As part of the application for this job, the Tucson Weekly asked me to lay out my vision for this column. With a few shifts and nudges here and there, this is what I came up with.
Good question, that. This is a cutting-edge area of media you are getting into. Yes, I ended that sentence with a preposition. I do it because I talk that way, and so do most folks. So I guess the first point I come to (quite inadvertently) is that I will make this column conversational. I have always wanted to write the way I talk, but the pigfuckers always prevented me.
Vernacular is where it’s at, man. Keepin’ it real.
So I plan to conversationally tell Southern Arizonans what they might want to know about marijuana. The science. The medicine. The history. The culture. The law. The law comes last, but not least. I figure in many ways and on most levels, this is a legal column.
This is all happening because state laws were created, and federal laws are being ignored, and because some laws seem less just than others, and our culture is intersecting with that in a way that leads to this column. There are lawsuits involved. So it will be a legal column, to some significant degree.
I have covered the law off and on throughout my career—a few murder trials, numerous local elections in various states, a big bankruptcy case and even the careers of Raúl Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords.
The mention of politicians brings up politics—yes, it’s a political column, which relates to the law.
And it’s a culture column, tinged with counterculture. I am a stoner, of sorts, and by that, I mean that I am a regular pot-smoker. There. I said it: I smoke pot, which will negatively skew the opinions of some who hear it. But I am also successful, award-winning, a college graduate, a mentor. I am a good friend, if you let me in. If you don’t let me in, fuck you. I have better things to do than involve myself with haters. C’mon, just let me in.
I am a loyal guy who gives and learns daily. I am an everyday, normal human being—just like you. But I smoke marijuana, because it makes my 24/7 neckache a little more manageable.
I’ve suffered from chronic pain for more than 20 years. It started at age 17 with a sports wipeout from about 10 feet in the air onto the back of my neck. A motorcycle crash three years later sealed the deal, leaving me with disk protrusion, stenosis caused by rampant spinal calcification and, eventually, degenerative disk disease before I turned 40. Occasional physical therapy ensued—and the intermittent prescriptions for codeine, Vicodin and ibuprofen. Marijuana is an effective alternative that doesn’t leave me drained.
Which brings me to medical marijuana. Ultimately, this is a medical-marijuana column, before legalities and culture and politics and personal insights.
There is a new medical paradigm emerging in the United States (thank you, Andrew Weil), and we are at the epicenter of it. Southern Arizona seems to be emerging as a mecca of natural health, and I deeply appreciate the chance to explore that. No, you don’t have to eat Vicodin or codeine or (insert name of destructive, addictive drug) to go to work every day. Yes, you can make it through chemotherapy without drastic weight loss. Yes, you can get relief from inflammatory bowel disease or migraines or maybe even premenstrual syndrome.
So, perhaps above all else, it’s a medical column.
I don’t see many filters here, journalistically. The Weekly has graciously offered to largely take those away via pseudonym. Brilliant. I have often wanted to delve into Gonzo journalism, to live life head-first, without a helmet, to immerse myself in it and tell people about it. Life lives at 1,000 mph, so to speak, so what good is a helmet?
So this is a chance to delve.
I started this process wondering what the Weekly was looking for with this medical-marijuana job. But it occurred to me, after tapping away at a job application for four hours and considering it in some depth, that the esteemed editors of the Weekly weren’t looking for a “what” at all.
They were looking for a who. I guess that would be me.
This article appears in Sep 8-14, 2011.
OMG! Ending sentences with prepositions?!?! On purpose? That’s insane. Pretty cutting-edge stuff. I’ve caught on. Notice how my second sentence has two question marks and two exclamation points!?!? That’s how I talk.
They only hire the best and brightest at the Weekly. This is talent that only massage parlor and stipper ads can provide.
One thing you can learn today is to clean up your language.
People don’t have much respect or confidence in people who talk the vulgar way you do. Such language is not necessary and marks you as trying too hard to be flippant and cool. You are neither.
Marijuana use and marijuana laws are serious, and it would help our cause if you would clean up your language and speak in an intelligent, mainstream manner.
