This diary is the third of a three part series and was originally going to be called, Nukes, Drugs, and Rock & Roll part III - What now? Here are links for parts I & II
But on reflection, I realized that a different title might be more descriptive. I truly believe we are witnessing the final gasps of marijuana prohibition in the United States. It may be a few more years before full legalization, but the time is ripe for change. Just like with gay marriage, the opponents are largely aging and dying off and younger people have far more enlightened attitudes. And now it is time to bring out the big guns to finish this battle.
Jump, the guns ...
The big guns in this case are the facts that contradict drug war mythology. Part of why marijuana was made illegal in the first place was the campaign of lies that were spread by William Randolf Hearst and used by Harry Anslinger to railroad the laws through Congress. And while some of the more outrageous "Reefer Madness" claims have been debunked, there are still several myths and stereotypes which impede progress.
One of the most pernicious of these myths is the claim that marijuana causes mental dysfunction, unreliable thinking, physical impairment, and is generally a risk factor for accidents. Many insurance companies require drug tests in the event of workplace accidents. And even if a worker was an innocent bystander injured by someone else's negligence, if they test positive for drugs they can be denied coverage for the accident. And of course, because of its persistence in the body for days to weeks after use, marijuana is the most frequently drug found. The insurance companies claim that marijuana use creates a hazardous workplace when in fact their real motivation is to not pay out claims.
If science is to be believed as opposed to "common wisdom" aka mythology in many cases, then marijuana use might actually result in a safer workplace. Studies over the past decade have repeatedly found that emergency room admissionsfor all reasons are lower for people who smoked pot in the previous 6 hours than for people who consumed no drugs whatsoever. And, the higher the dose, the LESS likely a trip to the ER. As one might imagine, the results for alcohol were quite the opposite. But that is the problem. In the mind of the general public, at least those with no personal experience of pot, it is an intoxicant. Alcohol is also an intoxicant, therefore pot must make you a physical hazard just like alcohol.
This same argument carries over to driving. The conventional wisdom is that marijuana impairs ones ability to drive similarly to alcohol. But this belief is not supported by the various research which studied this issue. Even at elevated dosages, pot smokers performed no worse than people with Blood Alcohol Levels of 0.05% - less than the legal level for impairment in any state in the country. Yet despite this fact, most states have drugged driving laws which apply to marijuana smokers.
It is difficult fighting against these ingrained beliefs and attitudes - in part because they are such reasonable positions/opinions to hold. It is also why it is even MORE difficult to get people to believe more profound truths about marijuana. In the first of these three diaries I spoke at length of how marijuana enhances my abilities in various intellectual projects. I also spoke of demonstrated and professionally verified results which confirmed my ability to be exceptionally productive while using marijuana in this manner. And despite this, one of the comments stated bluntly,
Not Buying It ... I just don't believe that anyone on Marijuana really functions at a higher mental level, and I am very glad that you are no longer working at my local nuclear power plant.
It was in responding to this comment that the themes for this third diary began to take form. I saw, and related the Catch-22 nature of the circumstances faced by professionals who use marijuana. The conventional wisdom and legal status of marijuana make it very risky for anyone to come out of the pot closet and admit to using at all. And yet, without them speaking out it is unlikely that the laws and conventional wisdom will change.
And while it may sound like just a self-serving claim that pot in the workplace should be OK, this is a very real and serious question in the states which allow medical marijuana use. When and where is it OK to light up? In what circumstances are people with legitimate medical needs allowed to take their medication? The truth is that there are no reality-based reasons to prevent people from performing most jobs while using marijuana. There are emotion-based reasons, there are myth-based reasons, there are misconception-based reasons, but there are no reality-based reasons. Most marijuana users know this.
And yet, in all states, medical marijuana users are still subject to drug testing and may be rejected for employment for a positive test, even though they are legal users under state law. They also are in legal limbo with respect to driving in many cases. One of the police tactics here in "compassionate use Oregon" is to ask medical marijuana card holders if they have smoked that day. If you say yes it gives them probable cause to order your butt out of your car to take a roadside sobriety test. And on the basis of these completely subjective tests which are designed such that reasonably limber and coordinated people have trouble passing them, if you screw up you are presumed impaired and hauled off to jail. This is just a backdoor way to mess with people for smoking pot.
And beyond medical users, there is a larger issue. Many, many of us grew up in a social environment in which marijuana use was part of the predominant culture. As such, we had the opportunity to see and experience first hand what its effects are. And on this basis many of us realized that not only was pot not an impairing drug in the same sense as alcohol, it actually enhances many activities. In some cases such as my own, people have discovered that marijuana makes it possible to be far, far more productive than they are able to be when straight. Yet despite the lack of actual evidence as to its negative effects, marijuana is still illegal and use of marijuana for any productive purpose other than creating art is frowned upon.
