Pubdate: Sat, 11 Jan 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Matthew Saks
Note: Matthew Saks is a lawyer and freelance writer in Denver.
Page: 19A

THE DAY COOL DIED IN DENVER

I had a front-row view last week of Denver's audacious experiment in
recreational marijuana. One of the newly licensed stores-the Lodo
Wellness Center at 16th and Wazee streets-is across from my office,
so every day I watched the huddled masses stand in line, up and down
the block, to purchase weed.

One day, I had an impulse to get in line with everyone else and buy
some. Not because I smoke - I don't-but out of sheer curiosity.
Surveying the scene, however, it seemed both too cool and too uncool
at the same time.

It was a bit too cool for me, because everyone else in line seemed to
be young and hip and I was dressed in my standard-issue lawyer
uniform: white shirt, tie, vampire teeth (ba-dum-ching).

More than being too cool, however, it all seemed fatally uncool. I've
always thought of smoking weed as a rebellious act, a way of
surreptitiously sticking it to the man. It just seems, well, uncool to
be buying weed the way one would buy a loaf of bread and milk.

By comparison, a drug-using friend of mine in New York used to buy his
drugs by taking the subway to a sketchy block in Brooklyn and getting
inside his drug dealer's black Lincoln town car with tinted windows.
Terrifying and stupid, yes. But not uncool.

When I was in high school, I was in the jazz band (that gives you an
idea of how uncool I was). One year, we played Paul Simon's classic
tune "Late in the Evening." You know the lyrics: "Then I learned to
play some lead guitar/ I was underage in this funky bar/ And I stepped
outside to smoke myself a J... ." Our teacher was forced to change the
lyrics to "smoke myself a cigarette ... ." Pretty lame, but it
underscored for us that smoking "Js" was something that was really
upsetting to authorities. And upsetting authorities is always cool.

Or I think of Allen Ginsberg's great countercultural poem "America,"
where he defiantly proclaimed: "I smoke marijuana every chance I get."
To give you a sense of that poem's tone, the previous line is: "I used
to be a communist when I was a kid and I'm not sorry."

Nowadays, admitting to smoking marijuana every chance one gets does
not register as rebellious. It just seems awfully expensive at $40 an
eighth.

To be clear, I'm not saying that I disapprove of legalizing the
recreational use of marijuana. Whatever challenges may arise, it means
that fewer young minorities will have their lives ruined by being
arrested merely for possessing some weed. A comprehensive new report
by the ACLU confirmed that state and local governments enforce
marijuana laws selectively against minorities. Legalization, if done
carefully and smartly, is a good thing.

But we'll also need to admit that Jan. 1, 2014, marked the end of an
era. Weed isn't Miles Davis and Willie Nelson anymore. It's just that
store on Wazee between the deli and the nail salon.

The coming days and years will be hard indeed, for Colorado's youth.
They'll have to find an entirely new way to upset us. They'll succeed,
of course, as always.
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MAP posted-by: Matt