Weed Control

Three medical pot clubs in San Francisco were raided by federal agents today.

Good for the feds! How clever and brave of them to take away a source of comfort to chemotherapy patients and people who suffer from chronic depression or pain. How laudable their actions, eradicating traces and tiny bits of a weed.

This marijuana weed produces euphoria and makes people sleepy. How incredibly dangerous feeling good and sleepy is, compared to say, Jimson weed, which, when ingested, produces hallucinations and death. Are federal agents out scouring the countryside for Jimson weed, to protect the populace from its misuse? No. It grows everywhere in warm climates, and sometimes, it's even cultivated as a garden plant because of its huge white blossoms. Datura is another name for this plant, which has been used as a hallucinogen for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. The government has no interest in it, as datura is merely deadly, where as people enjoy smoking marijuana.

Enjoyment is to be prohibited, but the pain of lacerations to the mouths and legs of animals is just fine from the spiny yellow star thistle (centaurea solstitialis) as it invades and destroys grazing lands. Who cares if pastures are being destroyed? Let the horrible spiny plants grow where they will, it's far more important to the government to keep chemo patients from smoking marijuana and feeling less ill.

How about water hyacinth, a non-native invasive plant clogging waterways from Florida to California? It grows unchecked by federal agents, who have far better things to do with their time than preserve creeks and rivers. Even the fish don't like it, but it is allowed to grow with little or no intervention from the federal agents.

Oh, and while we're on this subject -- marijuana is not permitted to grow wild in any of the United States of America. A stand of marijuana discovered growing will bring in helicopters and machetes and herbicides. What about poison ivy and poison oak? Simply walking through it causes the skin to blister; brushing up against its roots or bare vines in the winter will cause a rash and allergic reactions to ALMOST EVERYONE. Some people are so allergic to this noxious, poisonous weed that their skin will literally peel off, leaving suppurating raw flesh and agonizing itching and pain. That's okay, though, in the eyes of the government. As long as no one is enjoying a relief from misery, the damned poison ivy/oak plant can grow where it will, and it does.

I'm not advocating a marijuana plant in every yard, by any means. But it sure seems to me that the government could put the same vigor into eradicating some of these destructive invasive species and do a lot more to ensure the safety and comfort of people and the environment.

Orangey = fairly irritated