Happy 4/20 to all you cannabis loving happy people out there! It’s a special day for y’all and I made sure to get this article up right at 4:20pm on 4/20/11. Of course, today is also Hitlers birthday, so it’s a weird day to celebrate, right? Which brings us all into the mindset we need to be in:
Marijuana – is it good for skiing/riding, or not? Is it good for California, or not?
GOOD FOR SKIING/RIDING?
YES – The only real particulars I can offer here are subjective. I know from first hand experience that being stoned on a powder day is a truly ecstatic sensation. The exhilaration felt while skiing is splendiferous. The euphoria of being stoned is stupefying. Combine the two and you get a bizarre synergistic effect that that will literally make you feel like you’re soaring. If skiing ever felt like flying, it does when you’re smoking weed and skiing.
NO – The flip side? For me the flip side was that I didn’t ski as hard. I didn’t take as many chances and I’d get tired more rapidly. When ripping around without smoking weed, I’m more aggressive, I take bigger airs, throw more tricks, and charge the mountain with more furor in general. Although I may have had more rhythm and soul when high, the bottom line is that I ski better sober.
The active drug in marijuana, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) cannot be classified as a stimulant nor depressant. It’s effects are always simply perceived by the user and can vary from use to use.
Marijuana would get me fired up for skiing, but once I got tired, I was very tired. I think it can go both ways within a single use.
photo: www.n-sider.com
It can also be argued that skiing/riding high is dangerous to yourself and others. This article is about a Swiss study that shows alcohol to be safer to use while skiing than marijuana: www.thegoat.com
GOOD FOR CALIFORNIA?
YES – Northern California matter-of-factly needs marijuana to function. In Northern California’s “Emerald Triangle” (Humbolt, Trinity, & Mendocino Counties) marijuana is produced in prodigious amounts and the marijuana trade brings in billions of dollars annually. The Mendocino County marijuana trade alone is estimated to generate over $1.5 billion/year (that is from an estimated $25 billion nationwide marijuana indusrty, so roughly 5% occurs just in Mendocino).
A plant that yields about two pounds would be worth about $5,000, said Sligh; his crop of 20 plants is potentially worth $100,000. www.msnbc.com
There is no doubt that if marijuana was taken away from the Emerald Triangle, their economy would collapse. Which actually happened in the 1980s when the federal government cracked down hard on Northern California marijuana farms and the local economies buckled. Imagine the amount of free flowing disposable income floating around up there and how much of it infuses directly into the local economy. Now, take that income away…no bueno.
NO – The negative side of the Northern Cali marijuana trade is relatively simple, conservative, and straight forward. What kind of example are we setting for the kids? It’s simply illegal and illegal is illegal. Some humans are pissed off, for good reason, that their neighborhoods are being turned into sketchy pot growing zones.
This quote is in reference to neighborhood homes converted into ‘grow houses’ in Mendocino and their subsequent problems:
“They’re either drug deals gone wrong, or people trying to come in and either steal cash or marijuana from people,” Wheetley says. “A lot of it has been people from outside the community that have come in and see this as a quick way to make money. So it’s kind of a ‘Wild West’ mentality that we had to get out in front of and rope back in.” www.npr.org
100 million marijuana plants are growing in California Right now: www.sfweekely.com
This is random, yet one of the most interesting tib-bits I found while researching this topic: On February 17, 2008 the Federal Government sent agents out onto the slopes of Crested Butte ski resort in Colorado to bust “smoke shacks” and their inhabitants on the ski hill. Unbelievable, c’mon humans, relax! Check out the article: Colorado Smoke Shack Fed Bust
Chime in here humans as I know we all, including those of us living in other states, have a lot of experience and a lot of opinion on this topic. Let’s here it!
