the rix mix

Medical marijuana approved in New Jersey

This is strict legislation compared to California, in both eligibility & how pot is dispensed. The only objection that made much sense was concern that people picking up their legal marijuana might become targets for robbery, a legitimate concern in Jersey. Any law that decriminalizes pot to some extent is good, as I think enforcement of misdemeanor possession laws is a waste of time for cops. & that includes following the scent to a secluded area of a large public park on a Summer afternoon.

I don't smoke pot; I gave it up because it makes me too aware of my surroundings & therefore tense & paranoid rather than relaxed & sociable. But I liked the effect it had on my hearing & eyesight. I've spent many pleasurable hours listening to music, wandering through art galleries, & walking on the beach after smoking good pot. For years, I rarely set foot on a Jersey boardwalk after dark without first toking up. Pot was, particularly with music, an aid to learning. It helped me break down music into component parts & to better understand forms.

Musicians have always used it integrate the parts. Pot was the not-so-secret ingredient in the magic of the old Count Basie Orchestra, playing head arrangements without written charts. I think heroin had the opposite effect; it made musicians imagine they were connecting when they were actually quite alone in their own minds. Smack undermined collectivity, even gave it a bad rep during the 1950's until Ornette & then Coltrane made it hip again. Charlie Parker's ideas & playing were great for jazz; the myth of heroin's importance in Parker's genius destroyed many great artists including Bird himself.

The average Jerseyan probably won't even notice medical marijuana. The important debate is in California, a state so fallen economically that they're desperate for the tax revenues legalized grass might provide.

Labels: music, New Jersey, New Jersey politics