Legal pot: It’s just not that big of a deal
My parents live in Boulder, Colorado.
News that causes eyes to light up. How awesome, people exclaim. I smile and say nothing. To me, it’s as if I said I went fishing and got mauled by a bear and they replied, “Fishing! I love fishing! What did you catch?”
Visiting Boulder regularly since 1973 gives me perspective on its changes. Growing mobs of fitness freaks, sprawling tracts of condos, more every year, crowding out the Rockies. I am never reluctant to come home to Chicago.
I happened to be in Boulder on Jan. 1, 2014, when Colorado legalized recreational marijuana and was struck by the newspapers standing on chairs, cheering. Every part of every paper was tossing fistfuls of confetti.
The Denver Post’s home section told readers how to cultivate pot gardens. How to bake pot brownies. Even the “fit!” section: “THC: The powerhouse behind your pot!” No aspect went unexplored: Your dog, could its parasites make your pot plants sick? Somehow the comics remained aloof.
Yes, it’s news. But the media then goes overboard and starts ballyhooing certain minor vices. Take the lottery. Much celebration of enormous payouts. Occasional dutiful whispers about remote odds of winning. When Powerball rolls over, rapt reportage of the astronomical jackpot. Few observe the rollover also means you could have bought every single ticket sold and still lost.
Now it’s marijuana’s turn. For the record, I’m glad Illinois legalized it. The federal government should, too.
Being on medical leave, letting my new titanium hip settle in, I’ve had time to read the coverage welcoming legal pot since Jan. 1. Numerous reports of eager customers lining up in the pre-dawn chill. Of the Chicago City Council bickering over divvying up the pie.
Every opinion expressed, except the one I formed after five years of legal pot in Colorado: It’s no big deal. People who already partake will pay more, get better product, and the state will get a tax bonanza that, being the state, it will mostly squander. A few folks will be emboldened to give it a try.
But most will still not use pot. You will probably never see a high person. You won’t see a pot shop unless you go looking. Over the past five years in Colorado, regular marijuana usage soared from 13.6% to 15.5%. Shocking, I know.
PEOPLE WHO ALREADY PARTAKE WILL PAY MORE, GET BETTER PRODUCT, AND THE STATE WILL GET A TAX BONANZA THAT, BEING THE STATE, IT WILL MOSTLY SQUANDER.
This is a minority opinion, which is why I’m expressing it. If only to counterbalance the Tribune, which seems transfixed on weed’s distinctive smell. Last October, Mary Schmich nosed the herb far off.
“In the past few months, the smell seems to be everywhere even though smoking it isn’t even legal yet,” she wrote. “I’ve smelled it on train platforms and sidewalks, in stores and a couple of times in restaurants, and it’s bound to get more prevalent.”
Two weeks ago, a recovering addict claimed legalization has plunged him into a Cheech & Chong movie.
“I’ve found that it’s increasingly harder for me to escape marijuana’s pungent atmosphere,” Timothy Hillegonds wrote. “I smell it incessantly — when I walk to the train in the morning on the way to my office; when I ride the elevator in my apartment building as I return home; when I take my aging pit bull for his nightly walk around the neighborhood. Weed permeates my life.”
I would never question another reporter’s veracity without cause. Particularly Mary, whom I respect. Maybe she and Tim travel in more louche quarters than I do.
But my experience is exactly the opposite. I, too, get around, traipsing through Ukrainian Village and Wicker Park, Lawndale and Englewood. I’m out and about, or was before the surgery. And I smell pot. Maybe my nose isn’t as sensitive; all those cigars.
Or maybe I’m swayed by indifference. I didn’t care for pot back in the day. It becoming legal is no siren call now because I figure I would either like it too much or too little, and either would be bad. Besides, I’m trying to be sharper, not more blunt, pun intended. So if one function of journalism is to ballyhoo minor vices like lotteries and marijuana, another is to validate what readers already suspect. So this is the column saying that if all the pot legalization hoopla seems overblown, I’m right there with you.