Pot Smokers Are The Most Officially Oppressed Minority In America

“I’ve had all I can stand, and I can’t stand no more!” — Popeye

This quote does not refer to my well-known inability to stand up after having too many edibles, but my frustration with the current state of politics as it concerns cannabis users.

We are treated as a laughingstock, even by a president that publicly claimed to be one of us.

We are sought out, profiled, and arrested.

We are imprisoned.

We are called drug addicts and losers by our own government.

Even the most unfortunate among us — who have cancer, AIDS, MS, depression, and intractable pain of all kinds — are treated in much the same manner, sometimes even judicially murdered.

Would the American public put up with this treatment if it was happening to gay and lesbian people? To Jews? To Muslims? Certainly not!

Each of those minorities have suffered persecution in the past, gotten organized, and either aroused public sensibilities about their treatment to the point where it was made socially unacceptable, or gotten laws passed or changed to insure that it wouldn’t happen again.

But we have something special that these minorities don’t have.

We outnumber them all put together.

That’s right. There are 30 million people who regularly smoke marijuana in the United States. That’s about 10% of the population.

About 5% of Americans are gay or lesbian (so 15 million in round numbers), around 5 million are Jewish, 7 million are Muslim. We could easily throw other often oppressed minorities in here, such as the Sikhs, without changing the equation.

So why do we stand for it, when the American people wouldn’t stand for such unfair treatment of any other minority?

We have the organizations — NORML, ASA, MPP, and others. Let’s all take the time to help them help us.

And for heaven’s sake, vote.

“They got the guns, but we got the numbers.” — Jim Morrison

P.S. This posting does not intend to minimize the oppression that these and all other minorities (including women and all dark-skinned people) have suffered in the past and present in this country and elsewhere. But my point is that the oppression of marijuana users is official government policy to this very day, and we must not be satisfied until it ends forever.

http://BeyondChronic.com

Old Hippie is a father of two boys and thankfully living in California where all this kind of thing is legal. He started smoking marijuana in 1967 in high school, experimented with mind-expanding drugs of all kinds, and then straightened out 15 or so years later to become an airplane pilot. After being diagnosed with depression in 2000, he lost his job and most of the following decade to prescription medications (such as antidepressants) which sapped his energy and will. Finally, a chance conversation with a friend led to a doctor’s recommendation for medical marijuana (MMJ). This changed his entire life, health, and outlook for the better. BeyondChronic.com is his continuing story. It’s also his way to provide experienced advice on using medical marijuana effectively and responsibly, as well as advocacy, activism, and support for others. Old Hippie teaches about safe use of cannabis edibles, Canna Caps, vaporizers, dosing, and even microdosing.

21 comments

You got that right! The only problem with weed smokers is were running around like a bunch of ants going all over the place. Just look at one of your last statements; we have too many organizations. We need to become one and we could push this right threw. Like in voting for instance; some don’t vote and the rest don’t collectively vote for the right person to put in place to make it happen. I know there are many seemingly more important issues but if we would join together once and vote only for those who support us then once we’ve achieved legalization we can go back to the other issues because issues like jobs, education and so forth will always be an issue. so we need to all come together and vote as one. I noticed if you go to websites for big industries like MMA they have no problem announcing candidates they think you should vote for based on who will support there industries; well why doesn’t pro marijuana sites do the same so that advocates can group together and vote in the best people to help the cause and if they don’t perform we vote them out!!!

As long as we merely ask, wave signs around and yell, and never truly stand up and insist, we will remain persecuted. While the people may have forgotten that government is the enemy of the people, the government has never forgotten that people are schmucks.

