Like Teddy Kennedy or Fat Bastard.
Posted on 07/25/2005 5:01:43 PM PDT by Wolfie
Executives Who Inhale
New York -- Some New York executives unwind in the evening with a glass of wine. Others go out for a beer. And some take the edge off in a way they rarely discuss with their colleagues. Particularly in the summer, when children are at camp, these Gothamites are kicking back in a fashion reminiscent of their college days. "When my son's away, I keep my bong and my bag out on the dining room table," says Jim, co-owner of a furniture manufacturing company, who, like every other pot smoker interviewed in this article, asked not to be identified. "It makes me feel young again.
Despite the ongoing war on drugs and the stigma surrounding any illegal activity, a certain portion of the New York business community never turned in its rolling papers. For many of these otherwise law-abiding citizens, taking a few tokes of their favorite illicit substance is simply their preferred way to decompress. Though they might conceal their after-hours smoking from their co-workers, they insist that, used in moderation, the evil weed doesn't have to hurt job performance.
"It's an asset to the conceptualizing part of the business," Jim says. "It's a liability to the implementation part."
Among New York professionals, smokers tend to be discreet, even when children aren't in the picture. There's too much to lose from being typecast as a stoner. After all, Cheech and Chong--the pothead comedians of the 1970s--weren't exactly known for productivity.
"It's not something I would discuss with clients, even if they brought the subject up," says Sam, who has his own architecture firm. "And I only smoke with close friends."
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But statistics suggest that some of those clients are probably indulging as well. According to the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, 97 million Americans have smoked marijuana at least once, and it is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States.
In the marijuana underground, New York has a reputation not only for widespread use but for the buying habits of its upscale users. City dwellers fork over as much as $600 an ounce for top-quality product, while dealers brag about selling strains grown from winners of the Amsterdam Cannabis Cup.
The city is also famous for its efficient delivery services.
"It's the only place in the country where you can get cannabis delivered, uptown and downtown, faster than pizza or Chinese food," says Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, based in Washington.
New York is also known for strict enforcement of laws against marijuana. Under the Giuliani administration, marijuana-related arrests peaked in 2000 at about 74,000; about 90% of those busts were for possession.
Arrests for grass have dropped by more than half under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to about 34,000 last year--a number that still makes the city among the national leaders in marijuana arrests per capita, according to NORML.
Though there is disagreement about government policy, even critics of the laws warn that heavy pot use can stunt ambition and accomplishment, as well as destroy personal relationships.
Growing Use
"Marijuana is the most difficult drug to get people to give up, because it allows them to keep functioning," says Andrew Park, a Manhattan psychotherapist who specializes in addiction. "You can't see the damage to a person's life that you would if they were smoking crack or shooting dope."
But neither the law nor the dangers of abuse have dampened the nation's appetite for cannabis: the government's survey recorded 15 million current users in 2003, compared with 10 million in 1995.
"Alcohol dulls everything," says Abe, a litigator at a Manhattan law firm who says he would rather toke than imbibe. "Pot sharpens certain things, like creativity."
Marijuana is also the one illicit substance that appears to enjoy widespread appeal across social and economic lines.
"Lawyers, accountants, actors, cooks ... I deal with people across the board," says Jason, who has been selling marijuana full time in New York since 1996. "From people living in hellholes who can't really afford it, to people whose secretaries I have to talk to before I can talk to them."
But longtime aficionados find that, just like the sports they played in college, the drug is something they can no longer partake of as often as they did when they were young.
"The lifestyle changed when I had kids," says Bill, who manages a short-term apartment complex in midtown Manhattan and smokes only on those rare occasions when his children are not around. "Yet I still have a roach, wrapped in aluminum foil, in the back of my sock drawer."
My objections to prohibition are that it is grossly unconstitutional, and that the government steals money from me to pay for it. I don't need to actually smoke pot to feel that way, believe it or not.
Every once in a while I get this urge to roll up a big, fat joint, smoke it, relax, and indulge in some conceptualizing. Then I heard some who are arrested for posession must endure four-hundred-four seconds of Helen Thomas sitting on their face. That ends my urge every time.
WOW! And I date myself as I recall the "nickel bag"...
Now I can point out the cost savings as I set up my Martini.
Most great authors were drunks.
I am infinite stronger for having overcome my weaknesses.
Apart from other things.
As a fraternity alum, I beg to differ. ;-)
Can't be true. All pot smokers are burnouts who live in their parents' basements. I know because the WODdies told me so.
Inspirational and Wise words.
Bravo
Good advice.
Besides, too much pot gives guys manboobs.
"God loves you and wants you sober"
Yeah but Benjamin Franklin said:
"Beer is proof that God exists and that he wants us to be happy"
are you kidding me? I have long since passed middle age my friend. Stop striving for youth. You can still grow old gracefully and still maintain a youthful attitude. Don't you remember the saying: "The trick is to grow UP without growing OLD." Be yourself. Take advantage of what is out there for middle agers or do what you want but do it because it is fun for you and you enjoy doing it for the sheer pleasure and NOT because something makes you feel young. Feeling young only lasts for so long. Being young only lasts for so long. There's a lot to be said for age IF you can accept it and grow with it. Good luck.
Could be. Still seems like an escape mechanism just like it was in the 60's.
Could be, but everyone is entitled to seek happiness in any way that pleases them as long as they don't violate the equal rights of every other citizen.
Shakespeare smoked cocaine.
He also produced this sonnet: (#76)
Why is my verse so barren of new pride,
So far from variation or quick change?
Why with the time do I not glance aside
To new-found methods and to compounds strange?
Why write I still all one, ever the same,
And keep invention in a noted weed,
That every word doth almost tell my name,
Showing their birth, and where they did proceed?
O, know, sweet love, I always write of you,
And you and love are still my argument;
So all my best is dressing old words new,
Spending again what is already spent:
For as the sun is daily new and old,
So is my love still telling what is told.
source here: http://veryimportantpotheads.com/main2.htm
Heh heh...I always enjoyed that. But I guess it's a personal decision.
Oh yes, as long as they don't violate anyone else.
Like Teddy Kennedy or Fat Bastard.
this from the same source quoted above:
RICHARD FEYNMAN Physicist
Richard P. Feynman was a Nobel laureate in physics, a best-selling author and member of the presidential commission that investigated the Challenger disaster. He was a popular lecturer who was widely known for his insatiable curiosity, gentle wit, brilliant mind and playful temperament. His 1985 book, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman," was on the New York Times best-seller list for 14 weeks.
Feynman shared the Nobel Prize in 1965 for reconstructing almost the whole of quantum mechanics and electrodynamics, deriving a way to analyze atomic interactions through simple diagrams, a method that is still used widely. He was also a member of the team that developed the first atomic bomb at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. His 1988 obituary in the Los Angeles Times stated that Feynman admitted to smoking pot during his lifetime.
I have no doubt that this will not convince the anal-retentives on this thread of anything, but I am sure that the riders of the purple gage are laughing their asses off at you santimonious saps.
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