Tom Petty has danced with her, Sublime has written songs about her and Bill Clinton had a brief encounter with her. But last week, Mary Jane found a new best friend - the mayor of New York.
Mary Jane, aka marijuana, is the topic of conversation in New York after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was featured in a pro-marijuana ad. Bloomberg's face is pictured on the ad and next to him is the quote "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." The bottom of the ad reads "At last, an honest politician. It's NORML to smoke pot."
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws foundation, NORML, ran the ad April 9 in the New York Times. The ad was the first in a series of a $500,000 advertising campaign intended to convince New York City and its police force to stop arresting and jailing people for smoking pot.
Bloomberg told a reporter last year, before he decided to run for mayor, that he had previously smoked and enjoyed marijuana, but he now regrets making that statement and is not pleased that the campaign is focusing on him.
It was refreshing to hear that a politician admitted to smoking weed and liking it, but why is Bloomberg shying away from his comments now that he is mayor? Why didn't he have problems confessing to doing the drug before he was mayor? Did he think he might get in good with those liberal, pot-smoking-but-non-inhaling democrats? So he smoked pot and liked it. There are worse things he could have done, like having an affair with an intern. In fact, I'll bet he gets some new fans out of this.
Bloomberg should be proud to be a part of the fight to legalize marijuana. He should not be ashamed to say that he has done what millions of people have done.
He does not have to advocate or even agree with the recreational use of the drug, but he should take this opportunity to be a pioneer in the political world and help other politicians see that pot should be legalized.
Many students at Chico State University smoke weed but it remains a somewhat unspoken act. We tend to be careful whom we discuss our smoking habits around because we have been taught that if we smoke pot we are corrupt, law-breaking drug addicts. There is nothing wrong or sinister about the drug and we should not be embarrassed to admit liking it, like Bloomberg is.
We have heard the same valid arguments in favor of legalizing the drug numerous times. No one has ever died from smoking weed; alcohol does far more damage than pot will ever do; cigarettes are 10 times as deadly as marijuana; more money is spent on jailing pot smokers than on jailing rapists and so on.
It just baffles me that the idiots in control of the laws can't take into account these facts and see that marijuana is no more harmful than alcohol or cigarettes, two substances that are responsible for countless deaths. Yet those deadly drugs are legal and accepted in society.
Having had experience with marijuana, Bloomberg most likely knows that it is not worthy of being outlawed and all of the money and effort spent trying to eliminate it could be better spent helping the homeless or providing treatment to heroin addicts.
I was thrilled to hear about the ad featuring the mayor of New York. It's about time the pressure was put on politicians to reconsider the laws regulating marijuana. Granted the laws vary state by state and the campaign is in New York, but all it takes is one state to change the laws for other states to follow.
For once, why can't someone in a position of power stop trying to be so politically correct and take a stand that others are too scared to take?
I hope Bloomberg will wise up and take the opportunity he has been given to be a spokesperson for the legalization of marijuana. He has the chance to be one of the first people in power to make a change that is long overdue.
Desiree Rogers can be reached at:
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