Sorry but I cannot agree with you on this. I have an issue with you comparing drug users to people who cannot escape who they are. gays? Born that way, lesbians? born that way, Jews? Born that way, and the list goes on. if you smoke mj you could quit the next day and choose not to be part of the community. the term minority that you are using is not correct cause you cannot compare apples to oranges, you need to compare apples to apples. what you need to compare mj to is something that is legal already, like alcohol. But that is a losing battle cause both alcohol and mj impair you. also making mj legal would put it into the hands of way more people than do it now which can be dangerous cause people would abuse it more. remember don’t blame the drug but blame the user.

abuse it? people abuse the shit out of food! should that be illegal?! I mean c’mon of course people are going to abuse it! that’s what people do! the point of marijuana is that the pros of the “drug” out weigh the cons tremendously! It is a medicine, and like other medicines not all people react the same to it.. the only difference in this medicine is the side effects are being hungry, happy, and sleepy.. that’s it.. no suicidal thoughts, no explosive diarrhea, no nothin! but you do have it right blame the user, that’s why there will need to be please smoke responsibly on all things to do with marijuana just like there is with alcohol… just my 2 cents.

PFFT – this HAD to be written by a pot head because only their mentality is THIS fucking ridiculous and stupid.

“we get arrested! and profiled as druggies!” – because youre breaking the law by doing drugs..?

“we get imprisoned” – again – breaking the law.

“we are laughed at” – cause you are hilarious when youre on drugs and write things like this

and the most “OFFICIALLY OPPRESSED” – official how? official to who? to you – the stoner who wrote this article? are you kidding me

yeah pot smokers are totally more oppressed than the lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender community – they have it SO much easier than you poor pot smokers…

ignorance is never bliss

i love being straight edge because i know i will never be this ridiculously ignorant, ever.

what a fucking joke.

I would like to point out how flawed your logic is. You stated ““we get arrested! and profiled as druggies!” – because youre breaking the law by doing drugs.”
Sometimes when a law is unjustified and wrong you are not a criminal for breaking the law. Take a moment to consider this. Rosa Parks broke the law when she got on a bus and sat at the front of the bus; which at the time there was a law that a colored person could not sit at the front. Under your thinking, Rosa Parks is a criminal. If you are somehow uneducated then perhaps you don’t know that Rosa Parks is considered a champion of social change. I think you should take some history lessons and learn about the prohibition of alcohol and how it spawned a black market and gangsters like Al Capone. There is now a system of taxed and regulated alcohol, and I sure as hell don’t see the people at Coors shooting up Budweiser employees over the sale of alcohol. The author of the article pointed out very correct information. Just because someone smokes cannabis does not make them a druggie. If you drink a beer are you an alcoholic? I think not! There are people from every walk of life that use cannabis, doctors, lawyers, judges, athletes ect. I could go on and on pointing out how stupid your response was, but I’m going to keep this short. I personally think backwards thinkers like yourself are what is wrong with the world these days!

Hey, JSAFF,

Not sure what you’re doing on this site if you despise people who use cannabis (pot, marijuana). What ARE you doing here anyway? What’s your point? Whose mind are you trying to change here?

In case you hadn’t figured it out yet, this site is not about “stoners.” It’s about MEDICAL MARIJUANA. There’s a huge difference between the stoner crowd you seem to know so much about and the medical marijuana crowd. HUGE DIFFERENCE, brother.

So, when you mention shit like “because you’re breaking the law being you’re doing drugs,” what you do not understand is that those of us who use MEDICAL MARIJUANA (did you get that? MEDICAL?) are doing it with a state MMR card and we’ve paid our dues to the state to get that card. It’s not illegal under the STATE LAW. Even the Obama administration made it clear that the FEDS would not go after medical marijuana patients as long as they operated under the state law.

You want to hear some IRONY? Your rant is EXACTLY the kind of shit that Old Hippie was writing about in his post here. It’s this kind of weird anger you exhibit that creates the attacks on those who use cannabis.

Oh, and some more irony here. Your comment:

“ignorance is never bliss

i love being straight edge because i know i will never be this ridiculously ignorant, ever.

what a fucking joke.”

Guess what? You’re ignorant. Being happy that you’re “straight edge” is odd as hell in my playbook. It means you’re also close minded and live in a very tight box that doesn’t allow you to see outside your narrow scope of perception.

