Gateway Drug

Marijuana—long called "The Gateway Drug." Why am I mentioning it? Hang on. We'll get to it.

Musician plays the sax, and the flute. Yeah. Over the band break we were talking about other horns, specifically the ones without reeds. I jokingly commented to Ninja that "I think trumpets are the gateway horn."

Musician heard me, though the comment wasn't meant for him, "Trumpets are the what?"

"Gateway horn."

"You mean, like, marijuana is 'The-Gateway-Drug-that-leads-to-Crack'?" (See, I told you we'd get to it. Quicker than you thought, too, huh?)

"Yup." I replied with a smile on my face that looked like the cat just ate the canary.

"Uh! I so want to have a legalization talk with you, right now!"

"Ok." I replied cheerfully. I would love to hear his rationalization, since I'm sure he's pro.

"No. It'll wait."

"Ok, but we totally should sometime."

"Ok, just a mini-one, right now. Should we, or shouldn't we?"

"Absolutely, and tax the hell out of it!"

"Ok, we agree. I guess we don't need to have it any more."

"I disagree," Ninja piped up, "but I don't want to talk about it."

What? How can you give that kind of intro and not talk about it? She stuck to her guns. I'm curious though... why not? What's the downside of legalizing it, regulating it, and taxing it, just like we do with cigarettes and beer? Actually, I think in the long run things would be much safer. And, think of all the money we would save on 'the war on drugs' if we quit chasing pot "dealers".

Mumsy I know you disagree with me on this one, so you've gotta pipe up here.