Once, as a teenage pothead, I was issued an admonishment from an older family friend to get off the goddamned reefer. In response, I think I muttered something about peace, love and industrial hemp; I can’t remember. However, I do recall telling him that pot is harmless and that government resources ought to be directed toward combating the real threat of hard drugs. His reply was awfully memorable—you’ll have to admit, it’s a real gem, no matter what your personal feelings are regarding pot use. He said: “Pot is worse than those other drugs, because on pot, you can be a junky and live, whereas a methhead or dope fiend will have the common courtesy to kick the bucket before long, if he doesn’t kick the habit.”
Articles by Aaron Cress
Santa Cruz’s Yuppie Intifada
Have you ever seen the blog stuffwhitepeoplelike.com? It explains why white liberals like things such as awareness, diversity, the Prius and yoga. Perhaps this is beyond its purview, but stuffwhitepeoplelike.com doesn’t tell the whole story, so I added a few items it neglects to name: maximum police protection, no questions asked; political homogeneity; self-aggrandizing hand-wringing in the name of the wretched of the earth and as little contact with them as possible. This month, UCSC and the Resource Center for Non-Violence (RCNV) hosted a talk by shylock-hustler buster and avowed Hizbollah supporter Norman Finkelstein. What could possibly be more important for Santa Cruzans than doing our part to soothe tensions in the Holy Land by speaking “truth” to Israeli power?
