No Stems, No Seeds That You Don't Need

"I tried everything in my life. Things I like, I try 'em twice." From "You Got That Right" by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

More from the white punks on dope department:

Some mornings I don't want to get out of bed. Not like a teenager that wants to skip school, or a hungover twentysomething. I have an acute lower back problem that flares up on occasion that makes it painful to straighten up. Some of it's age. Some of it's hereditary. Some of it's repetitive stress injury from doing too many dead end jobs in the restaurant and construction industries. Tote that barge. Lift that bale. I've seen a specialist. He gave me exercises, but even after stretching religiously for a year, it still flared up, so I stopped. Take Ibuprofen as needed.

Besides the economy, gun violence, strained race relations, climate warming, and affordable health care, the legalization of marijuana is one of the hot topics in the country. I have very few areas of expertise, but smoking weed is one of them. Bong hits. Wake and bake. Hash under glass. Spliffs. Blunts. You name it, I've done it all with combustibles. I could roll a joint riding shotgun in a convertible with the top down going 55 miles an hour. Not a 70's style reefer with the twisted ends, but one that looked like a Lucky Strike. Practically a Rastafarian.

If I were twenty years old, and weed was legal in my state, I'd be down at the marijuana dispensary picking up four finger bags on a regular basis. It's coming. According to The Economist, "by 2024, medical marijuana will be legal in all states, and recreational use will be found in almost half." For the paranoid Reefer Madness crowd, which believe smokers are dopefiends, it couldn't be farther from the truth. It's not a stepping stone drug, or I would have been mainlining or freebasing years ago. Potheads don't rob banks, it's the junkies, crack addicts and meth freaks.

I'm not a hardcore libertarian that believes in the legalization of all drugs. Narcotics are harmful. Additionally, many people can't handle their drugs. Nevertheless, whether it's a placebo, or if it's real, marijuana does wonders for pain and epileptic seizures. Despite this fact, and despite I'm sometimes in pain, I would never take another toke again. THC is out, even an edible. No CBD, either. I don't want to put anything in my body except for caffeine. Been borderline straightedge for decades and want to keep it that way.

My back worries me. I have an uncle in his late 80's that has chronic back problems. He uses a cane now. The Ghost of Christmas Future. He's got a great attitude about it, but he's in constant pain and discomfort. It's not like you have a bad knee or hip. There's always total knee and hip replacement. Titanium does wonders. However, you've only got one Sacroiliac, and when that goes, you've got problems. Surgery is not an option.

Exercising almost every day seems to help. Do the low impact aerobics at the gym, or walk 3-4 miles when the weather cooperates. 5,000 steps. When I can't get motivated, I think of my high school classmate that's a quadriplegic. Very successful man. Ivy League degree. Bootstrapped himself into a local powerhouse in the construction industry. Someone to look up to. Dove into the ocean and broke his neck after becoming a multi-millionaire. Life is short. I try to take it one day at a time. Shopping at Wegman's, you often see the morbidly obese customers in the motorized scooters stocking up on soda and Oreos. It makes me crawl out of bed and get moving.

SannTek Labs recently developed a nanotechnology based sensor to quantify marijuana intoxication. A breathalyzer for ganja, grass, wacky tobaccy, or whatever you want to call it. Venture capitalist firm Y Combinator has already invested in the company. They're the seed money behind organizations such as Airbnb, Dropbox and Coinbase. Get ready for the future.