As a boy and a young man I didn't think a lot. I reacted on instinct. I thought I was smart and I acted smart but my brain wasn't really turned on all the way all the time.
On days I didn't have enough money to buy beer I would stand around my buddies who smoked marijuana and get a free high. Marijuana gave me a sense of patience and calmed my anger. I believe it also jump-started my thinking cap.
For instance, I was in the hood in South Central Los Angeles trying to sell CDs at swap meets, pager shops and different hotspots. People were poor and foot traffic was slow. I smoked a joint in between customers, thinking of a way to sell more CDs faster.
I said to myself, you need a place where people will gamble on your music. After I thought about it, I came up with Las Vegas. There, people like gambling on crap tables so maybe they will gamble on my music. So I went to Las Vegas and sold a thousand CDs for five bucks and made five grand in a weekend.
I started playing chess and calculating moves to win. I developed a natural curiosity for education that I didn't have in high school and junior high or elementary. When I got high I would want to watch something educational as opposed to entertaining. I pondered on anything worth pondering on. Marijuana really helped me notice small details and helped me creatively. I was able to add that creativity to my songs.
Marijuana helped me put suits and shoes together. Marijuana helped me detail cars. I think that I put more thought into my activities than the average man who wasn't consuming marijuana.
I feel that marijuana is great for tough decisions. Marijuana is a great medicine for anger and frustration. I believe marijuana makes you smart; maybe the government doesn't want you smoking marijuana because it educates and enhances your brain and your thinking. I don't need marijuana to do these things now (even though I still consume) however when I was young dumb and full of untapped emotion, marijuana was a great mental jumpstart!
I'm glad legalization is going on. I'm so happy nobody has to get harassed by police officers in the states that legalized marijuana. People in the know are predicting that within five years, legalization will sweep across the country.
Legalization takes away the extra tool a police officer would use to express his or her hate toward a cannabis consumer. Legalization also improves the atmosphere a cannabis consumer purchases in. You shouldn't have to jeopardize your life to get a little medication. Thanks to legalization things are safer for the vendor and the consumer.
Marijuana is also good for glaucoma and other medical issues. It's also an excellent substitute for pain pills. Everybody's crying about America being in some sort of recession. Medical cannabis makes a great export. Colarado made $18.9 million in marijuana tax dollars this year between January and June.
People are going to smoke marijuana whether or not you legalize it and tax it. The rest of America needs to wake up and smell the marijuana.
I'm so proud of the positive remix video I did for "Because I Got High." I hope it opens a lot of eyes and makes some sort of impact because I had a lot of fun re-doing it and working with Weedmaps and with NORML.... probably because I got high...
With the recent election, and with it now legal in New York to carry up to 25 grams, I think great things are headed our way and they are coming faster than we all think.
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