“Pigfuckers”…what the hell is that, and just how did they prevent you from speaking and/or writing ? You just could not wait to use the work fuck somewhere could you.? Think it makes you seem hip, cool..whatever. It doesn’t. It makes you sound immature, uneducated, and foolish.
That right where I stooped reading…
This column is so good, I predict national syndication!
Re.: “politics”. Follow the money.
Prohibition of alcohol resulted from oil companies lobbying. Way back, before the prohibition of alchohol, the Ford Motor Car Company manufactured cars that would run on alcohol. Home-made stills could make fuel to operate cars. No gasoline station necessary. Oil companies wanted to hook U.S. onto their financial treadmill. Prohibition of alcohol went on long enough, all auto manufacturers produced mainly gasoline-only autos and our soldiers and spies were off to a series of foreign overthrows and wars to keep U.S. shooting up with oil.
There’s a rumor that the political campaign which gave us a virtual prohibition of marijuana (hemp) involved competition from producers of clothing made from different fabrics than hemp, such as silk and cotton. Who paid for the movie, Assassin of Youth?
I’m looking forward to reading Medical MJ and hope it contributes to the legalization of marijuana … of all drugs, for that matter. According to Jimmy Carter and Ron Paul, legalization of drugs is a change of policy that will greatly assist in solving numerous problems in and near our country, such as overcrowded prisons, back logged courts, gunfire along the border with Mexico, etc.
The Cato Institute (if I recall correctly) published a study about drug legalization many years ago that showed a relationship between violent crimes and the prohibition of alcohol. Following prohibition of alcohol, violent crimes increased exponentially. Upon repeal of that prohibition, the frequency of violent crimes plummeted. Cato suggested that the same would be true about violent crimes upon repealing the prohibition of drugs.
Good column, J.M. Smith!
Like Dudes this column really sucks.
Like lets get together and like make the az govenator like get the medical get right factories up and running man..
I have had back pain for like forever cause my boss makes me work outside..
My boss use to have me operate a Dozer put caught me smoking my get right after we started working on road work up on mt lemon . Guy has no idea about Pot and how it makes me operate equipment better..
Only made one mistake , graded the wrong forest road, happen to anyone… He thinks that just because a Pot Head started that big fire on Mt Lemon like 10 years ago, all Pot Heads are stupid.. Other people that need medical Pot are gona move to az to get pain treatment, that will help our economy.. Our Insurance rates wont go up like insurance salesman say they will. cause Pot smokers dont cause accidents our nothing bad.. maybe Obama can get congress to help us get free med Pot cause he use to smoke .. Obama dude must be in pain to , Pot would help him make better decisions about our countries welfare.. Pot stores could save Tucsons economy man, get walmart envolved … remember no pain no gain …..
As a ‘contestant’ for this columnist job, I have been waiting anxiously to read the first column by the selectee. Despite the negative, sarcasm and vitriolic commentary, I like your style. Although I probably would not have chosen your vernacular, your points are well made and well taken!
Although I do not consider myself a ‘stoner’, I have been using MJ (now PC as ‘MMJ’) for over 40 years, and have finally lived to see my self as a ‘card-carrying’, legal, user and grower! A step in the right direction. I am one of those unfortunates who after a serious injury accident (back in the days when jobs were the daily business) has been taking that ‘Vicodin’ you speak of, along with 9 other drugs of lesser damaging reputation. 270mg a day!! For 12 years! MMJ has allowed me to cut that Rx in half! ‘We’, the ‘Woodstock Nation’, have always been aware of the medicinal qualities of MJ, and now that it is MMJ, the rest of the world is coming to realize it.
However, and still more of my concern than the effects and uses of MMJ, is the fact that it is still ‘illegal’ and by federal proclamation, an illegal act in itself, put into effect by a single individual with powerful lobbyists who had only personal gain in mind when they started the lies and smear and fear campaigns back in the thirties. Of course I mean Anslinger, Hearst and Dupont. The former with only political ambition and the latter seeking only to protect their bank accounts, because Hemp could put them out of business (or they could have done like President Jefferson asked, and grown it and made their millions by expanding, rather than crushing.
