Right now, somebody, somewhere is smoking a joint or hitting a bowl or a bong. Maybe they're high tech and using a vaporizer. Regardless of their preference, their high is about to get ruined because a cop is about to confront them.
The first time I went to jail I had only been 18 years old for little more than a month. I was caught with less than an eighth of weed. I was arranged and taken to jail as I couldn't come up with the couple hundred bucks of bail money on the spot. At the jail, I was strip-searched and had a light shined up my asshole as I stretched my butt cheeks to make sure I hadn't hidden anything there. I then had to douse a powdery, nasty smelling substance on my head as I took a shower. The guards watching me assured me it was just a delouser. I was given a green outfit to wear that resembled nurses scrubs and a pair of socks and tighty whities as well as a plastic cup, a pillow and a blanket and a mattress and some bathroom cosmetics.
I was a tough kid. Getting into a fistfight was something I did on a semi-regular basis, but I have to admit- I was scared. This was jail after all. I would be meeting the scourge of societies grown men. As it turned out, I was fine. I knew someone who was in my cell block. Someone loaned me a pack of smokes (I was to give them 2 packs back at a later time) and 3 hours later I walked out of there a free man after one of my friends posted my bail.
Some of you might have gotten a little squeamish reading my first paragraph, but it really didn't bother me all that much. I was in my senior year of high school and this whole incident really helped my bad-ass street rep. Not that I even needed it as I was known as one of the baddest motherfuckers at my high school already. I wasn't going to let a little dehumanizing experience beat me or get me down. I wasn't even that worried about the criminal charges. Back then I was under the mistaken belief that only felonies mattered, that a misdemeanor wouldn't fuck up your life (I think there was some truth in that but the world changed).
Years later, I realized what it did do to me though, it made me a true criminal in my own mind, even though I thought it was bullshit that people got locked up for smoking a plant. I 'll be honest, I likely would have ended up in jail at some point anyway. I was on a bad path for years. It wasn't just doing drugs, I had other sins. Either way, I have forever thought of myself as a jailbird since. For the rest of my life I knew I would have to tell any future lover about it. I felt like it defined me. People always say the first time is the hardest, whether you're riding a rollercoaster for the first time, getting stitches, or anything else people deem scary. I can attest that the same holds true for jail. I was never scared anytime I went again.
I don't know if my life would have gone any different if I hadn't gone to jail at such a young age. I do suspect that some people that have had the same situation happen to them have had it ruin their lives though. Maybe it's just fucked up their ability to get a job or something like that. Maybe it convinced them they are something they aren't. What I will say is 20 years later, I am appalled that this is still happening in some places.
Marijuana has never been more mainstream. As Bill Maher likes to say, it's the one thing that unites blacks, hippies, rednecks, and everyone else. Over the years since my arrest, I've smoked pot with a church youth group leader, a few law enforcement officers, a pro hockey player, among many other people. The fact that there's still politicians that still will not castigate this practice sickens me, whether they are freedom loving Repubs or supposedly caring Dems. I know this issue will be resolved within another decade but I simply cannot understand why we allow one more life to get ruined for this stupid reason. I know there is a lot of other problems in the world and whining about this in a world this fucked up might seem trivial, but still. I'm going to close this diary to a link to a ESPN article. A UFC fighter was just suspended for 5 years for failing a marijuana test. I urge you to read the comments. Keep in mind that UFC watchers are typically over-adrenalized, macho alpha male types. Many of them are the gym rat type. The comments overwhelmingly are pro-marijuana. It's time all politicians on our side are too. Personally, I believe all drugs should be decriminalized at the very least, but anyone who refuses to take this baby step is either an first class idiot or a sadist.
http://espn.go.com/...