Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 2010
Source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2010 San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Contact: http://www.sgvtribune.com/writealetter
Website: http://www.sgvtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3725
Author: Steve Scauzillo
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

THE FREEDOM TO SMOKE POT

In his seminal work, "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley  predicted we
would lose our freedoms not because of  fellow dystopian novelist
George Orwell's Big Brother,  but because of our own blithe
acquiescence to societal  and regulatory shifts.

Some of you know me. I'm not a big believer in  conspiracy theories.
That's why Huxley's hypothesis  rings more true than that of Orwell,
who said in  "Nineteen Eighty-Four" that freedoms would be taken  away
by an imposing government.

I think when we are all too happy to surrender our  freedoms ourselves
in the name of progress, it's more  of a threat. It's like those polls
that say a majority  of Americans would gladly give up freedom of
speech or  the press to protect their own privacy.

The other night a group of rowdy college-aged men and  women took over
a row of seats in front of me at Angel  Stadium during a game between
the Los Angeles Angels of  Anaheim and the Toronto Blue Jays. A
Japanese-American  family had left early, making way for the illegal
occupation. They came with beers in hand and rebellious  attitudes in
tow, the young women flipping their hair  like a Britney Spears dance
move, their male dates too  blitzed out of their minds to notice.

After the seventh inning stretch, the blonde in front  of me reached
into her purse and pulled out a marijuana  cigarette. I watched in
shock as she lit the chubby,  hand-rolled joint and began passing it
around. The  billow of cannabis smoke quickly filled the  section like
the cloudy remains of a fireworks show.

The smell was unmistakable. The families in our section  reacted from
surprise to outrage. I'll always remember  the look on the little
boy's face seated in front of me  - one of confusion. His mother
shouted "kick 'em out"  just as the security team arrived and escorted
them  out. Others in the section marveled at the brazen act:  Smoking
pot in the middle of 42,000 baseball fans,  mostly well-behaved
families. This is Angel Stadium  after all, hardly home of the rowdy
crowd.

I have attended many baseball games in my lifetime, in  New York where
I grew up, in Philadelphia, Boston,  Baltimore, Oakland and San
Francisco, and never once  did I see someone smoke marijuana. I can
remember  smelling the pungent herb in the parking lot of old  Yankee
Stadium in the Bronx, but never such a bold act  as I witnessed
Tuesday night.

Then it dawned on me: Could this be brought on by the  political
movement to legalize the drug? Could young  people figure enough
people signed a petition (about  700,000 signatures were submitted)
that heck, it will  be legal in November, so why not partake now, in
public? Could society's walls have come down just a  little bit over
the use of the hallucinogenic weed?

I think the answer is yes.

Changes like this are subtle. We've already approved  one ballot
measure making medical marijuana legal. And  we've seen more marijuana
shops pop up in La Puente  than new stores or restaurants. This stuff
is just one  majority vote away from being legal.

It's a scenario I had not thought much about until that  Tuesday night
in Anaheim. I haven't thought much about  what effect legalization
will have on my sons, my  neighborhood, on my future grandchildren -
until I saw  the look of confusion, even of fear, on that boy's face
when he saw the young woman smoking pot.

Would our society gain freedom to smoke pot? Yes. But  what freedoms
would we give up? The answer is many,  many more: the freedom to feel
safe, to raise children  the right way, to go to a ballgame or any
other public  event and not encounter someone high on drugs.

Yet, we casually vote "yes" on ballot initiatives, or  sign petitions
at grocery stores, without thinking  things through to their
conclusion. And we call that  freedom? 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake