DEAR TOMMY AND CHEECH

Why not a Cheech and Chong movie about the founding fathers of America, who were devoute stoners? Such knowledge is all hush hush and scary secret and to me, far more interesting than grassy knoll theories. I wrote a term paper today that led me to places I thought I'd never go on the internet to learn things I never imagined I would learn.

I think the same dumbstruck way I feel now, knowing Washington was a stoner, is something that might make a movie of same a worthy consideration. If I may be so presumptious to think I have an idea worthy of two comic greats like that. But, if you dream big, you never know. Toss it on the water and see what bites.

Rick Mason Farmington, NM



MARIJUANA- THE COVER UP


I was going to write a paper about my uncle, my poor dear uncle who likes to smoke marijuana to feel relief from a disability, but in the end, I learned much more than I thought possible about the law, our country, the past, and a dozen other things.

My uncle is disabled due to bi-polar disorder. As an American, he does his best to contribute to society and he tries to make things better for those around him. He’s a clown. You can’t go to the Safeway with the guy without having a crazy time. He does impressions and fart noises and makes total strangers bust out in laughter.

As for the illness, my uncle Rick tries to do what the doctors say. He takes Prozac, twice a day and three times on Sunday. He tries to interact with those around and I know he fights tooth and nail with that damned illness. Yet, most days he seems demoralized, which he hides well enough behind a front of lunacy and rude behaviors. It's because he grew up watching people like Ward Clever and Mr. Brady go to work, raise kids, buy houses and life’s nothing like that for him. He tells me he feels like a freak sometimes.

“I am not married. I do not drive a train. I do not drive a plane. I an a mere little crossing guard and then I come home and lock the door. Thank God for cable TV. If I could feel relaxed just once in 2006, if I could have an appetite like I used to have, if I could sleep like a normal person, I would give my --- I don't know what I would give.”

My uncle admits to limited marijuana use because he says time and again that it helps him manage the mood swings and all the “bull sh**.”

“I am not a doper. I am not a junkie. I am not a Wall Street flunkie, nor a sheep grope drunkie. But I know what works. For me, I know. I have obtained tiny bits of this substance from desperately shady characters and I know relief when I see it. I know how my appetite returns. The groceries don't go bad. I sleep. I am interested in life and active. I DO NOT get this from Prozac or Tegretol. I don’t get it from Trileptal. I get nothing from those things. I get wobbly. I get numb. I become a robot.”

My uncle claims that it is not a matter of counseling, or of switching pills. He says it’s a matter of right and wrong. Marijuana helps! I know he’s tried lithium and Paxil. He’s tried them all. They do not work. He says he is dead inside because he has to take pills that are wrong for him. But it's all there is!

Of course, it goes without saying that my uncle is in favor of the recent legislation pertaining to the use of medical marijuana in New Mexico. He knows all about those polls appearing in the Daily Times showing a majority of New Mexicans in favor of medical marijuana. What this means is that in the not too distant future, medical marijuana may be a legal reality in our state, as it is in places like Vermont, California, Oregon, Alaska, Washington, Maine, Hawaii, Colorado, and Nevada (Marijuana Policy Project - 2004).

No matter where you live, the issue is hotly debated.

For my uncle, the debate begins at home. He claims to experience instant relief from his pain with a little help from Mary Jane. He gets annoyed easily when I try to point out the kids dropping out of school and shooting people because of drugs. He likes to say that’s apples to oranges, which I don’t quite get. It’s when he says George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew the stuff, that’s when I get angry.

My uncle likes to say, “They grew marijuana and used it for pain relief, as well as to make rope and so on. Of course, it goes without saying that they did not have Walgreens down the street. There was no Alka Seltzer. They had ale and wine and whiskey and they had their marijuana. This is the truth, but most people never bother to become informed, unless it's information that supports their pre-conceived notion on an issue. If it was good for George Washington, why is it evil now?

“Yes, marijuana in our schools is a bad thing. It does our young kids NO GOOD. I believe the law is correct in that regard. But, for people with cancer, or people like me, who are suffering every day with things that cannot be controlled by conventional means, what about us?” I agree that marijuana does no good in our schools. In that, I am in complete agreement with my perpetually hungry uncle.

He makes for a pretty convincing argument. I just had to go on line and see for myself about George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Did they really grew that Cheech and Chong stuff and smoke it while plotting against Mother England?

According to http://www.cannabis.com/untoldstory/hemp_2.html United States Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp, used products made from hemp, and praised the hemp plant in some of their writings. Under the laws written by today's politicians, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would be considered a threat to society--they would be arrested and thrown in prison for the felony crime of growing plants.”

I wasn’t comfortable with that. The information was too vague. I looked further down the page. I saw this: “Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere.”--President George Washington, 1794. I couldn’t believe my eyes. This was like the Da Vinci Code and the secret formula to Coke all rolled into one. Was I on a magical history tour? Was I in for the ride of my life?

I typed in George Washington and the word hemp and I got http://www.taima.org/en/quotes. htm#washington “George Washington, first president of the United States of America, grew cannabis on Mount Vernon, his plantation, for about 30 years. He may have used the Indian hemp to treat his chronic tooth aches.” I can’t believe that. With all those TV commercials I’ve seen about how marijuana is evil for you and turns you into a cannibal, how could this actually be? The guy who chopped down the cherry tree was a stoner? No way! I searched the site a bit further and saw some noteworthy people commenting on the prohibition of marijuana and it seems to suggest that said prohibition was based on completely ignorant and racist reasons, as I shall now demonstrate:

"I wish I could show you what a small marihuana cigarette can do to one of our degenerate Spanish-speaking residents. That's why our problem is so great; the greatest percentage of our population is composed of Spanish-speaking persons, most of who are low mentally, because of social and racial conditions." Floyd K. Baskette, Alamosa, Colorado, quoted by Harry J. Anslinger, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics during the hearings on the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act

“Persons using this narcotic [marijuana] smoke the dried leaves of the plant, which has the effect of driving them completely insane. The addict loses all sense of moral responsibility. Addicts to this drug, while under its influence, are immune to pain, and could be injured without having any realization of their condition. While in this condition they become raving maniacs and are liable to kill or indulge in any form of violence to other persons, using the most savage methods of cruelty without, as said before, any sense of moral responsibility. . . . If this drug is indulged in to any great extent, it ends in the untimely death of its addict." Emily Murphy, Edmonton Canada, 1923 campaigner for cannabis prohibition in Canada

“Marijuana is taken by ".....musicians. And I'm not speaking about good musicians, but the jazz type..." Harry J. Anslinger, Federal Bureau of Narcotics 1948

"The question arises, therefore, why cannabis is so regularly banned in countries where alcohol is permitted. [...] It may be that we can ban cannabis simply because the people who use it, or would do so, carry little weight in social matters and are relatively easy to control, whereas the alcohol user often carries plenty of weight in social matters and is difficult to control, as the U.S. prohibition era showed. It has yet to be shown, however, that the one is more socially or personally disruptive than the other." Ph.D. H.B.M Murphy, M.D. Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal. "The Cannabis Habit" (1963) published in 'Bulletin on Narcotics' by UNDCP

With all this information available to me on the world wide web, I can only say that it will take time to sort through it all and try to figure fact from fiction. I am on the fence as to the issue of medical marijuana. I believe that maybe it is good for very sick people, or adults who are fully developed physically. I believe marijuana does no good for kids. It stunts their developing brains and makes them ill prepared to deal with life. There are enough studies and anecdotal evidence available on the internet to satisfy any curiosity as to this claim.

I would like to think that when New Mexico is ready to pass the law, it will happen. In the mean time, I wish to know as much as I can about this issue before making any decisions one way or the other. On the one hand, medical marijuana helps people. The substance itself, marijuana, was ok for people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, but it’s no good for us? It might also have been banned by petty racist minds. The evidence I discovered seems to support this fact. What more can I say? No matter where you live, the issue is hotly debated.





BIBLIOGRAPHY



Interview with my uncle, Rick: March 13th, 2006

www.MPP.ORG Marijuana Policy Project - 2004

http://www.cannabis.com/untoldstory/hemp_2.html

http://www.taima.org/en/quotes. htm#washington

Floyd K. Baskette, Alamosa, Colorado, quoted by Harry J. Anslinger, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics during the hearings on the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act4

Emily Murphy, Edmonton Canada, 1923 campaigner for cannabis prohibition in Canada

Harry J. Anslinger, Federal Bureau of Narcotics 1948

Ph.D. H.B.M Murphy, M.D. Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal. "The Cannabis Habit" (1963) published in 'Bulletin on Narcotics' by UNDCP





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2006 01:09AM by richardmason2006.

What is this? A shot in the dark or something?

MOVIE SCRIPT , HEY I GOT A COUPLE OF IDEAS FOR A SCRIPT, IT JUST CAME TO ME
DONT KNOW HOW OR WHY, MAYBE IT WAS BECASUE I GREW UP LISTENING TO YOUR SHIT FOR INSPIRATION, AND I DID A COUPLE OF YOUR PLAYS OCCAPELLO! WITH FRIENDS HANGIN
AND PARTYING DOWN,,


THE iDEAS I HAVE IS

1. YOU AND CHEECH HAVE A TWIN,,, NOT THE CORISCAN EITHER BUT REAL TWINS, LIKE LOOK A LIKES , THEY COULD BE SCREWING THINGS UP FOR U GUYS, everywhere u go before u get there and find out who theyre are,AND WHO KNOWS WHAT BUT EVERYBODY HAS EVIL TWINS,, OR SOMONE ELSE THAT LOOKS LIKE THEM, AND A COUPLE OF CHEECH AND CHONG LOOK ALIKES COULD HELP ProMOTE THE MOVIE UNLESS U DOUBLE IT WITH YOURSELVES,,
THE SECOND i DEA IS...

2. CHEECH AND YOU, HAVE A COUPLE OF SONS, JUsT LIKE YOU, GIVING YOU GUYS A HARD TIME, AND CHANGING YOU BACK FROM THE WAY YOU BOTH ARE NOW TO WHEN YOU WERE!
AND IT COULD BE THAT, PART OF THE TWINS, TURN OUT TO BE UR KIDS ALL GROWN UP PARTYING TEENAGERS, OR SOMETHING,AND IT WOULD BE ALOT OF FUN, FOR THE KIDS AND
BRING OUT A DIFFERENT SIDE OF YOU GUYS,INCLUDING YOU GUYS BECOMING KIDS AGAIN, FROM BEING OLD AND HONERY LIKE U ARE, LOL
JUST JOKING HOPE U GET THIS,,
CAUSE I THINK ITS A START AND ALOT TO WORK OFF OF,,YOU GUYS ARE COOL, AND THE THOUGHT OF THEM BRING U BACK TO BEING ABLE TO RELATE TO YOUR OWN KIDS WOULD BE A GOOD PLAY, SCENARIO,, AND DEJA-VU AT THE SAME TIME FOR U AND EVERYBODY ELSE!

ANYWAYS , IF ITS NOT GOOD LUCK ON THIS NEW VENTURE!I am so excited, i hope u guys see this, YOUR FRIEND
OLD STONER AND CHICANO, GOD BLESS IF YOU NEED ANY MORE IDEAS EMAIL ME AT

nighter1@excite.com
, coolest regards HENRY

Holy sheep shit, like far out man thats the most acid , iseen anyone eat in my entire life , man!

Shot in his ass!, we all believe in u both,,

you guys could have a fued and be neighbors or something, with ur kid s winding up on a talk show, some joe kid kind of stuff, too theres alot to go off of here,

Chong your bongs are the best i use my chong everyday allday thanks for the best bong ill ever use and im sure anybody who owns one will agree take it easy man

Chong bongs are the best bongs in the world i thank god for my chong everyday im sure everyone who owns one will agree