And yet….and yet, from your sensitivity to this post, I suspect you probably fall into one of those categories Old Hippie mentioned (lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender community) since you protest just a wee bit too much.

I’m sure this reply to you will piss the crap out of you. So, go on, give me your best ignorant shot. Although I typically don’t have a battle of wits with an unarmed person……

LAD

Laws should not be made to throw people in jail who don’t harm others, don’t steal and/or destroy others property. An unjust law…is NO law at all.

JSAFF, what a real piece of shit you are. Keep living inside your government brainwashed little box. The shit you say is some of the most IGNORANT shit I’ve ever read. You should either educate yourself on the matter, or keep your IGNORANT thought to your retarded self.

The best thing that could ever happen to people like JSAFF is that they get cancer…..Bet he would change his tune about it then. Sounds like he probably works for our corrupt goverment or DEA. Both of those to me are a fucking joke.

This is kinda silly. First of all, I don’t really agree with the law against marijuana. I don’t smoke pot regularly, but every once in a blue moon. I don’t feel that it impairs my judgement anymore than alcohol does. And I remember back in my younger days, there was a time when I smoked every day. Once I built up a tolerance, I could function fairly normally when high. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Definitely not like harder drugs.

With that said, to group pot smokers in with minority races and gays and lesbians is just silly. Simply put, to say that I don’t want a black person or gay person driving my kid to school would be wrong and make me an asshole. To say that I don’t want someone who is high driving my kid to school makes me a sane, responsible parent. Just like I wouldn’t want a drunk person driving my kid. Are alcoholics an oppressed minority as well?

I get that this argument is focussed on medical marijuana patients. For people that really benefit medically from pot, I feel for you. I truly believe in the healing power of it. However, most people who have medical marijuana cards, have no real need for it. If you have cancer, or glaucoma, or debilitating migraines, or any of the other serious ailments that have been proven to be positively treated with marijuana, then by all means, go for it (just stay out from behind the wheel). But c’mon, the law allowing medical pot use in California has been so exploited. Anyone can get a card. The dispensaries aren’t like pharmacies, more like party stores. I can’t go to Venice beach without having my family hassled by at least 5 people from various dispensaries trying to push it on us. I don’t see anybody out there trying to push any other prescription medicines to the public. For most, it’s simply a legal way to obtain and smoke pot.

So I am all for the legalization of pot. It would get rid of the annoying dispensaries and we could stop wasting tax dollars arresting and jailing (for the most part, harmless) potheads. We could actually start taxing marijuana sales. I think legalizing it would do more good than harm. However, taking the minority angle to make your argument is just silly.

With that said, to group pot smokers in with minority races and gays and lesbians is just silly. Simply put, to say that I don’t want a black person or gay person driving my kid to school would be wrong and make me an asshole. To say that I don’t want someone who is high driving my kid to school makes me a sane, responsible parent. Just like I wouldn’t want a drunk person driving my kid. Are alcoholics an oppressed minority as well?

I believe you’re missing the point here. First off, I did not “group pot smokers with minority races and gays and lesbians”. What I did was point out that many of these groups already have had specific protections carved out in the law for them, and that our group is far bigger, so we have more potential political muscle that we thought. I was contrasting the treatment that those groups have received under the law with the treatment that regular marijuana users receive.

Secondly, nobody wants either high or drunk drivers running around with their kids. But the difference here is that you can be a burnout alcoholic every night, and as long as you don’t show up with alcohol in your system, you’re fine in your schoolbus job. Marijuana users, even legal ones such as MMJ patients, are not able to even get the job in the first place due to drug testing. It is immaterial in this case whether or not they’re high on the job, they just can’t get the job. This perpetuates the “stoner stereotype” of burnouts who don’t work and just sit around smoking all day…they can’t work, even if they have to smoke because it’s their medicine.