So although I am very curious and supportive of the MMJ revolution, I am still more interested in how we let the federal government, override the States’ authority by illegally creating what was then a ‘tax’ law, but has evolved into a trillion-dollar spending spree by said government for its ‘war on drugs’, and the way it has gone about finally ‘legalizing’ or rather decriminalizing the use of MMJ for medical purposes, has created a new monster, the legal MMJ distributor.
These folks have jumped onto the cash cow, and produce, manufacture and sell ‘MMJ’ for prices that would embarrass a Colombian cartel kingpin! Recently, one of the ‘compassion clubs’ that have latched onto this bandwagon, offered me 1/8 oz of MMJ for $80. That is $640/oz! The new ‘Medibles’ markets, selling edible MMJ products, get $100 a GRAM for their wares, That’s $2800/oz!! SEEDS, yes, SEEDS, remember we would go through the buds and using a shoebox lid, would spend hours culling them out of our stashes, and then either eat them like candy, or throw them in the trash. Some of the more enterprising ‘stoners’ would plant a few, for good luck. SEEDS are selling, in THIS country for $10-$20 EACH! (Same seeds sell in Amsterdam for $1-2 Ea!)
Hell, I am aware that there has been massive inflation over the past 30 years or more, but what was once a ‘dime bag’ is now as big as your pinky-nail, and costs $50-100!
So even the ‘legal’ pushers are treating this WEED, that grows WILD (or did before the feds got into the landscaping business) like gold! Why? Because it is still hiding behind the dark curtain of ‘forbidden fruit’.
All but the staunchest of the blind, right-wing fanatics are well aware that a Category One ‘drug’ is not a ‘gateway’ to Category two drugs, or in lay terms, totally banned substances do not lead to the use of prescription drugs! But this is where it is kept. So as long as the feds maintain their illegal ‘act’ of suppressing states rights, in violation of the Constitution, the ongoing ‘drug wars’ will persist and the cartels will now start touting their wares as ‘MMJ’, and the ‘dispensaries’ that grow their own (when it becomes legal here in AZ) will jump in both feet, and we, the user, will pay 100 times the cost of a bottle of 270- 10mg Hydrocodone, for which I pay $5.00/mo. And because it is ‘legal’, the insurance company pays the rest, for this class 4 narcotic, but will never pay for MMJ, not while it is still ‘illegal’ by (illegal) federal law!
So JM, Although I am very interested in how Brewer and her henchman will manipulate the laws to their own ends, I will be much more interested to see where your column goes with respect to THIS issue, the main issue surrounding MJ. My right to grow, smoke, eat, vape, ingest, or make sandals with this weed, whether to kill the pain of the injuries I sustained in a 2-story fall, or to just ‘get high’ with friends and family, it is my RIGHT as a sovereign American .
Good luck with the column. You have another loyal reader, and I could care less about your language, your sentence structure, even your grammar (that one hurts 😉 as long as you address the ISSUES. Constitutional Rights!
“Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the Earth” God to Adam ~Genesis 1:29
It’s about time we started talking about medical marijuana and it’s place in our state.
I was licensed in Colorado and after fighting to get it legalized here, I’m licensed in AZ only to have the Governor freak-out and hold thing up.
It would be better if the name was M.J. Smith rather than JM smith
BTW ‘R.S.’,
Like it’s predecessor, 1936’s “Reefer Madness”, formerly ‘Tell Your Children’ a religion-funded attack, then taken over by the big money, 1937’s “Assassin of Youth”, was the brainchild of self-appointed ‘drug-czar’ Harry J. Anslinger, with monies secretly provided by Randolph Hearst and the DuPont Family. ‘Assassin’ is filled with quotes and references by Anslinger and his ‘Gore File’.
Hearst, heavily invested in the forestry industry to aid his nationwide newspaper industry, afraid that Hemp paper would destroy that empire, and the DuPonts, who owned the prescription drug and chemical industry of the era, understood the ramifications of allowing this ‘medicine’ to be legalized, formed a trio of Civil Rights Assassins, that succeeded with their fear films and lying propaganda.
With the aid and support of right-wing actor-director-writer, Elmer Clifton, who wrote and produced AoY, considered a ‘clone’ of the previous year’s snowjob, Reefer Madness, both surrounded by and supporting, Anslinger’s “1937 Marijuana Tax Act”, the phony govt ‘law’ used to make MJ federally illegal, superseding state’s rights! The rest as they say, is history! (Don’t believe ME, Google it!!)
