When everyone is a “criminal” – or at least, an “offender” of some sort – then the state has a ready excuse to go after anyone, any time it likes. The arbitrary and capricious nature of this is obvious yet many do not see it. As a young man, I was arrested for the “crime” – as it was back then – of growing pot plants. Today, it is legal to grow pot plants and soon it will be legal for people in Virginia to buy it, too.

Without a “prescription,” even.

In Virginia – right now – you can dial-a-quack (literally) and obtain a “prescription” that says you have a “medical condition” that pot will ease. You tell the phone quack all about your ache and pains; how you have trouble getting to sleep at night. The quack agrees that you need pot and texts you a “prescription” that grants entre into what are styled “dispensaries,” where you get to fill your own “prescription.” Meaning you get to peruse through a menu of available types of pot – the actual plant material or its distilled essence in liquid/vape form as well as “edible” form. Interestingly, there is no dosage specification or limit. It’s all another kabuki opera performance. We pretend to be patients who are there to alleviate/treat our symptoms – and they pretend to be medical people.

Well, soon it will not be necessary to dial-a-quack and get a “prescription” for pot and visit a “dispensary.” This week, the state issued a new law granting permission for Virginians to buy pot without the kabuki at 350 state-approved pot shops, which are probably going to be run by the state in the manner of the liquor (ABC) shops the state controls. You’ll probably have to show ID and of course it won’t be just for show. They will likely scan your ID, so that the state knows not just that it’s you but that you just bought pot. (This is no small thing; federal law prohibits users of illegal drugs to purchase firearms and – at the federal level – pot is still an illegal “drug.”)

This “… gives us a smarter and safer path forward – one that protects consumers, keeps products tested and accurately labeled, and creates a legal marketplace that is affordable and accessible enough to actually compete,” says state Sen. Lashrecse Aird. What she means is a state-sanctioned, state-controlled marketplace. It won’t be legal for just anyone to start selling pot. The state still regards that as a “crime” – or at least, an “offense” (depending upon the amount sold). And – of course – the state will collect its share of the proceeds, via the taxes it  will impose on each transaction. That part again about the state always acting in congruence with its own interests. There is so much money to be made selling pot that the state decided to get into that market. Private transactions between private individuals result in no tax collected and that will always be a crime in the eyes of the state.

Meanwhile – it is not going too far, is it? – to state that the state is now actively complicit in the dealing of drugs it used to toss people into prison for dealing. Of course, these terms imply something bad rather than merely illicit. Coffee (caffeine) is a drug, too. As is alcohol. Somehow, some “drugs” are ok but others are not and the distinction seems to be based on no rational consideration in that alcohol is objectively more “dangerous” than pot. No one has ever “OD’d” on pot. They get sleepy. And they get the munchies. Alcohol can absolutely kill you if you drink too much, too quickly. It is also physically addictive (as is caffeine)  which pot is not.

It never mattered – and it does not matter now. 

The state has decided it is ok with people getting high. For basically the same reason the Soviet state was ok with the Russian people getting drunk. 

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