Fighting the last war

Recent efforts by the MBTA to restore alcohol ads to buses and subways — and net a couple million dollars for the hardpressed transit agency — have touched off a brouhaha worthy of Carrie Nation.

The idea that a high school student headed home on the T could chance upon a Bud Light ad was simply shocking to some.

Well, with all due respect to people in the recovery community and those who know first hand the impact of alcohol abuse on families, there are worse things.

So, yes, it’s time to wake up and smell the weed.

This past week the state’s Cannabis Control Commission gave preliminary approval to the notion of pot cafes, where marijuana could be consumed on the premises, and other “mixed use” licenses that would, for example allow spas to offer massages with marijuana-laced lotions or restaurants on limited nights to offer marijuana-laced food. (Did you know there’s actually marijuana-infused mozzarella?)

They are even inclined to allow newly opened pot shops to make home deliveries (and what could possibly go wrong there).

It’s a strange new world we’re rapidly approaching, with the commission attempting to get regs in place by mid-March in time for recreational marijuana shops — or bars or spas — to open July 1.

And lest there be any doubt about the aggressive marketing of the pot industry, there’s a big event in Worcester this weekend — the inaugural Harvest Cup sponsored by the Massachusetts Grower Advocacy Council, MassCann/NORML and the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance. It is, the organizers note, a non-consumption event where people will apparently pay good money ($40) to look at marijuana products.

The highlight is expected to be an attempt to roll a 100-foot long joint. It is unclear, however, what happens to the final product.

So all you folks still losing sleep over a Bud Light ad on the T, you just keep fighting the last war, while the pot industry moves into a cafe near you or delivers weed to the kid next door.