While taking a country drive to clear my head last weekend, I passed by an Oregon State Prison building that overlooks a valley— within eye shot of the prison, acres of hemp can be seen growing in the open (funnily enough, locals have been stealing the hemp, thinking it’s weed...enjoy the headache, boys). A city bus passed me, with an advertisement for Organic Herbal Compassionate Remedy Resources (or whatever the hell it’s called), reminding potential clients that Wednesdays and Fridays mean 20% off ounces of top-shelf strains. I was able to see the prisoners walking the yard of the prison, which means they were also able to see the same hemp fields in the distance and the advertisement for discounted weed on public transportation that I saw. Imagine for a second, how many of these prisoners are behind a fence, lined up like cattle and sleeping among rapists and murderers, because they sold some dirt weed to the wrong undercover cop a couple of decades ago. The question remains: why?
The cannabis industry is showing it’s true color—green. An entire industry (including publicly traded companies) has sprung up around weed and the people running it are basically the same bunch of kids that run Silicon Valley and are responsible for tripling the rent in whatever neighborhood you’re currently living in. They spend tens of thousands of dollars perfecting the perfect vape pen, flying private jets to cannabis conventions and employ hundreds of budtenders, trimmers and farmers. Worse, states in which weed is legal make millions off of the tax dollars provided by this budding (sorry for the pun) industry, much of which is going to...police stations? Goddamnit, Oregon. There are still leftover hippies behind bars. Perhaps we should, ya know, pause for a second, before the entire crop gets moldy.
The first and most immediate thing that the cannabis industry needs to address—the stoned elephant in the middle of the grow op—is the release of any and all criminals currently jailed for cannabis-related crimes. Obviously, exceptions would be made for rare cases (D.U.I.I. manslaughter, aggravated crimes involving violence, etc.). But, for most of the last century, being jailed for pot was not only a fuck up for the obvious reasons (you know, throwing people in a cell because they were in possession of a plant), but for more systemic, racial and class-related reasons as well—if you do the research, you will find that weed laws were basically an accepted form of Jim Crow racism. "Stop and frisk" laws in urban areas disproportionately affected (and still affect) young black men. Beyond race, the sentencing disparities between upper class, suburban teens and lower- to-middle class, rural or urban cannabis users, is almost insulting. To think that one of my uncles spent two years in jail for a joint, while at the same time, Hot Topic was selling weed-pattern clothing next to the "Tobacco Pipe" display at Warped Tour, is, well, pretty bammer.
Further, look at the prisoners who are already being released due to overcrowding and show me one group of criminals that poses less of a risk to society than former weed dealers and "got caught being black with a blunt" offenders. Jaywalkers? Tax evaders? Now, on the same tip, the great mental health asylum closure of the ‘70s and ‘80s means that, if you were/are hearing voices that tell you to kill strangers, you were/are free to walk the streets, as long as you didn’t have a prior for weed. Beyond the institutional level, look at the compassion and exceptions we make for hard drug users. There are no "safe bong exchange" locations in any major city. Opiate addicts are (and, to be fair, should be) treated like a protected minority class in need of empathy— but not while Jamal has spent ten years sitting in an Idaho prison, because he has the wrong skin color and enjoys relaxing. If you apply for a concealed handgun permit, the form asks if you are "addicted to marijuana." In theory, you’d be fine if you were a coke-addled, PCP-using, alcoholic junkie. Just keep the damn pot away from the bullets or violence may happen...right.
While I try to avoid politics in this column, it would be downright ignorant to avoid pointing out the fact that our current national dialogue is concerned mostly with politically correct speech, gender issues, climate change and immigration. And, don’t get me wrong, I am all for assisting non-binary refugees who are in need of environmental awareness—but, let’s take care of the people rotting in a local prison cell over a joint, before we go fixing the world. Wanna talk kids in cages? Start with the teens locked up for pot, before attempting the compassion dance in front of your voter base (I’m looking at you, Joe "gateway drug" Biden). What good is showing empathy to newcomers and marginalized demographics, if we’re only inviting them to participate in a flawed system that condones legal slavery? Imagine escaping a war-torn, fascist hellhole and arriving in beautiful Idaho, only to get locked in a cement box, because you stepped on a pot seed in Colorado. How’s that for freedom?
In addition to release of all cannabis criminals (at least in weed-legal states), it’s also time to apply some of those bumper sticker mantras that we used to throw around before weed was legal. Remember the "paper and oil" argument that you used to use, back in the day when you were defending your pot use to a science teacher or cop? What about the "imagine the medical uses" argument?
Last time I was in a hospital, I was given my choice among a buffet of painkillers—none of which contained cannabis. Thankfully, I threw my prescriptions for legal heroin in the trash, walked across the street and bought pot with a credit card, then filled up my tank with gasoline and put on my cotton-based jacked—what’s up on that hemp, again? This is not the future the hippies and activists of yesteryear promised—if we simply put the same effort into reforming the cannabis legal system, actually pushing the hemp market and incorporating cannabis into the existing medical system, then perhaps we can justify the banana-flavored dab pens that attach to our iPhones. Until then, though, keep in mind that there are still people behind bars for pot.
Sorry to ruin your high.
