[continued from previous message]   
      
   >>>> enough to see it legalised for recreational use, it's just annoying   
   >>>> that   
   >>>> everything takes so long, have been waiting 30+ years haha ;)   
   >>>   
   >>> Look I'm not a kid anymore.  I barely remember my youth.  I'm happy to   
   >>> have a pipe, and not much more than a puff or two, at night.  I   
   >>> couldn't imagine being stoned on grass all the time, nothing would be   
   >>> worse now at my age.  Also, too much water under the bridge which   
   >>> doesn't lead to a real carefree existence all the time, some of the   
   >>> time yes, but not all the time.  Stoned on weed is good when the   
   >>> mental burden is light, not when it's heavy.   
   >>>   
   >>> So, to me there isn't any difference now between legal recreational   
   >>> weed and medical weed - it's the same weed, imported from all over the   
   >>> world, not much grown here in Australia, high THC if you want it, not   
   >>> much on the expenditure side either.   
   >>>   
   >>> I've slowed down a lot as I got old(er).  Still sharp but far more   
   >>> serious about things.  No longer the 1973 hippy with the mushroom   
   >>> jeans on tripping on acid and smoking a lot of pot.   
   >>   
   >> ### - was only being kinda sarcastic re waiting until it's legalised   
   >> etc,   
   >> they've been talking about that nearly forever here in the uk, ever   
   >> since   
   >> it was banned in fact back in 1947 or thereabouts, the uk being one of   
   >> the   
   >> last to make it illegal and only under protest at the time seeing as   
   >> they'd virtually raised a whole empire off the profits of   
   >> importing/exporting dope worldwide (cough-cough, sorry i meant 'spices',   
   >> riiight...) ;)   
   >>   
   >> otherwise you and i are very different then in that respect, because for   
   >> someone you accused of knowing nada about it altogether i've actually   
   >> smoked it near enough every single day since age 17 or thereabouts after   
   >> being introduced to it at college heh (how that happened actually being   
   >> a   
   >> great story just in itself, one perhaps for another day...) the only 3   
   >> items i genuinely took away from college being weed, lsd & my first real   
   >> girlfriend lol, a year after which i dropped-out altogether and which i   
   >> considered was plenty enough education for moi, the rest was rubbish ;)   
   >>   
   >> and whereas you kinda look down on weed and from what you say above:   
   >> don't   
   >> think that much of it etc, i'm completely the opposite and see it as   
   >> having been instrumental in shaping not only my whole outlook but also   
   >> my   
   >> later education to a higher degree... kind of like a tv interview i saw   
   >> years ago about our controversial channel-4 sending one of their indian   
   >> reporters to the indian mela festival, something that takes place every   
   >> year in india and then you see all these holy men covered in grey ashes   
   >> traveling to it from right across india and beyond, every 33 years being   
   >> some kind of special super-mela event having some kind of astrological   
   >> significance to it, the same 33-year event the buddha is reputed to have   
   >> attended back in his day and apparently caused quite a stir...   
   >>   
   >> so anyway, they packed this young naive uk-indian guy off to the mela to   
   >> go see/report what it's all about, 100's of 1000's of these holy men   
   >> descending/converging on the place like the muslims do at mecca only   
   >> bigger! and this young indian reporter dressed in a dark 3-piece suit   
   >> lol   
   >> and his big channel-4 microphone, is going around asking all these holy   
   >> men questions about what it's all about and why it's happening + what it   
   >> all means etc etc etc... and at one point asks this typical looking dude   
   >> he was interviewing why he was smoking hashish so heavily (everyone in   
   >> the   
   >> tent is literally chuffing-away on chillums and pipes and stuff like   
   >> there's no tomorrow lol) and doesn't all that drug-taking interfere   
   >> with/contradict all his holy man spiritual practices??   
   >>   
   >> and this holy-man dude pauses mid-puff in a cloud of thick smoke, looks   
   >> up   
   >> surprised at this reporter, a look of humorous scorn clearly crossing   
   >> his   
   >> face for a moment and almost rolling his eyes, replies: my young man,   
   >> don't be so stupid, don't you 'realise' it was smoking hashish that   
   >> turned   
   >> me INTO a holy man in the first place??? you should try it!   
   >>   
   >> and then he went back to honking heavily on his chillum ahahaha... our   
   >> young reporter looking clearly dazed/shocked, not only from that guy's   
   >> rather surprising remarks but prolly also from all the thick fumes lol   
   >> :)))   
   >>   
   >> get it?   
   >>   
   >> that for 'some' people it's a total lifestyle, one that may or may not   
   >> eventually turn ya's into some kinda holy man hehehe...   
   >>   
   >> go figure ;)   
   >   
   > Smoking pot is so mundane now for me that I need a reason, not just   
   > get stoned, but something along the lines of better sleep, or   
   > elucidation of rational thinking, deeper enjoyment of music, better   
   > enjoyment and appreciation of nature - colour, form, evolution etc;   
   > pondering beginnings, endings, time, space, metaphysics...and so on.   
   >   
   > Or, very very occasionally, just get drunk and stoned and fuck myself   
   > up (within the bounds of a 70 year old body) with music until I totter   
   > off to bed.   
   >   
   > It's just...mundane.  The thrill of illegality is gone, partly due to   
   > age partly due to ease of legal acquisition.  The effect is well   
   > known, nothing new there experientially.  So, it's just a herb with   
   > interesting effects.   
   >   
   > There is no way on this planet I would adopt it now, or even 50 years   
   > ago, as a "total lifestyle".  That's for some people as you say but   
   > not for me.  But as a permanent part of MY lifestyle, it's there to   
   > stay.   
   >   
   > In a nutshell, I find it enjoyable and I've been smoking it since I   
   > was 16.  It's still mundane though.   
      
   ### - think of people like Howard Marks (Mr Nice) whose whole life   
   revolved around it, the uk's most notorious dealer, who ended-up having a   
   very different kinda outlook on life & living in general, ditto a whole   
   heap of other characters whose involvement (with drugs) led them down a   
   very different road of life-appreciation and style, the holy men of india   
   being the original hippies in that sense, only it's all about   
   self-development & spiritual advancement with those guys ("it was hashish   
   that turned me INTO a holy man" etc) it's influence on western people &   
   thinking being undoubtedly the same, and the next thing ya know young   
   people are rejecting the establishment (the squares heh) en-mass and   
   setting-up their own, very much more relaxed, lifestyle altogether...   
      
   and there in a nutshell is its effect upon people: it changed their whole   
   outlook on life, broadened it, gave them a deeper appreciation of it...   
   society was altered, even the music changed from things like perry fucking   
   como to pink floyd haha, it was different, some say much better, more open   
   and less insular, and a direct challenge to society... the squares   
   fought-back of course, tried to quash/contain it, but a whole generation   
   grew up more or less under it's influence, a generation of very different   
   thinking people, ideas like 'make love not war' and 'free love' entered   
   western thought, the poets, writers and artists coming out of that   
   generation affecting the whole world!   
      
   i've known dealers whose whole life revolved around it! :)   
      
   memes like: "dope will get you through times of no money better than money   
   will get you through times of no dope", basically saying it all...   
      
   mundane otoh, is square-business... wearing a suit and tie is mundane,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)