National Weed Day

Today, 4/20, is National Weed Day. I didn't know that when I set out to do my chores today. Oregon has legalized marijuana beginning in July. At that time, people who like to use it will be able to walk into a perfectly legitimate store, regulated by the liquor commission, and buy what’s being called “designer bud,” in various grades and flavors.  This has thrown the legal system into what my grandmother used to call a “right swivet,” as they try to iron out the details of who can grow it, who can sell it, how to tax it, and how to package it. In the meanwhile no one is being arrested for sale or possession (as far as I have heard), and today a local head shop (will they still be called that, when everything is open and legal?) attracted parents of small children by offering games, balloons, and play activities for the kiddies while the parents shopped for um, paraphernalia, like bongs, pipes, vaporizers, papers, rollers, and what have you.

Will it be as much fun for stoners when the veneer of edginess and rebelliousness has been stripped away? We will wait and see.

Under the circumstances this old song seems a little quaint.