I've wondered about it since I first started smoking. How can someone feel as righteous about enforcing the law on marijuana as they do about enforcing the law on, for instance, meth-amphetamine, or murder?
But they do, don't they. They feel so righteous. And, despite the utter lack of sense, they are encouraged for their passion. They are doing "good for society". Even though they're really not when it comes to this.
But for some reason it seems to sell, and it bothers the hell out of me.
I watch the various "science" and "documentary" cable channels; National Geographic, Discovery, Animal Planet, Science, etc. Often these channels will feature shows which document the daily life and times of various members of law enforcement; shows with names like Alaska State Troopers, Northwoods Law, Border Wars and Wild Justice.
Shows like that aren't really my cup of tea, but I also don't generally pay much attention to what's on at all. I'll be clacking away at my computer screen and have it on as background noise.
Something happens when those shows are on, though, and when it does I grit my teeth and change the channel. I haven't done any real analysis on it but I'd swear that at least once every 60 minute episode they will show a pot bust. Sometimes it's a grow in the woods somewhere, sometimes it's in a backpack, sometimes even in an SUV; always there will be footage of the "contraband" itself. Indulgent and exultant expressions will be on the faces of most of the officers present. Some seem to look impatient and sometimes even a bit puzzled, and rightly so. Those latter, however, will be at pains to describe the damaging secondary effects of the "perp's" actions. Of course without mentioning the obvious; that people wouldn't be shooting other people for talking to those same cops, or extorting people for duty-free income, or using toxic chemicals as fertilizers if marijuana was legal.
I don't know what this portends. It seems like I remember much more indulgence and exultance from the little bits of COPS pot busts I remember from back in the day, and I also seem to remember seeing not a trace of impatience or puzzlement; although I have always hated that show in particular.
Maybe that feeling of impatience and confusion I myself feel when I see these shows are things I'm supposed to feel; and there is a calculated effort to coach the American people to be ready for marijuana legalization. (not bloody likely Ithinks)
And I don't forget that when it comes to breaking the law in large numbers in America; maybe breaking the speed limit and jaywalking happens more often than marijuana use, but it's probably not by much. It could be simply a matter of numbers. (this one falls apart on the rare occasions, despite manufacture in numbers comparable to marijuana, that I see a meth bust; now that is good TV, and good for society too IMO)
Marijuana is a hotbutton, perhaps, and this is nothing more than business-as-usual in the balance between producers and advertisers. (this is the likely answer, but once again I think they'd do much better to focus on meth, then again I'm not a producer or an advertiser)
Whatever it is, I think it's ugly and stupid. The culture of blindness toward social issues we have in this country I feel has no more unbalanced and foolish flaw than the fate of marijuana. And when I see shows like these it underlines the fact that far too many are blind to that flaw, are in fact cultured to see it as a strength.
crossposted at The Hammershop