There was a song by Merle Haggard that was written in response to the anti-war songs of the 1960s and ’70s, “Okie from Muskogee.” There were all sorts of things that the ‘Okie’ didn't do, but the first thing was that he didn't smoke marijuana. This was a response to the hippie and anti-war sentiments and songs that permeated the landscape during the Vietnam years.
At the time, it represented the view of the majority of the American establishment: the war was being won, the kids were misled, and protesting the war was unpatriotic. Vietnam is over now, and the protest songs are now part of classic rock playlists. The year 1968 is firmly in our rearview mirror. Hopefully, the nation will never be so divided again, we thought. Now, over 50 years later, it seems we're divided, just not along the same lines.
Even in our division, there does seem to be a point of agreement on both sides. Marijuana is on its way to legalization and no one except the Drug Enforcement Administration arm of the Justice Department is standing in its way. The right wing has evidently either looked at polling data or just plain dropped the idea that someone should stop marijuana from being legalized. It's still illegal in Federal Law, but several administrations have chosen not to prosecute marijuana criminal cases now. States have realized this and chosen to repeal their marijuana laws, making marijuana a state-by-state issue because of the Federal Government's indifference to it.
Lately, it seems that the stuff is getting into everything. Here in Mississippi, I used to be the marijuana expert, being a pharmacy graduate of Ole Miss, the nationwide center of marijuana research. The Ole Miss “pot farm” was an urban legend that was actually a fact. It still exists, and the faculty are still researching the drug and providing an “official” drug used in the few prescription drugs with marijuana as an ingredient. All of that is still going on, but I'm no longer the expert because the entire country it seems is now growing marijuana on something approaching an industrial scale, and marijuana by-products are now sold openly even here in Mississippi.
I'm retired now, and I don't have access to the state's computer database, but my colleagues who are still practicing assure me that, since marijuana licenses were added to the database, that everybody, it now seems, is out there using it, and I'm the only one still complaining about it. I'm in the minority already, they say, and it's shrinking by the day. I've been alone before, and maybe I'll be alone again, but I'm not giving up yet. I don't like it, and the laws are still on the books, even if successive administrations from both parties are choosing not to prosecute.
I wish that I could be more live-and-let-live. I'm trying, because my children who are now young adults are both using this drug. To me, it's a failure of my parenting on a very low level. It makes me want to punish myself: to shave my head and walk around the courthouse square with a sandwich board that says “My Kids Are Druggies and I'm Sorry.” That's what I used to think that the other parents, the ones with the kids using and selling drugs, should be doing. A little shame, a little responsibility, and I of course would never be the one out there walking, because I raised mine not to do it. I'm a pharmacist, and I can't even keep my own kids away from this drug. It hurts, and I'm ashamed.
So, my personal dilemma would go away if I just give up and join this new majority that I'm hearing about. But, it doesn't feel right to do that. If I change horses now, then that's admitting that I was wrong on marijuana all along, and I don't feel that way. If it was wrong in 1970, then it still should be wrong now even though it's expedient to ignore marijuana on the federal level. The only real benefit that I agree with is that it would remove the forbidden fruit label on it, and maybe it wouldn't be the rebellious object that some kids, including mine, have chosen. If nothing else, marijuana is the gateway drug that is the first step to harder and more evil drugs such as cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine. Most Law Enforcement officers would agree, I think. I'm sure that their zest for enforcement of marijuana laws would return if they thought that prosecution would follow arrest, as it should. My kids have doubled down on me, since I'm retired and no longer in fear for my job, to try it and see for myself. I've refused, and will continue to do so. It's still illegal, remember. I may not be working today, but I still have my license that I sweated blood for and I'm not giving it up.
I was watching “Country Music,” a documentary by Ken Burns, and inside a segment was talking about Vietnam-era music. Ray Benson was interviewed and told the story that “everybody in country music knew Merle smoked marijuana.” So much for the song.
- Christopher Reves is a retired pharmacist who lives in Greenwood.
