My Trip to the Pot Shop

[Celeste Chalfonte]

By Michelle Malkin

PUEBLO WEST, Colo. — It's 9 a.m. on a weekday, and I'm at the Marisol Therapeutics pot shop. This is serious business. Security is tight. ID checks are frequent. Merchandise is strictly regulated, labeled, wrapped and controlled. The store is clean, bright and safe. The staffers are courteous and professional. Customers of all ages are here.

There's a middle-aged woman at the counter nearby who could be your school librarian. On the opposite end of the dispensary, a slender young soldier in a wheelchair with close-cropped hair, dressed in his fatigues, consults with a clerk. There's a gregarious cowboy and an inquisitive pair of baby boomers looking at edibles. A dude in a hoodie walks in with his backpack.

And then there's my husband and me.

http://news.yahoo.com/trip-pot-shop-070000648.html

[Celeste Chalfonte]

I rarely have any use for Malkin, but this observation demonstrates the truth of the axiom that all politics is personal:

Support for these ballot measures and similar efforts (like the newly enacted Charlee's Law in Utah legalizing medical cannabis oil) transcends political lines. Why? Because cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and other chronic and terminal diseases have no partisan affiliations.

[Novaheart]

I rarely have any nonphysical use for Malkin, but this observation demonstrates the truth of the axiom that all politics is personal:

Fixed

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Fixed

Damn, I didn't know what she looked like until you said that. I somehow pictured her looking like Ann Coulter with dark hair (just because I have only known Michelles who were brunettes - no logic). Now you made me google her photos and yes, if she would lose the long hair, she'd be SERIOULY hot.

Ah well, don't have to like the politics to admire the wrapper.

[Norm dePlume]

I'd say she's a little behind the curve, still addressing marijuana law as a medical issue.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

I'd say she's a little behind the curve, still addressing marijuana law as a medical issue.

Did you read the whole thing? That was addressed. She was buying on the "recreational" side.

[Norm dePlume]

Did you read the whole thing? That was addressed. She was buying on the "recreational" side.

Yeah, I read it. Her cited her long time support of medical marijuana, having know someone who used it for medical purposes. She was there because her mother-in-law was seeking it for medical purposes. And she stated that their purchases were "yielding health benefits."

[phillygirl]

I'd say she's a little behind the curve, still addressing marijuana law as a medical issue.

why is that?

[Adam]

why is that?

A lot of people feel that the pot argument is "post-medical" now, that since medical marijuana is gaining acceptance in a lot of places, including in public perception, that the argument has moved on to a personal liberty argument.

IOW, incrementalism.

[Gingersnap]

The only quibble I had with the piece is that Michelle should have talked to a few people and then bought her MIL weed caramels instead of the joints and vape pen. No mess, no smoke, no cartridges to screw with and an excellent result.

I have never really understood the idea that people getting "medicine" were somehow obligated to hate the experience if it actually made them feel good at the moment. That seems counter-intuitive to me. That said, I personally pretty much hate to take anything that makes me zonked. People have to stop thinking that their party day experiences are the bench mark for cannabis - medical or recreational.

That would be like assuming that everyone who drinks a martini or a craft beer is going to be half-naked, covered with Sharpie comments, and barfing drunk in 2 hours. It doesn't work that way.

It will be interesting to see if in 10 years time there's drop off in some prescriptions for mood-altering, pseudo psychiatric drugs and another little drop off in the lonely wine box crowd. Why take a huge drug because life is boring? Take a couple hits instead. Why go through all the problems with being a sad, secret drunk when you could just unwind at home with a candy? A candy that by its very nature is going to make you stay at home.

[Adam]

I have never really understood the idea that people getting "medicine" were somehow obligated to hate the experience if it actually made them feel good at the moment. That seems counter-intuitive to me.

Maybe not "obligated," but I know I feel like shit when I take narcotics. I absolutely hate them. But the "high" does "feel good" in the sense that I disengage my brain and don't care about anything.

[Gingersnap]

Maybe not "obligated," but I know I feel like shit when I take narcotics. I absolutely hate them. But the "high" does "feel good" in the sense that I disengage my brain and don't care about anything.

Weed is a little different, at least in my experience. With the prescription narcotics (the few I have any experience with, anyway), I get totally zonked. I can't think or do anything if they are strong enough to actually relieve the pain thing. I end up taking half the dose during the day and filling the gap with aspirin and then taking the real dose after work and watching back-to-back episodes of 'Too Cute!".

I've never used weed for a physical thing so I have no experience on that end, I have used it for anxiety very off and sometimes on and it works really well for me without being zonked but I don't smoke it. I eat it. The effect is slow but a little lasts a really long time. I can talk, work (at home), interact with my environment in a sensible way, and accomplish as much as I otherwise would.

I've only done this when I've been excessively stressed out and the OCD thing was moving beyond the CBT management thing. I end up feeling the way I imagine "normal" people feel in terms of anxiety symptoms (I have no real idea about how "normal" people feel - most of my research involves women in yogurt commercials). Then I just quit and go back to my normal base-level jittery self.

[scott]

Did you read the whole thing? That was addressed. She was buying on the "recreational" side.

Good to see the pundits catch up to me circa 1998 or so.

[Norm dePlume]

why is that?

Because Colorado has had medical marijuana since 2001. What's relatively new is that they now allow marijuana sales for recreational purposes.

[phillygirl]

Because Colorado has had medical marijuana since 2001. What's relatively new is that they now allow marijuana sales for recreational purposes.

Oh. I read the article a bit more as to the bureaucratic pitfalls relative to medical marijuana and as support for more states opening up to that concept. If I could get marijuana for my mom right now I would....legally that is. I'd definitely have to lie to her, though, as she wouldn't take it voluntarily. Weird, that.