Hempfest is like a gay pride parade. They’re not identical, obviously, but I do make the analogy in this week’s paper in a piece on why Hempfest is still politically relevant after pot legalization the same way gay pride is still relevant after marriage equality.
So, inevitably, there was this comment:
Oh my god… I’m grabbing my temples as I need to stop eye-rolling into the next decade or I’m going to have a seizure. Seriously, Dom? I’m used to your insipid arguments you somehow manage to pushed through in your clingy first-person personal experience (i502, cough), but your analogy to the gay pride diaspora has me laughing at your sad, stoned-ass. Really? Uhhm, last I checked, us homos were ‘born this way’ and stoners are not an oppressed minority. I will gladly fight for your right to imbibe, medical or not, as well as declassification of other class b drugs, but don’t liken this gesture to our political fight where we’re getting violently beaten and killed in other countries. Oh but hey, I’m glad that you have fun at pride what with all the ‘simulated, wild gay sex’ because it’s just like smoking a blunt.
Posted by ETERNALFACEPALM on August 21, 2013 at 10:37 PM · Report
First, I’m curious about what those eyes rolling into the next decade can see. I hope they see flying cars. And then, I’m pretty sure ETERNALFACEPALM—who, come to think of it, probably can’t see anything with a palm eternally in front of his face—is referring to my clingy, first-person narrative about how drug enforcement in my neighborhood growing up was a proxy for racism. (Read my insipid argument here.)
And third, ETERNALFACEPALM says terrible stuff happens to gays, implying that terrible stuff doesn’t happen to pot smokers. But, uh, American pot smokers are busted at a rate of three-quarters of a million people a year—disproportionately racial minorities, many of them left with records that withhold them from getting jobs, student loans, and apartments. And lots of people busted for pot are subjected to beatings—and worse—in jail. I guess hat’s not terrible enough.
In the article, I also address the difference between being gay as an inborn identity and pot use as a choice. Which is true. The thing is, lots of adults will use drugs in moderation (alcohol and pot are the most popular). Using them is literally human nature. They’re never going away. We tried busting our way into a drug-free America and prohibiting alcohol, and that failed as miserably as gay-conversion therapy.
I explain my cocksucking, weed-puffing analogy more in the piece, and I stand by it.