I don’t see anybody out there trying to push any other prescription medicines to the public.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Sorry. I guess you haven’t watched television for the last 15 years or so. If you had, you’d have seen hundreds of ads for prescription medicines of all kinds, targeted at the general public. These ads have prominent disclaimers about the many, often fatal side effects of these drugs. And what, you’ve never heard of anyone lying to their doctor for a prescription so they could get addictive painkillers? Did you know that the CVS pharmacy chain recently paid a huge ($75 million, I believe) fine because they were the nation’s largest supplier of chemicals to meth labs? If anything is a “legal party store”, it’s your friendly neighborhood pharmacy. Don’t you think that nearly 100% of the fakers who get illegal medical marijuana recommendations already know where they can buy it on the street? It’s the real patients who are worried about breaking the law.

Actually, thinking about it more, there are other people trying to push other prescriptions on me, just not at Venice beach. On tv, especially on channels that cater to elderly, there are tons of ads for prescriptions. I personally hate this kind of marketing. It should be a doctor telling you the best cure, not some commercial. This doesn’t in any way justify the street marketing that some dispensaries do. In fact, in kind of lumps them in with the big evil pharmaceutical companies. Just a different media for marketing.

Funny thought. If marijuana is legalized, maybe the pharma corps will market it in pill form for those who don’t care to smoke. That would actually be funny to see an ad for Lipitor followed by an ad for pot.

If marijuana is legalized, maybe the pharma corps will market it in pill form for those who don’t care to smoke. That would actually be funny to see an ad for Lipitor followed by an ad for pot.

Done! (But not by Big Pharma).

(Actually, I’m on both of those myself)

Ha!! You beat me to the punch. I corrected myself on the marketing matter. You do make valid points. Pot smokers are denied things that alcohol users are not. I get it and like I said, I’m all for legalization, not just for medical. I think it’s stupid for a plant to be illegal.

Since when did voting become an option to end Cannabis prohibition? We didn’t get to vote on it back in 1937, and we sure as hell don’t have the option to vote for it today. People need to STOP voting until we’re actually given choices that really matter to every-day life. That’s right, boycott your local/state/federal governments! I haven’t the slightest idea how to do that, other than stop voting and stop paying taxes… be creative, I’m sure there’s something we could do or abstain from doing to get their attention. If they don’t support us, why should we support them and their corrupt system?

What, you’re going to tell me that I can vote for senators and representatives, and then hope they do something about it? Really??? You want me to continue giving the power to someone else? To hell with that, I want the power to vote so that my vote counts DIRECTLY for the issue at hand.

WE THE PEOPLE, not them the lawmakers. Idiot Dumbericans, and your fake electoral process…

How was alcohol prohibition ended? Voting? Speaking? Peaceful demonstrations? NO! It was ended due to widespread violence. Want to end cannabis prohibition??? Get a clue and reread your history books; 90+% of all issues were decided by violence. Cannabis use tends to make people non-violent… so maybe it’s everyone else that should be using it; not us…. because we’re sure as hell aren’t fighting over it. But one day… someone might get pushed too far and become our first real cannabis martyr. I hope so, we need a big shocking event to wake up the brainwashed majority.

Here’s another wake up call for the moronic cannabis users: the term “marijuana” is a racist slur! STOP SAYING IT!!!!!! It’s demeaning to the plant and to all those that use it. ‘MJ’ was purely invented to demonize and arouse prejudice against cannabis use in the minority groups. Before the 1930’s nobody had ever heard of it, but all were familiar with cannabis – it was one of the most widely used and prescribed forms of official medicine. The poor American Medical Association saw the deceit and tried to speak against the tax act, but it was too late; the decision had been made – illegally!

I could rant for hours on end, covering many aspects of how completely backwards our modern society is in respect to cannabis. But I’ll stop here.

We have a duty as citizens to make sure unjustifiable laws are abolished and criminalization of cannabis IS EXTREMELY UNJUSTIFIED.

Leave a Reply

*