CRAZY RULE OF LAW

      I've been a pot smoker since 1968. If I've heard it once I've heard it a thousand times - "It's against the law!" In the year 2022 recreational marijuana is legal in 18 states (New York included) Guam and Washington, D.C. You'd think capitalism would have kept up and I'd be able to go down to my local Quickie-Mart and get a pack of spleeves. Ha! As a glaucoma sufferer, I start to sweat, shake, go blind and get pissed off at everybody when my script runs low. I'm still forced into the underground blackmarket economy to get my eye medicine. Buyer beware. The rule of law is not keeping up with my healthy addiction.

     Today (between calls to my connects) I'm spending the day drawing and watching Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing on TV. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is chairing the hearing. Over the years I've not only become a confirmed pot head, I've also become a bit of a political and law geek. My self-imposed dive into history highlighted many individuals who worked the levers of power and the law. A few friends and congregants of the CLGM are the progeny of some of these powerful politicians: Jen Durbin, Christina Maloney and the wise and fabulous grandson of Supreme Court Justice William Brennan: Judge Not Lest You be Judged Andy Brennan. I've met Caroline Maloney, had an email exchange with Dick Durbin and Justice William Brennan is dead. Too bad. I would have loved to have met him. Their kids and grandkid endure my fanboy fascination with their moms, pops and gramps. No big deal. 

    If I hadn't become an artist I would have become a lawyer (not a politician). There was a moment in 1972 I actually considered switching majors, but after an especially rough (and high) night I changed my mind. Full disclosure, I also considered joining the Navy and the SF Police Department at various times when I had run out of marijuana. Without the benefit of mind-altering drugs who knows what crazy mistakes I would have made in my choice of careers. So, now I am content to sit in the stands or on the sidelines and watch. I watch court trials, Senate hearings and school board meetings with baited breath. It's my form of sports fanaticism. This so-called "country of laws" is not a rigid construct but a fluid modality, a democratic template that at one point or another legalized Indigenous murder, slavery, suppression of Civil Rights, denial of a woman's right to vote, and possession of marijuana. Anything can happen. Just because it's "against the law" today to go over 55 mph, doesn't mean that speed limit won't change tomorrow. Gas or brake? Your choice. I had no idea how fast I was going. I ran out of pot. I plead insanity your honor. Anybody got a joint to spare?