Posted by
Bill Crawford on Monday, May 18, 2009 9:40:13 PM
I am part of the younger end of the Baby Boom. I missed out on the Haight & Ashbury revolution and the Summer of Love (1967, when I was in Elementary School). None of my friends who did drugs (and there were many) did so to "expand their consciousness", or "reach a higher plane".
As a result, there is no raging debate in the younger end when their children ask them about smoking marijuana. Only a 60 year old would think something like, "Should I tell them about the first doobie I smoked when I saw the Dead in New Haven, or just about the short term memory loss?" My comtemporaries viewed it as little more than a habit. A fun and expensive habit, as was cocaine, but nothing more. I don't even have that problem with my own kids, being that I never had time for anything more than beer.
I like to drag out the tale of Pink Floyd. An interesting group, even when they were up and coming rockers from London. They were led by a wacko named Syd Barrett, who gave them their unique sound and their first hit singles. He graduated to LSD, and used so much of it that he was no longer viable on the concert stage. They broke off from him, and tried writing their own singles, which they were not anywhere up to as much as Syd was on his best behavior.
So they regrouped, and decided to record a thematic album, which was not somthing fully realized by anybody at the time. And in 1971, they recorded Dark Side Of The Moon. We all know where that went.
Four years later, they were recording Wish You Were Here and Syd showed up, so fat and out of it that they were shocked. The title of the new album was a paen to Syd, who they only went away from because he gave them no other choice. They were always grateful for what he started, but now he was a walking vegetable.
Therin layeth the lesson: the legions of recreational drug users always laugh at the reruns of "Reefer Madness", but the victims of overdose kept piling up. The ones that survived and still do the reunion tours are relatively clean now, and they find a batch of studio people and the like to replace their Keith Moons.
And it's still presented by the Boomers as all good fun. Yeah, it's for "medicinal purposes". And Junior is off the Honor Roll now, but he's still going to graduate, so what's the big deal?
I pass. My kids 'won't have any time' for it, either. The Methadone clinics of the world are filled with people that could have been something special, if their parents only kept them in the game when they still needed the guidance.
Then again, I could be living in California, where this mentality has practically taken over the State. Parts of this country are just so dog nuts that it boggles the mind.
That was where the comedians missed the point on "Just Say No" from twenty years ago. Of course someone on a gram a day habit wasn't going to be able to "just say no" and walk away. It was their parents who were suposed to say "no" for them.