#709: The Stuff

GETTING MORE TALE #709: The Stuff

October 17 2018 was a day like any other day.  I got up, showered, went to work, worked, ate lunch, worked some more, and came home.  You might have had a similar day yourself.

I drove home with Cheap Trick in my ears (“If You Want My Love”, great pop rock) and it was a regular commute, just like any other.  Uneventful is good.  I exited the car into the cold air.  The chill has come, but as I walked towards the building, there was something new.  I smelled the Stuff.

The Stuff is legal in Canada now.  Cannabis, also known as marijuana, ganja, reefer, weed, pot, the electric lettuce…add your own to this list.  Where was I?  Legalisation.  The Justin Trudeau Liberals actually lived up to its campaign promise and the Stuff is now legal.  You can smoke it, you can grow it, and there are rules and regulations to go with it.  In the province of Ontario you can’t just walk into a store and buy it.  You have to order it online.  I heard they’re already sold out.  But it’s legal, is the point I’m making.  Somebody upstairs in the building was celebrating, and that’s fine.

My main point:  like many things, the world didn’t shift today.  I read worried nay-sayers asking questions like “Have they considered all the stoned pot heads driving during the winter while on the Stuff?”  Yes, that’s been considered.  Anybody stupid enough to drive while stoned was already doing it.  What’s one law when you can break two, I guess.  Life in Canada has gone on pretty much normally.  The mail came again.  It was all junk, again.  Gas is pretty much the same price as yesterday.  Same with milk.  Donald Trump tweeted stupid things.  Just a normal day in 2018.

There was one other minor difference today.  There was a mass email at work reminding everyone of the drug & liquor policies.  They haven’t changed though, it’s still basically “Don’t come to work drunk or stoned.”  Same as the day before.

Moving on, I like to think of all the songs I heard as a kid, loaded with references to the Stuff that I completely missed.  I was a pretty naive teenager, I guess, and I really didn’t have a clue!  “Sweet Leaf” by Black Sabbath?  I thought it was about a girl named Leaf.  Leaf isn’t a common name, but it’s a name.  “I love you Sweet Leaf, though you can’t hear.”  Hey, maybe she’s too far away to hear.  I didn’t know!  I swear to Christ almighty, believe me or not, I thought “Sweet Leaf” was about a girl.  Don’t forget Black Sabbath cassettes didn’t come with lyric sheets, so I was guessing at most of the words.  Same with “Flying High Again”.  No clue.

Early 1990, I was working at the grocery store at the mall with a guy named Scott Gunning.  I was obsessed with “Sweet Leaf” that spring.  I just got Sabbath’s We Sold Our Soul for Rock and Roll tape.  “Sweet Leaf” was one of many favourites, but I really loved that riff.  I thought the cough at the start was just an unrelated joke.  Scott, who was older and knew Black Sabbath, must have thought I was a complete stoner, how much I was talking about this song!  Meanwhile I wouldn’t have known the Stuff if it bit me on the nose!

As kids, we always preferred anti-drug songs to ones about getting high.  We were young, and we could relate to the “cleaner” lyrics of a band like Kiss.  “I don’t need to get wasted, it only brings me down.”  Clear cut and easy to understand.  Gene Simmons would be happy that his lyrics had a positive resonance with kids.

Here’s the irony:  Gene Simmons, who has always boasted that he’s only been high in a dentist’s chair, is now investing in Canadian weed companies.

Legalization is a good thing.  A lot of money is going to go right into the economy.  Hell, Mrs. LeBrain has had a prescription for a year and a half now.  Another irony:  she doesn’t take her meds.  She doesn’t like it.  And that’s another factor that people are forgetting.  There are going to be plenty of people who are going to legally try it for the first time, and they’re going to hate it.  They won’t like how it makes them paranoid, or lazy, or hungry, or whatever their reaction will be.  It’ won’t be like the nation will go pot-mad.

Even if it did, I’d rather be living here than down south.

 

37 comments

      1. I don’t know about numbers, but money he has. I read an article that stated he has already raised over $100M for his campaign. To put that in perspective, Obama only had about $12-15m and Bush only had about $5m at this same time in their presidency. (amounts are estimates because I can’t remember the exact amounts from the article, but you get the picture).

