Dad's Night Out

Yesterday was Dad’s Night Out a chance for the dad’s at my daughter’s school to spend some quality time together just chilling and talking about politics and sports. We got together at Guthries, a tiny gin mill on Park Avenue and 97th Street. And I want to thank Francisco the New York-born Ecuadoran/Dominican who knows how to make a mean Margarita, not to mention Dark and Stormy, and Presbyterian, which is like a Dark and Stormy except that it’s Bourbon instead of Rum. 
So today, I’m totally hung over. My mouth is dry, my head aches, my physical condition matching today’s gloomy rainy dark foggy windy weather here in the big city. And I want to thank Uzi Ben Abraham, a fellow dad at the school who despite our disagreements about Bibi Netanyahu and Israeli politics was kind enough to get me home. Where I woke up in the middle of the night to find myself fully clothed sleeping with my head on the dining room table.
And today I’m paying the price. So what’s the moral of my story?
First, never have a Dad’s Night Out on a school night. Monday’s are tough enough.
Second, alcohol does crazy nasty things to your body. 
Third, since it is far less toxic, if marijuana was legal, I wouldn’t have this hangover, which is the real moral of my story.

Today is April 20th, 4/20, the day that celebrates cannabis use…The Observance Day began at a high school in San Rafael California, who had a tradition of lighting up at 4:20pm every afternoon and was spread by Dead Heads, followers of the Grateful Dead. Anyway, today is a good day to repeat what I’ve been saying since the early 1970’s when I was on the board of Normal, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, almost everybody I know, including most of you listening to this program right now has at least tried marijuana. 
The time has come to legalize it across the country. That’s what CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta who previously opposed pot legalization is preaching. “We should legalize marijuana. We should do it nationally. And we should do it now.”
Gallup's 2014 poll showed that 51% of its respondents were in favor of legalizing marijuana, down from 58% in the year prior, but still decisively ahead of the 47% opposed. There are five jurisdictions in the United States that have legalized small amount of pot: Colorado, Washington State, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, D.C. There are also about 18 others that have more or less legalized so-called medical marijuana including New York and New Jersey although I don’t know anybody who actually is taking advantage of the narrowly drawn laws locally.
As advocates say, “legalizing and regulating marijuana will bring the nation's largest cash crop under the rule of law, creating jobs and economic opportunities in the formal economy instead of the illicit market. Scarce law enforcement resources that could be better used to protect public safety would be preserved while reducing corrections and court costs.” And, “State and local governments would acquire significant new sources of tax revenue from regulating marijuana sales.”
“The criminalization of marijuana use disproportionately harms young people and people of color, sponsors massive levels of violence and corruption, and fails to curb youth access.”
It’s 4/20. Time to end the Reefer Madness Era Marijuana Prohibition.