Alcohol vs. Pot…Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Over on the Huffington Puffington there’s an article all about how an organization called the California Beer and Beverage Distributors is donating money to help defeat Proposition 19 in the upcoming November election.  Proposition 19 would legalize marijuana.

Now, first of all, this is really paranoid and shortsighted on their part.  Legalizing marijuana is hardly going to put a crimp in the sales of alcohol.  The number of people who are going to say “Hey, marijuana is legal, I don’t need to drink any more” is pretty small, and easily outweighed by the number of people who will continue smoking and drinking, just with a little less paranoia.  Alcohol and marijuana are a natural mix.  Like chocolate and peanut butter, ham and cheese, chicken and waffles or Saturday mornings and cartoons, they are two great tastes that go great together.

Two great tastes that go great together!!

But, secondly, it’s not surprising.  They are capitalists, which pretty much automatically makes them greedy bastards.  (In fairness, two California breweries have objected to the organization’s stance: Sierra Nevada and the Stone Brewing Company.  If you live in the U.S., you should support their products.  Sierra Nevada actually resigned from the organization.)  When greedy capitalist bastards smell a threat, they react instinctively, with the lizard brain, and they opt for fight over flight.
So, the alcohol industry fights the legalization of marijuana, automobile manufacturers and the oil companies keep public transportation off the agenda, insurance companies fight national health insurance, and weapons manufacturers absolutely hate the idea of world peace.  Hate it.  Would prefer to see thousands, millions, even hundreds of millions of people die rather than lose money.

That’s what we are up against.  I hope that some day common sense prevails and we can live in a world where giant fields of high grade marijuana cover the prairies like green wheat, public transportation is widespread, comfortable and cheap, everybody has decent health care and war has been eliminated from human society.  But there will be people, heavily financed people, fighting that every step of the way.