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April 03, 2010
Getting it (All) Wrong
The single most important fact revealed by the lonely study of cannabis applicants I’ve been engaged in for over eight years is a no brainer: today’s enormous demand for “marijuana” began rather abruptly when the Baby Boomers who started appearing suddenly after World War Two began coming of age in the Sixties.The factual basis for that statement is just as obvious: the basic demographics every “pot doc” dealing with California’s slowly emerging applicant population should have been collecting; their dates of birth and the age at which they first tried to get “high” by inhaling cannabis. For two such basic items to have not been gathered (or deliberately ignored) by the hundreds (thousands?) of “pot docs” now writing recommendations for a growing applicant population is painfully apparent to me from their silence. Nor have the self-appointed medically untrained gurus presuming to speak for various reform organizations deigned to comment. Their silence on questions I've raised about marijuana’s sudden popularity in the Sixties has been almost as deafening as that of their arch rivals in the federal government.
In fact,it was that stubborn silence on the part of both parties that led me to understand that denial is one of our species’ most characteristic flaws. Like so many other easily overlooked entities: dishonest advertising, rampant obesity, the increasing incidence of autism and a host of others; once one becomes aware of them, they are nearly impossible to ignore.
To return to the Baby Boom, I just happened to catch Tom Brokaw’s special last evening and was even more disappointed than expected; but hardly surprised. Obviously basking in the success of his praise for the “Greatest Generation” and convinced that he has just become a generational expert, Brokaw comes across as knowingly judgmental while completely missing several important points. Even the Daily News TV critic caught his deficiencies.
Hopefully, I’ll have time to return to the Baby Boom in coming months as California prepares to vote on the most important national issue in the coming November election.
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at April 3, 2010 03:01 PM