And although today we (and our kids and grand-kids) gather at B-Movie theaters like The Loft, to get high together and laugh at these now ‘cult classics’, the truth is that they worked! And the federal ban on MJ was implemented with no resistance by the fear-stricken populace! That was 75 years ago!! Gawd, what sheep we are!!
As Bob Dylan once wrote, “Money don’t talk, it swears, obscenities; who really cares, ALL is phony…” ~ad infinitum
As the President and Founder of SW Arizona Patient Alliance (SWAPA) I am happy to hear that The Tucson Weekly had added a columnist to cover medical cannabis in Tucson and surrounding areas. We are actively trying to educate and advocate for medical cannabis, allow patients to step into the light, and make our opponents aware that we are not all stoned drop outs as they try and portray cannabis patients. We are your neighbors, someone you sit next to in church, or perhaps your doctor, lawyer, teacher, or another professional you work with. We are successful and we vote. I am hoping that the Tucson Weekly chose the best person for the job, and that you represent us well. If you have any questions, need help, or just want to talk please feel free to contact us at http://www.myswapa.com, or call 505-8252.
Well, I fully agree with both TX Jesse and Timmothy, you guys took the words right out of my mouth. I’m disgusted with Jimmy Boegle’s decision in picking such a ridiculously obnoxious (wanna be) Medical Marijuana Columnist for the Tucson Weekly.
I have had a hand in this since the absolute beginning. On Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 Tucson Weekly announced that they were hiring a medical marijuana critic, at that point I voluntarily spent a great deal of my free-time doing research, interviewing and gathering any information that I could find that may have been beneficial to my potential readers. After reading J.M. Smith’s first attempt at this column I realized I had gone about this thing all wrong, it seems all I needed was a bad attitude and an overwhelming desire to abuse my right of free speech.
What boggles me about Boegle’s poor decision is the fact he made it perfectly clear to all of us potential candidates, especially the final 14 of us, which the Weekly was trying to base this (budding) new column off of the multiple extraordinary pieces written by William Breathes, the proven columnist for the Denver Westword. Thus far examining the styles of both writers I have only found one similar trait, they both smoke weed. Smith writes nothing like Breathes! I feel let down, sad. I was really looking forward to reading this column.
When I received the news I didn’t get hired for the position, I was actually fine with that. I’ve got over a full-load this semester, so I would have been stretched extremely thin trying to give 100% to school and the column. So in a way it was a blessing in disguise. I even went as far as to e-mail Jimmy thanking him for this rare opportunity, and I sent my congratulations to the winner. However I take that back now! I didn’t realize at that time the person chosen was, lets just say ‘less than qualified.’
As for Jimmy I’d love to be able to say “cheers” at this point like I had hoped, but all that comes to mind for now is, best of luck with your “successful, award-winning, college graduate and mentor,” he seems like a real diamond in the rough, if your into the obnoxious, vulgar, uninformative types. I don’t know about the rest of you, but you can rest assured that J.M. Smith is certainly no friend of mine. He can stand outside and bang on my door until his knuckles break and bleed cursing up a storm and I still won’t “let him in.” What kind of person, especially a ‘stoner’ has so much harbored anger towards curious readers to include a “fuck you” in their introduction to an eager Nation? I don’t know where this guy is from, but I do know, where I’m from he would be considered a foul waste of time. Unfortunately, ‘The Weekly’ let many of their avid readers down. Hopefully enough of us will voice our opinions and maybe they will be willing to revise the ways of Smith. Oh, I wanted to leave you with this, Smith for the sake of us all, please don’t ever get yourself confused with the late Dr. Hunter S. Tompson. He never had to insult and curse his readers into a false sense of submission just so he felt he got his point across. It’s called (tact), look it up.
You’re in.
I don’t live in AZ, but found out about this column at NORML and am now a subscriber. All the haters can go away, you’ll easily replace them with new readers. Looking forward to reading your column.
Welcome, J.M.! Looking forward to what promises to be an informative and educational ride!
