Dear Ask A Punk:
I don't drink, smoke cigarettes or do hard drugs. I smoke pot. a lot. a lot of pot. Maybe that isn't so punk but I don't care. I consider myself punk and I like playing it (bass) and I don't give a shit. I'm tired of people thinking I'm a druggie though. I mean the stuff is legal in most parts of the world and it's basically legal in parts of the United States already. It seems stupid that I could get seriously busted in my state for something that is basically legal in California or wherever. It promotes criminality I think. and anyway it isn't as dangerous as the beer and booze the rest of the local punk bands and even my family drinks every day and they're bigger f-ups than I am even if I smoked every day. which I don't but I would if I could. - anonymous.
Dear Anonymous -
Ummm... How stoned were you when you sent this email? I only ask because you forgot to ask me a question. The name of the site is "ASK a Punk" after all... Also, dear readers, I changed the sign-off to "anonymous" because a quick search of the signer's name got me to his band's myspace page etc... so I say: Hey, nice try... but since I don't do much to promote myself, I'm certainly not going to randomly & haphazardly promote some stoner/punk band.
So maybe (probably) you didn't really have a question in mind anyway, you were just (at 3am) stoned and trying to drum up links and connects for your band. Nothing wrong with being a savvy self-promoter I guess, but come on, trying to be deceptive is just going to give you a bad rep... especially when you're not even all that good at being deceptive.
I decided to post your non-question anyway, because I wanted to clue you in to a few things:
ONE:
I currently live in California and, in spite of what you may be reading in High Times, pot is definitely NOT "basically legal" here... not yet, anyway. The courts and jails are still overflowing with pot enthusiasts of all sorts... So the Golden State is no green nirvana. Now, whether that is good or bad is another topic altogether... I don't smoke or drink at all... a personal choice I don't push on anybody, and yeah, in general I would feel safer in a room full of stoners than in a room full of edgy drunks... I'll put it this way: No pot smoker has ever gotten high and picked a fight with me just because he didn't like my face. Know what I mean? No stoned dude is going to, without provocation, poke a finger in my chest and say "Hey! Were you looking at my girlfriend?" and then break a bong over my head before I can say "Huh? No! What girlfriend?" ...The same can not be said for the typical draft beer enthusiast. I know this, but that doesn't change the basic societal fact that booze is legal and pot isn't. We have to live with the realities of our society...
TWO:
Another thing I noticed was the mention of your family's daily boozing habits. You may think, quite smugly, that you've avoided the curse of alcohol that obviously has a firm grasp of your family, but I've got some sad news: If you're predisposed to addiction (and it sounds like there is some familial genetic predisposition) your 'addictive personality' is going to find SOMEthing to latch on to... Maybe not booze...but perhaps some other chemical like, ohhhh perhaps THC... and please please readers - don't shout me down with chants of "Pot is non-addictive." I know it ain't heroin, but ANY psychoactive chemical can be addictive in the brains and hands of some people... We all know someone who smokes so much weed that they're suffering consequences in their relationships or careers etc and guess what? ...THAT is one of the main definitions of addiction. I'm not telling you that you have to quit smoking. You didn't ask me about that... I'm just telling you to be on your guard for when/if your "recreational" use starts that slide to habitual and then to addictive. ....basically I'm saying it so that you can't say no one ever warned you.
Good luck with the band.
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