This is wasting human potential on an enormous scale. It causes many people to not use marijuana even though they know it will enable them to be far more productive. It also costs the jobs, and sometimes the careers of many of us who choose to take that risk in order to produce exceptional results. And why? Because accepting mythology and the conventional wisdom is much easier than doing critical thinking, being open to possibility, and considering the facts.
So what is to be done about this? I think the present environment is the most favorable to legalization efforts that I have seen in my lifetime. The Michael Phelps story really seemed like a tipping point for this conversation. It was hard for drug warriors to claim that marijuana had caused any kind of amotivational syndrome or had resulted in underachievement - two of their biggest lies. Here was a guy who had repeatedly beaten the best in the world at what he does. The resultant hub-bub even brought some long time marijuana foes around to reason.
So imagine what would happen if all of the pothead professionals started coming out of the closet - or at least, being more vocal even if anonymously. It would be an enormous boon to the cause if we could change the face of the stereotypical pot smoker from Jeff Spicoli to Dr. Carl Sagan, or even the accountant down the street. And that starts with being more open with friends, family, and business associates. Much as gay people found greater acceptance when mainstream Americans started to realize how many gay people they already knew, so it will be with pot. As more everyday people come to realize the truths about who smokes pot and what its real effects are the conventional wisdom will shift and the laws will follow.
In the meantime, one of the greatest threats presented by the drug war remains. That is the ability for government at various levels to use it as a tool for controlling people. Much like my experience with GPU Nuclear and JCP&L, as long as there are laws against the possession of various substances there will be the potential for abuses. It's not even necessary that the target be a drug user such as I was. If they want/need to get the goods on someone to discredit them then drug possession is easy to fake. It is the suspect's word against the cop's as to how that nasty marijuana got in their car/office/home. And it is only by changing these antiquated, morality-based, mythology-based laws that this potential for abuse can be removed.
Perhaps the commission being started by Senator Jim Webb will be the vehicle for the laws to change. But for this to happen, we need to start shifting the public conversation about pot. There was a great step forward announced in a rec listed diary yesterday. The AMA has reversed 70-some years of policy positions and come out in favor of studying the medical uses of marijuana and having it moved from Schedule I to Schedule II. And while this news was welcome and is incremental progress, the more encouraging thing to see was the large number of comments that were made before the inevitable stoner joke.
This is a sign that the conversation is being held on a more mature and serious level, as though legalization might be a realistic possibility instead of reason to scoff and laugh. And when that comment finally showed in the form of "what have they been smoking?" I made a polite request that the commenter stop using that line. I ask you all, as well, to avoid the cheap joke, the easy laugh which comes at the expense of invalidating the conversation. Making "Awesome Dude" or "Cheetos" jokes does nothing to forward the cause. And maybe as the conversation becomes more reliably serious and reality-based, more pot-smoking professionals will be willing to step out and speak up.
Thanks!
BTW - I caught some grief from a DKos buddy and fellow nuke supporter for not having the Rock and Roll portion in my initial draft of this diary series. And now I almost made that mistake again :) After leaving behind my professional career in computers I went back to my original love - music. I played in various acoustic groups for years before deciding to go full electric rock and roll - something I hadn't played since high school. I ended up joining a Baltimore based classic rock group named Mascaraid. I had a month to learn roughly 60 songs, plus be able to jam along with a few dozen others. This was made tougher by the fact that the band leader Rich didn't use set lists. But rather, he did his song selection on the fly based on the energy in the room and what felt appropriate. This meant I needed to know everything cold as I couldn't prepare cheat sheets or even consult a list in time. Also, since most of my listening was classical and jazz, much of the newer material I was learning was stuff I'd never heard before.
Much like with programming projects, I found that marijuana helped with the process. It made it easier to keep track of the various parts, keyboard voices used, vocals, etc. if I was high. And after I had stuffed all this material into my head and fingers I found I also needed to have a moderate buzz to reproduce it properly. If I didn't have the time or location to be able to get high it made it tougher to recall the parts I'd learned. This circumstance became less of a factor the more we played, but I always found it easier to perform with a little buzz. Conversely, I couldn't drink alcohol as it would just mess me up. Despite playing in bars every weekend and several weeks in the summer, it was over a year before I had a drink during a job, and that was last set on a slow night.
I've also played some Rock since I moved to Oregon with the band LocoMotive and toured with a Country/Rock band, The Colorado Playboys a few summers ago - not to be confused with the Bluegrass band that now uses that name.
[The "Rock & Roll" portion of Nukes, Drugs, and Rock & Roll has now concluded. TY.]