September 9, 2001
Dear Editor: Please forgive this bypass of your new Medical Marijuana Law (MMJ) columnist. He may have the right heart for the role, yet forgive this visitor for being educated early through schools in the U.K., where the coin of the realm remains English – properly used.
While the vernacular may be perfectly acceptable for a weekly opinion or Op-Ed piece,
Mr. “Smith’s” ‘street’ dialect may be counter-productive to our mutual goal of legalization,
as well as fair and balanced executive regulations.
Moreover, one must look to the State of California, which has experience for the recent seven (7) years with similar legislation. In their most recent past, many cities – including Los Angeles – have written regulations that curtail distribution and growth, within their local powers’ wishes. Furthermore, Governor Jerry Brown signed recent state legislation permitting this practice, which move is being challenged on a state Constitutional level, by both growers and distributors.
The column’s “Street” language may give Mr. Smith “street cred, ” yet with due given to his quoted “political” and “legal” writing, perhaps it lends credence to those well-meaning city leaders and lobbyists whom decry the nature of this new populist “beast.”
Nevertheless, best wishes remain offered to your “cutting-edge” strategy, and let us say the “proof will be in the pudding.”
R.M.G.
Kind Regards, Reed Gauge, LLD.
p.s. To qualify this response, I fully admit that I am a licensed distributor in California.
cc: London Financial Times; LA Weekly, Denver Westword
I find nothing wrong with this writers style….seems to fit the topic very well, in fact. I look forward to future articles. Bottom line: MJ must be removed from Schedule 1–this is the biggest and IMO, ONLY stumbling block. Among the scientific evidence stating that MJ eliminates cancerous tumors, and the fact that no one has ever died from using it, I hope the writer can give us some actions to take to hasten the process of legality.
Good column. Let’s help lay the foundation of truth.
Every major government commission on marijuana has concluded it is non-addictive and FAR less harmful than alcohol. The reports of all these commissions can be read here:
http://www.druglibrary.org/SCHAFFER/Librar…
The DEA’s own administrative law judge, Francis Young, concluded after an exhaustive review of the evidence: “Marijuana, in its natural state, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.” — In fact, in all of recorded history, NO ONE has ever died from consuming marijuana. – That makes it not only much safer than alcohol, but also safer than aspirin, safer than coffee, and safer than peanuts.
As such, ALL use is medical use, since every person who switches from Budweiser to buds improves their health and life tremendously, as well as that of their family and community.
This truth is now common knowledge, and recent polls show a growing majority of Americans now want an end to the fraudulent, counter-productive marijuana prohibition. In all its seven decades, it has NEVER accomplished even one positive thing. It has ONLY caused vast amounts of crime, violence, corruption, death, and the severe diminishment of everyone’s freedom. In this, it has much in common with the apparently forgotten miserable failure of alcohol prohibition.
So, with all this knowledge, WHY do we still have this barbaric persecution of millions of good Americans?
Because police, prosecutors and politicians build their careers and empires on it. Because industries like alcohol and pharmaceuticals don’t want the competition. Because other interests like the drug treatment/testing industry and the prison industries depend on it for their life’s blood. Because many shaky corporations couldn’t exist without the laundered money. And because government uses marijuana prohibition as a means of controlling minorities and the poor. It’s also probable the huge underground black-market funds government black-ops, as well as provide a very useful clandestine conduit for myriad dark operations.
Finally, of course, the TRILLIONS of dollars made by the drug gangs have not been buried in the ground. They have been invested in legitimate business, causing another huge support of this persecution of millions of innocent people. See Catherine Austin Fitts “Narco Dollars For Beginners.” – keeping in mind that while Fitts employs cocaine because it best suits her metaphor, FBI statistics show marijuana sales comprise 80 percent of all “illegal” drug transactions.
http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/narcoD…
It’s time to dismantle the marijuana-prohibition-industrial-complex!
Thank you TusonWeekly for getting this column going.
I’m a regular Weekly reader. I like JM Smith’s introduction. I don’t mind what language you use, as long as you make it smart… So far I’m satisfied. I look forward to following this weekly column.
Welcome, and mazel tov!
I don’t mind the salty language and I look forward to your articles. How about making a trip to Phoenix and reviewing those membership clubs.