MetaChat - I would like to bitch and whine a little bit if that's OK.

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06 February 2009

I would like to bitch and whine a little bit if that's OK. →[More:]It is related to this thread and specifically this news. Add that to the recent smoking ban, and suddenly I am really disappointed in the people governing my one special place in the world.

I feel kind of like the rug has been pulled out from under me. And right when I was looking forward to meeting like minded MeFites at the 10 year gala in Amsterdam, now I am so completely soured on the place.

I am not asking everybody to smoke. I am not asking everyone to tune in and turn on*, but why is it so hard for the forces of control to let freaks have some tiny little space where they can exist in freedom? Why can't there be a safe and legal place for us to fly the flag? I don't want to control the world, I just want to control the meat between my ears unfettered by the mores of squares and moralists.

People of the Netherlands, I guess I don't understand you as I thought I did. I'm very disappointed in how you are changing the way your country does business, rolling back the things that made you special and good.

*actually, I am, but you are free to ignore that advice

post by: Meatbomb at: 07:27 | 9 comments

I don't understand it, either, monsieur bomb. I'm not much of a user, other than tobacco and alcohol (though I used to be rather more colorful)... but I can honestly say that in 30+ years of my adult life, there's never been a time in my history when most of the people I knew weren't regularly using at least one banned substance - and I live a pretty standard kind of life, albeit thoroughly urban. The people I know usually make money in regular ways, contribute to society, pay their income taxes, get married (or something close), have kids (sometimes), take out the trash, offer more than they take away in friendship and in life, and are just generally good, solid humans. And yet they all break the law constantly in this way.

Obviously, it benefits somebody. $$$$$$$$$$

posted by taz 06 February | 08:38

If that girls tragic death prompted the ban, why isn't the Berlin Love Parade banned (there's at least one death every year, except once when I was there and we partied extra hard to celebrate no casualties when we heard that news the next day).

I never did try mushrooms, but living there I had friends who did, I just didn't think it was my sort of thing so I wasn't interested. However, I've bought and brought the pricier exotic versions as a gift when going to friends dinner/cocktail parties instead of bringing wine. When my friends have been on mushrooms at such parties, they haven't been off their heads in any way, in fact the scariest I've ever seen anyone be on drugs was at a pub lockin in Glasgow where practically everyone but me were coked out of their heads and full of stout. It was very tense in that room.

And the you can light up a spliff provided there's no tobacco in it law just boggles my mind.

posted by dabitch 06 February | 08:50

...or for that matter, why isn't alcohol banned? I've seen alcoholism up close, I've known teenagers who killed themselves when drunk out of their minds (yeah, that's a great time for a swim in the harbor in the middle of winter!). I've known teenagers who killed others while driving drunk (he was driving his girlfriend home, hit a tree and she flew out the front window, her dead body landed on her parents front yard - tragic in so many ways). I personally know partners abused by abusive spouses who are violent when drunk. But nope, we can all still drink.

posted by dabitch 06 February | 08:56

And how many accidents do people get in while sober? Maybe sobriety should be banned.

No law will ever control misadventure. Writing a law in reaction to an accident is futile and unwise as it is a step backwards, like writing laws based on superstition.

posted by Hugh Janus 06 February | 09:03

Well put. True.

posted by dabitch 06 February | 09:10

why isn't alcohol banned?

We tried here, dabitch....didn't work.

posted by brujita 06 February | 10:25

Right on, dabitch!!!

posted by Melismata 06 February | 10:30

There was a period a few years back where the various Provincial and Superior Courts of Canada (and I think the Supreme Court too but I am not sure) basically said that the mj laws in Canada were invalid and Parliament had to change them. After that it was pretty cool to see public smoking outdoors but something happened and the police started enforcing the criminal code again and everyone became furtive as usual. It was nice while it lasted.

posted by saucysault 06 February | 11:42

Well, the vast majority of car accidents are caused by sober drivers, so it still boggles my mind that people continue to be allowed to drive in this dangerous state of mind. On a personal level, every car accident I've been involved with has been with me stone cold sober, so my own experience validates this theory.

posted by dg 08 February | 05:38

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