Weediquette - General Rant

[TorturedSoul]

I had the opportunity to watch a television show called Weediquette last week. The producers/etc. lost all validity (IMHO) by allowing the character that does the interviewing to use the term "WEED" pretty much every time he referred to cannabis. What is he, some snot-nosed halfwit kid masquerading as an adult? Or just someone that would rather help portray cannabis in a bad light than gain an IQ point or however many he'd need to acquire in order to remember and pronounce the term "cannabis?"

CANNABIS

It's not a WEED! <ARGH!!!> Every time I see/hear someone do that, I just want to slap the stupid right out of their head (but I doubt I could hit that hard - even with my trusty BFH). A weed it an unwanted plant that has little to no use. Might as well play along with the federal government and call it marijuana (which it still does, even though I suppose it's no longer politically correct to belittle Mexicans... Go figure).

CANNABIS, OTOH, is a wonderful and useful plant. I consider it to be an aromatic/ceremonial/culinary/fiber/medicinal/ornamental herb. <SHRUGS> Regardless of whether it is or isn't an herb... It's NOT a weed. FFS! [/RANT]

Regards,
~TS~

 

[Richard Richardson]

I agree - Weed is a terrible name for the most beautiful plant in the world

 

[JuanCarlos]

I don't know which episode you got in on, but in one episode a grower corrects him a couple of times.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I don't know which episode you got in on

IDK. I haven't had a television for... eight years, I think. I was with someone who was giving an estimate and I could see and hear the episode playing until the homeowner told his (adult) kid to "turn that <BLEEP> off," lol.

<SIGH> It just pains me greatly to see/hear people using such terms. It's like some people take a personal delight in, well... fighting for the other side in this great battle we are waging. There have been (important, and far-reaching) decisions made by people and even testimony given by others in the past. People who later stated, "If I had realized that {term} was actually cannabis (or, alternatively, hemp), I would never have {made the decision I made / stated the things that I did}." Let's face it, public perception - and in more than one case, the perception of certain individual government officials - make up no little part of why there was ever a need to fight for the legalization of cannabis in the first place (and why that fight has not been won yet).

Out of these two statements:
"I use cannabis regularly, both because I enjoy its relaxing effects and because it gives me relief from the severe arthritis that has negatively affected my quality of life for several years."
"Yeah, man, I love the weed, woo-hoo! I smoke blunts every chance I get because I like to get high."
...which would you rather someone who has not personally experienced cannabis hear? (For that matter, someone who experienced it - but did so decades ago?)

Many years ago (well-past the statute of limitations!), I was driving my (then) finance's beater home from work one morning. It broke down in a busy intersection (at the foot of a bridge). As the thing weighed upwards of two tons, I was having "a bit" of trouble trying to push it out of the way. Imagine my consternation when a LEO rolled up... Because the first thing he said was, "You REEK of marijuana <LOOKS AT ME> and the whites of your eyes are solid red." I admitted that I had just worked 16 hours without a chance to sit down once and smoked a joint on the way home to unwind. I... most definitely did NOT admit that the reason I wasn't already home was because I'd stopped on the way to pick up a pound of cannabis that had been drying . But I was sweating bullets and shaking. I was respectful, didn't act like a goofball, admitted that it was my OL's car (I learned that it had NO INSURANCE, lol), that we were saving to get her one that wasn't older than she was, that I'd just asked her to marry me, blah-blah. Next thing I knew, the cop was saying, "Well, you're going to have to steer and I can't push this mountain by myself, so how about I get in my cruiser and shove you into that parking lot over there?" (His car had one of those push-bar things on the front like many cop cars used to.) I remember thinking, "PLEASE don't hit it hard enough to spring the trunk lid open!!!" but I agreed. He did and I thanked him. He said something like, "Next time, don't come into my state stoned," wished me good luck with my upcoming marriage (it didn't help), and told me to drive safely straight to my house and go to bed.

I soon learned that he was THE cop that you didn't even want to notice you on a good day, let alone after you'd been consuming, because he was a real hard-*** who had "no tolerance." <SHRUGS> I imagine that if I'd acted like the "stereotypical stoner..." Well, I'd probably have gotten three meals and a cot for several years at one of those state guest-houses. I'm sure that I caught him in a rare good mood, maybe at the tail-end of his shift, so luck undoubtedly played a part. Still and all, it would have been like shooting fish in a barrel, and he most likely was well aware of that (thankfully, he wasn't aware that I was bringing home the year's mini-harvest).

Just look at how many testimonials by the elderly who've embraced cannabis for medicinal use begin with, "I've heard about cannabis before, but I never tried it because..." and the negative connotations of cannabis get mentioned almost as often as the (depending on location) questionable legality.

A lot of people that know me "in the real world" consider me to be a redneck. I try very hard to lose that persona when discussing cannabis with "the uninitiated." I guess I go into "job-interview" mode, lol. It's all about perception....

I'm rambling again (I do that).