Go, Atlanta! Come on, Georgia! We've shifted (barely) from red to blue - let's crank it up a notch and go to GREEN!
This weekend, I was able to order a product called a "Delta 8" "gummy" . I can't regurgitate all the science, but somehow this is a chewable that has somehow removed enough of the chemical (substance?) that makes marijuana illegal in the state of Georgia. Something to do with "Delta 9"? If someone can give me a "Delta 1" to go with my "Delta 8" - I could add 'em together and get my own "Delta 9"? I mean, I'm ready when Delta is ... right? Ordered in rat-chere in Jawja! Waiting on my UPS man to deliver. Hoping that he does not show up with a gun and badge.
In all seriousness, it's time to cut through all the political bullshit and just freakin' LEGALIZE marijuana nationwide.
Historically, the deep south has been the last to change anything. Without meddling interlopers from the north - especially Robert Kennedy et al - we probably wouldn't have even adopted basic civil rights at this point.
I appeal to the egos of southern politicians: in this day of monument/statue removal - they just might erect a 100' tall GOLD statue of the FIRST progressive southern politician! Be the one to bring real and meaningful change to the south! Cut the farmers in on a draught-resistant cash crop! Legalize and tax cannabis and fund everything from education to infrastructure rebuilds to Covid relief!
It's an idea that's 50 years past due!
Peace.
R
@rusty It won't help people with commercial drivers licenses. If a person makes their living driving a bus, taxi, school bus, delivery truck or tractor trailer you will not be hired if you test positive for marijuana that was smoked days or weeks ago. Weed hangs on in the system.
Then after you are hired, one is subjected to random drug and alcohol tests sometimes just days or weeks apart. Test positive for marijuana, cocaine, several legal prescription drugs, or blow positive for beer, wine and liquor, YOU ARE FIRED!!! I tell my son if he is determined to make his living, and a darn good living, driving for UPS, you just can't smoke weed or snort coke and booze it up regularly and expect to keep that good paying UPS job.
I have a friend who is retired now from American airlines ( originally US Air) and you are not only fired for smoking weed but you can be jailed.
So for many people legalization of marijuana is meaningless.
@robertdee What makes testing so darned stoopid is that marijuana is really about the only drug detected. Most substances leave the system pretty quickly. Cannabis can hang out in subcutaneous fat cells literally for years. A driver/pilot/heavy machinery operator can get shit-faced on alcohol and have lasting effects (hang-overs, nausea, dizziness etc.) that could affect their jobs for a couple of days. Unless this person is still inebriated they can satisfy the "test". If you smoked pot weeks - months before, you'll fail. If you got stoned in college and haven't done so since, you likely have resin in your fat cells. If you were to lose weight, this small amount of resin could show up in blood or follicle (hair) testing. Beyond that, it costs quite a bit of money to do said testing.
@rusty: Great points. And that's why drug testing is enormously unfair to cannabis users. What we need is a test which can determine if you are high NOW. Hey, I live in Silicon Valley, the center of technological innovation. Can't SOMEBODY come up with a device that can determine if you are high on weed right NOW, not last night or two weeks ago? If they are worried about airline pilots then why not have them submit to this test before every flight? It's an enormously stressful job. If they lit up to relieve their stress two days ago, why should they be eliminated from being a job candidate? I don't think that's ever going to happen though unless cannabis is legalized at the Federal level.
Yes a man can get so drunk on Friday night he can't remember his name and where he lives, still sick, headache, the shakes and half seas over yet blow okay on the booze test yet a marijuana smoker could have toked up two weeks ago before he went to see a Polka music band ( oh my that would be awful) and still fail a drug test and be fired from a $85,000 dollar a year job at UPS and he is Stone sober and sharp behind the wheel.
I think Polka was one of the styles of music George Carlin included in his list to avoid while you are stoned.
Grab your roach clip and lighter and Jam out with this!! It's better than Iron Butterfly played backwards.
I'd sooner get on a jetliner with a pilot that sparked up 15 minute ago than I would with one who had a fifth of Scotch even two nights before. That's just me, though.
Much of what underlies the war on cannabis is purely greed and profit. The testing “industry” is part of that for profit complex. From the makers of the tests to the labs that process them to the courier businesses that pick them up and drop them off.
Frankly they’re a big sham as most of these tests are meaningless for the reasons others have already pointed out. They also, depending upon the type, manufacturer, and the way the test is administered and handled, have significant false positives.
@rusty In recent years pilots have been arrested for being drunk. Both pilots were arrested several years ago after flying a passenger jet from Phoenix to Detroit. The plane landed safely but the flight attendants could smell Scotch and Vodka all in the cockpit mixed with the aroma of Mennen aftershave. Apparently trying to cover the booze but that smell was coming out of their mouths and nose when they breathed.
Things ARE changing in the South, if ever so slowly. Let's hope this one in Alabama goes through. It's not legalization but decriminalization is a significant step forward.
More sanity coming from the South, this time West Virginia.
Pre-covid some employers here were dropping drug tests in order to find people to work. Now, semi-post covid they are still doing it, again to find people to work. Different sides of the labor participation equation, same problem. If you can smoke pot while getting enhanced unemployment benefits, why work?
