[continued from previous message]   
      
   >>>>> is,   
   >>>>> however, a promising new industry with the potential to earn billions!   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> they want/need the money! so all we really gots to do is to live long   
   >>>>> 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   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)