Who would have guessed that the path to legalization would go through medicine first and then commerce? You would have thought the example of Prohibition — how ineffective it was, how unpopular, how much crime it bred — would have brought about reefer acceptance twenty years ago.
No doubt the odds would have been better if Clinton hadn't said "I didn't inhale." (Notice the syntactical repetition: "I didn't inhale," "I didn't have sex with that woman.") My friend points out that the two Super Bowl teams this year came from the two states that have legalized pot for recreational use: Colorado and Washington. CNBC is running hour-long documentaries on how growers are handling product, reaping profits. Tax revenues are enticing. Whole new markets are opening for aroma-free pipes to give you a pure experience.
It's happening not only because greed is a great incentive but also because the product in question has many beneficial effects and is highly popular among almost every political constituency but mostly because greed is a great incentive. I say it's happening because I can see the wall of worry that will have to be climbed for Mary Jane to make it — or, to alter the metaphor, the residue when your dreams go up in smoke.
On such a day it's pleasant to recall that Louis Armstrong kissed Mary Warner daily, not just on 4:20 of 4/20, but maybe especially so on the day after the end of pailndrome week, when each day was numerically the same backward and forward ( 4 / 19 / 14). Such mathematical certitude is as blessed and rare as the conjunction of the mind and the opposition of the stars in Andrew Marvell's "Definition of Love."
— DL