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        1. The irony here is that Trump boasts so much about money. Why are people giving him anything? Give that money to the homeless or the veterans. Not a self proclaimed rich tycoon.

          Biden, I think, might be too old. But somebody needs to step up and win. Bernie maybe? I dunno.

          Liked by 1 person

        3. Imagine what could have happened if Bernie won that nomination. The funny that is that in 2008, everybody was talking about how Hillary should have been nominated over Obama. In 2016 she won the nomination and it was a disaster.

          Like

  3. I was a stoner back in the 80s. If you read Rock and Roll Children, you would think I was lying if I said I wasn’t. Nowadays, it’s just festivals and when I can’t sleep, it does help. I take my hat off to Canada for taking that first bold step. I’m surprised the conservative press here in the UK hasn’t balked about it. Here’s a tip for Mrs LeBrain: Has she tried putting it into cakes? I’ve tried space cakes in the past and you do have the effect without all the smoke.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. You should see the big yellow signs at work with a big sweet leaf emblazoned: “it might be legal, but not here it isn’t! You can carry it, but can’t consume it.”…they also plan to ban smoking on College property starting January.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. You should hear some of my colleagues who smoke and their views on the ban (swearing). The property line is pretty far away from our building too. Others say they are taking it as an opportunity to quit, which is never bad.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  8. Good for your country. Stuff is way less harmful than cigarettes, but I bet Ricky is disappointed now.

    I think it’s hilarious no one has anything to say about my Fastway review.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I sincerely hope the next season has Ricky addressing this!

      I didn’t comment on Fastway yet…but I wonder if some people just don’t comment on guest reviews? Not sure what the deal is there. I figured everybody is at least aware of Trick or Treat.

      Like

      Reply

      1. They just all love you and don’t know if the guest writer will reply most likely. That or they were so moved by the Fastway piece that they couldn’t express it in words.

        Like

        Reply

  9. Here’s ol man Deke’s view on Mary Jane…

    Smoke my hoochie, you say that I’m the Devil, really T.H.C.

    Marco Polo hailed it heaven, Socrates inhaled it, too.
    Mister President, tell the truth.
    You’re the great exaggerators since 1932.
    Telling evils of the reefer, but all through time we’ve smoked the sky.

    Smoke the sky.

    When inside we’ll smoke the sky.
    When inside we’ll smoke the sky.
    When inside we’ll smoke the, when inside we’ll toke the, when inside we’ll smoke
    the sky.

    Home grown vision compliments the senses, opens up my mind.
    J.F.K. sold us freedom, or was it just a business toke?
    63 went up in smoke.
    He was the great seducer crawling from our T.V.s.
    Breathed hope into our future, before he died, he smoked the sky,
    Smoke the sky.

    When inside we’ll smoke the sky.
    When inside we’ll smoke the sky.
    When inside we’ll smoke the, when inside we’ll toke the, when inside we’ll smoke
    the sky.

    B.C. hailed it heaven, I inhaled it, too.
    Really T.H.C.
    When inside we’ll smoke the sky.

    Smoke the sky.

    When inside we’ll smoke the sky.
    When inside we’ll smoke the sky.
    When inside we’ll smoke the, when inside we’ll toke the, when inside we’ll smoke
    the sky.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. DEKE! I was going to mention this song too! BECAUSE I HAD NO IDEA! I thought Smoke The Sky was like, about power. Like “I’ll fucking smoke you, dude.” Like macho bullshit. I had no idea. Until I caught the THC reference, and I was familiar with that from Bulletboys – THC Groove. I was familiar with the assumption that THC Groove was about drugs.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I forgot about the BulletBoys tune than again I totally forgot about that followup album after the killer debut…
        Yeah theres a tune of dope tunes but Sabbath take the crown with there tunes ..haha
        Special Mention to Ace and his version of Snowblind…haha

        Like

        Reply

  11. My Mom tells me when Clapton came out with “Cocaine” everyone thought it was a girl’s name since no one had heard of the drug before. It was probably only her that thought that way though and she self projected it onto the rest of the world, lol.

    Like

    Reply

Rock a Reply