CMT - Half Baked

I've never smoked weed. I get funny looks whenever I say that, but it's true. Pot was definitely around when I was in high school, but so was the war on drugs. Remember, we're talking about the nineteen nineties here, and "Just say no" was everywhere you looked.

I new it was corny. All of it was, from Smokey the Bear to McGruff the crime dog. Whenever I tore through an X-Men comic, it would stop mid-fight with "Tobacco is Wacko". I hated those ads and I saw them every week, but even I'll admit that they worked.

Now I'm in my thirties and I hardly drink beer. I'm still not used to cigarette smoke. The only time I ever see a bag of heroin, is when I'm watching a movie on TV. I don't do drugs and I never have, but if you count caffeine I'm a hopeless junkie; guess I got lucky.


Classic Movie Trailers - Half Baked (1998)


I'm the supervisor at my job. Most of the time, it's more trouble than it's worth. Generally, people hate authority figures, but they hate the rules even more. I'm the guy that has to examine our policies, and make hard choices about what to fight for; regardless of what goes and what stays behind, I only hear complaints about the remaining requirements.

There are reasons behind every restriction. Most of our laws are designed to protect us. You have to keep people from injuring themselves, and neighbors want a neighborhood without theft and violence. So with all those good intentions laid before us, how do we interpret the legality of alcohol?

The last time I checked, kidney failure wasn't good for you. The liquor store owner keeps a sawed-off shotgun. Underage drinking leads to untimely deaths, and beer ends marriages well before the papers. Every year, drunk drivers cause thousands of fatalities, and that's just in the United States.

So where are the rules mandated by the state? Where's government intervention when you need it? What about the crushing vice of nicotine addiction? We can coat our lungs with tar and no one seems to mind.

The absence of regulation has reasons as well. Do you know how much they're making, taxing these drugs? To be fair, there was a thing called prohibition, but joining them made more money than beating them. Another problem reared it's head when alcohol was banned; they ultimately found that demand skyrocketed. The only thing more attractive than an attractive thing, is something enticing that you're not allowed to have.

I see the appeal. It just feels good to give the finger to “the man”. We're individuals at the end of the day, and we should be free to make mistakes. Laws should come in when a single error, is the end of life as you know it.

One hit of crack, or a dalliance with cocaine, is an incident that can change you forever. There's a pill called “Molly” that's popular at parties; a single dose of that can alter your brain, and it could be permanent. If we're talking marijuana it's a similar mistake, but only because it leaves you with a record.

Let's face it; the “gateway drug” thing is a sham, and it's the dumbest phrase to ever come from the government. If the worst thing you can say about a drug, is that it leads to other drugs, you don't have much of a case. When's the last time a doctor gave you bourbon? They don't hand out cigars, but they do prescribe weed.

There are good reasons for every good restriction, and very good reasons when they're not there. Pot was a scapegoat for Nixon-era politics, and yet another way for “the man” to keep power. I go along, not because I think it's right, but because it just isn't worth the consequences. There are plenty of legal ways to mellow out, and if I want to kill myself, I can do that legally too.

Trailer Here.

-------------------------------

@ChannelSeals

See “Half Baked” on Amazon Video 

Next Week: “Trainspotting”, now on Netflix!