Stardate - four twenty. Smoke it if you got it.
The origination of the term 420 varies depending on who you ask but one of the more plausible and documented explanations goes like this:
"We’ve all heard the origin of 420: in Northern California in 1971, a group of San Rafael High School students (known as The Waldos) would meet by the Louis Pasteur statue to smoke pot after school at 4:20 p.m. The Pasteur statue was but an initial meeting point for The Waldos to search for wild pot growing in nearby Point Reyes. They never found the wild pot, but smoked plenty of their own during their quest. San Rafael was also the headquarters of the Grateful Dead whose fanbase embraced the code."
http://hightimes.com/...
At any rate, the wonderful process of human evolution has slowly and inextricably pinpointed this day, April 20th, as national Mary Jane Day. Light up because it won't come again until next year. Or early tomorrow morning. Or you could always stop your watch at just the right time.
Be careful though, there's a war on drugs raging, particularly from the southern tip of South America to the northern border of Canada and all in between. Smoking the weed just might get you caught up in the Global War on Drugs (GWOD). That's if you don't get caught up in the Global War on Terror (GWOT) first. Or the Global War on Everybody but the .01 Percenters (GWOEBT.01P)).
But there's good and bad news. The good news is that other nations are calling for an end to the GWOD.
"The Summit of the Americas, to be held in Cartagena, Colombia is being seen by foreign policy experts as a watershed moment in the redrafting of global drugs policy in favour of a more nuanced and liberalised approach."
"Otto Pérez Molina, the president of Guatemala, who as former head of his country's military intelligence service experienced the power of drug cartels at close hand, is pushing his fellow Latin American leaders to use the summit to endorse a new regional security plan that would see an end to prohibition. In the Observer, Pérez Molina writes: "The prohibition paradigm that inspires mainstream global drug policy today is based on a false premise: that global drug markets can be eradicated."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
The bad news is that our nation isn't one of them.
"Many leaders here pushed for a new strategy to combat the illicit drug trade, fueled by U.S. demand. Some proposed legalization — for possession and by regulating the trade — but Obama made clear here that he does not believe it would prove more effective than the law enforcement approach funded by the United States."http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Just to prove that point,
"The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (more commonly known as the drug czar’s office) released its 2012 National Drug Control Strategy today. The strategy, which is almost identical to the strategies of previous administrations, comes just days after Latin American leaders pressed President Obama at the Summit of Americas to change U.S. drug policy."
Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, had this to say:
“This strategy is nearly identical to previous national drug strategies. While the rhetoric is new – reflecting the fact that three-quarters of Americans consider the drug war a failure – the substance of the actual policies is the same. In reality, the administration is prioritizing low-level drug arrests, trampling on state medical marijuana laws, and expanding supply-side interdiction approaches – while not doing enough to actually reduce the harms of drug addiction and misuse, such as the escalating overdose epidemic.'
http://www.drugpolicy.org/...
Even the cops aren't happy about it.
"A group of police officers, judges and prosecutors who have waged the so-called "war on drugs" is criticizing President Obama because his federal drug control budget, released today, does not match up to his rhetoric on treating drug abuse as a health problem.
Despite the White House drug czar's office saying the administration is shepherding a "revolutionary shift" to address drug policy through a "public health approach," Obama's federal drug control budget maintains a Bush-era disparity devoting roughly 60 percent of the budget to punishment-oriented approaches and roughly 40 percent for treatment and prevention.
"The release of the drug budget comes just days after President Obama returned from the Summit of the Americas meeting in Colombia, where he was pressed to open up a debate on legalizing and regulating drugs by sitting Latin American presidents like Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala."
http://copssaylegalize.blogspot.com/...
I guess it's all very predictable. Like the GWOT and the GWOEBT.01P, the GWOD is a necessary element for the overall control of the people and the advancing of the global police state. If the government of the largest and most powerful country on earth wants to keep them going, the country most interested in the power that comes from controlling what people can and can't do, then the global wars won't be stopped.
So smoke it if you got it. They can't arrest 50 million of us. I certainly hope not anyway.
Light up and be happy.