POT IS BACK (apparently)

In this episode, your author will ostensibly use local periodical Philadelphia magazine as a jumping off point to talk about drug culture in his region.

I’ll start by saying I know very little about drug culture in my region. Really. But Philly mag’s most recent cover story certainly grabbed my attention. The cover itself features a giant green seven-pointed leaf on a black background and, emblazoned in big white letters across the top of the layout, the declaration “POT IS BACK.”

Strangely enough, my mom brought it to my attention (“I saved this for you; I thought you might like to read it”) and read it closely I did. The story itself isn’t that wonderful or interesting, but the fact that a well-respected regional magazine would be bold enough to put something like this on the cover is both wonderful and interesting.

The whole pot thing (a tidy euphemism for the legal and political battle for/against the decriminalization of cannabis) is slowly taking shape in some blue states. Californians will soon vote on legalizing (not decriminalizing) pot, and other states in the red (with respect to budgets and not parties) may soon follow suit. Medical laws in thirteen states currently allow patients with different ailments to obtain a prescription to use marijuana as a treatment, but this article is about the rise of the drug’s use among upper-middle class adults in Philadelphia and its affluent suburbs.

Apparently some readers were angry enough about the salacious cover story to post comments such as this on phillymag.com: “Never have I been so disappointed in Philadelphia Magazine [sic]. Just what you don’t want your teenager to see coming from a supposed reputable news source. EXTREMELY disappointed – canceling membership after 20+ years.” To those more open to controlled substances, the story came as a welcome break from covers on Philadelphia’s best doctors, the Phillies, or the annual “Best of the Shore” feature.

A very enthusiastic reader commented on the oversimplicity of a companion article detailing different kinds of cannabis available in the region:

“This is a very simplistic analysis of the cannabis market in Philadelphia. It’s like saying the only 2 things to drink are Milwaukee’s Best (crappy beer) and Skyy Vodkda. You’re missing everything in between and above. Also, people don’t really call it “sinse” (or more accurately, either “sensi” or “sensimilla”) anymore; more common terms are “headies,” “kill,” or actual fully bred and stable strains such as Sour Diesel, OG Kush, Romulan, Bubbleberry, Jack Herer, Green Crack (hey I never said people don’t come up with stupid names sometimes), and so many more I have no space to put them down.”

Somebody’s on his game, and that somebody is not the middle-aged guy comparing buying weed to buying veggies at a farmers’ market.

I didn’t really know how to take the publication of this piece, though. Should I be excited that something like this is gracing the cover of a local magazine? Or should I be annoyed that the author of this main article and a few other that follow it didn’t really say anything interesting? It’s almost entirely anecdotal with a sprinkling of predictable statistics. There’s a story about “Ursula,” who is basically a real-life version of Nancy Botwin from Weeds, there’s a story about wealthy women smoking weed in a limo on their way to a (probably Jimmy Buffett) concert, and there are of course the obligatory hints that the weed game is still dangerous even though it’s becoming more and more mainstream. I don’t feel very strongly about the article, but it’s definitely encouraging to see a rather conservative mainstream publication running a story like this in such a prominent way.

The more I looked, however, the more I found stories about pot in the local press. Philadelphia Weekly, the city’s “alternative newspaper,” recently ran a point/counterpoint about legalizing the drug (both of which inexplicably imagine hypothetical Christmas scenarios and reference Wawa). Put that in your pipe and smoke it. And do some Googling to find out what’s up with weed in your area.