4/20- What's up with cannabis legalization in the US?

The CEO of Curaleaf, the biggest cannabis company, talks about where the industry and legalization in the U.S. is now.  Unlike most of the new reports on YouTube, this one is recent, from March 2022.  At 2:34 there's a map of the U.S., showing the legalization status, state by state.  

"It's time for legislators to catch up with the American public."

-Joe Byron, Curaleaf, in the clip above.

My weed smoking days only lasted about a year and a half, starting when I graduated high school in 1984.  As I got more serious into BMX freestyle, and I quit smoking, thinking that being sober would help me ride better.  Yeah, I know how funny that sounds, about half the pro freestylers I got to know later were stoners.  I smoked a bit when visiting my Idaho friends again in 1987, and took a couple hits at a Cirque du Soleil party in 1997.  So I haven't smoked in decades, but I've been pro legalization this whole time.  

I think it's real funny that the state I first smoked weed in, Idaho, is one of the few holdouts where it's still completely illegal.  When I lived there in the 80's it was openly reported on the news that the state's three biggest crops, by sales, were potatoes, sugar beets, and weed.  What's up Idaho?  You were ahead of the game 35 years ago, and now you're laggin'.

Anyhow, what I still call marijuana or weed, now known mostly as cannabis, is recreationally legal in 18 states, and partially legal in 38, I believe.  In total money taken in, the revenue for the cannabis industry was over $25 billion in 2021.  To put that in perspective, the entire revenue for the NFL was around $18 billion last year, and the whole porn industry is estimated to rake in about $15 billion a year in the U.S. .  Weed selling $25 billion... legally.  Not bad for an industry that's fully legal in only 18 states.  California's share of the cannabis market was about $5 billion last year.  Yet another reason for the "West Coast Best Coast slogan," especially since it's legal recreationally in Washington, Oregon, and Nevada, too.  So even when it's only partially legal, weed is legally serious business in the United States.  They also cite a 68% nationwide legalization approval poll in the country, in the video above.  

So while I don't smoke myself, because I'm weird enough without THC, cheers to all my stoner friends out there.  Happy 4/20!  

The Waldos and the real story of how "420" became tied to marijuana/weed/cannabis culture 

Greer Barnes- Weed comedy

420 Comedy compilation

Bob Marley "Smoke Two Joints"

Afroman- "Because I Got High"

I've got a personal blog, check it out:

The Spot Finder     #thespotfinder

Happy Stoner's New Year to all my pothead friends out there

I dug up the real 420 story for a zine more than a decade ago, and I like it as an example of how a story grows, and can become culture, starting from a tiny seed (no pun intended) and spreading organically to a worldwide thing.

Generally speaking, I'm anti-drugs.  By that, I mean I think we should live lives without illegal hard drug use, and with as little prescription drug use as possible, only when medically necessary.  But then there's weed.  Many of my best friends over the years have been stoners, and stoners are, by and large, damn good people.  Often not too motivated, but even that's not true all the time.  Two of the smartest people I've ever met were serious stoners.

Personally, I smoked pot for about a year, starting from high school graduation, in 1984.  I quit during the delayed entry program when I joined the Marine Corps, and definitely needed to start back after I was dropped for a lie of omission to the recruiters.  Well, and that other thing, the test score thing apparently had something to do with me getting the boot. My high school friends always wanted to get me high, and I smoked just enough so I never had to actually buy any weed.

I stopped smoking when I moved to San Jose, CA in August of 1985, because I was getting really serious about BMX freestyle.  If I had kept smoking pot back then, I might actually have been a decent ramp rider, since most of them were stoners then (but not all), but who knows.

When I went back to visit my old high school friends in 1987, for a week, between two AFA contests, they got me blazed all week.  Then one gave me three hits of hash, which I'd never tried, and which I followed with two rum and Cokes at the airport, then I flew from Boise to Austin, high as a kite.  My plane flew over a thunderstorm at night while I was super buzzed, that was some crazy shit.  I was looking down out the window, watching clouds light up from the inside with lightning.

Then I never smoked again, except for a couple tokes at a Cirque du Soleil worker party, where I coughed, started laughing, fell over sideways, and promptly farted by accident.  The rest of the circle of smokers laughed for half an hour or so after that.

I'm happy not smoking weed, but also stoked that it's finally being legalized.  People don't need to be doing jail time for owning, smoking, and growing marijuana.  More important, that plant has a lot of legit uses, like using the fiber for paper, in particular.  We could save a LOT of trees by using more hemp paper.  Paper made from hemp, folks, not rolling papers, I mean.

I also have long thought that all Congresspeople and senators should get high before every legislative session.  1) Smoking weed leads to getting along well with others.  But more importantly, 2) if they all got high before the session, they would AT LEAST agree on munchies in 45 minutes or so.  If we could get everyone in Congress to agree on that one thing, it could lead to more agreement in other areas.  Our country needs that right now.

So if you smoke, toke it up, and celebrate this day, a day that's become an informal holiday because of a handful of people and their little inside story.

For all of you BMXers reading this, our attachment and love of the number 43 started with a similar type of story, only about 20 miles from where the 420 story began.  Remember, old school freestylers, I've decided to put on The White Bear's 43 Jam next April 3rd, (4/3/2020), in Boise, Idaho.  Boise is where I got into BMX, but more important, it lies at almost exactly 43 degrees of latitude.  Keep me honest and help me make that happen.  Whether you toke or not, enjoy the day.