If you don’t have medical certification in Washington, the time when you’ll be able to buy marijuana legally in this state is still years away, despite the light at the end of the tunnel we all see as the Medical Marijuana revolution plows forward.
Buying black market dope from pot sellers is a sketchy concept and an awful inconvenience. I oughta know: I did it for decades, up until 2009, when I became a patient. Now I have a safe, legal and socially constructive way to access marijuana. I feel good about having moved from the black market to a sea of gray areas.

As a lifelong user, I’m qualified to offer some pot advice to youngsters (who aren’t reading this, since this magazine is for consenting adults only): don’t waste your time and money on this shit. At the very least, wait until your brain has fully matured and your mind is fully cognizant of the consequences of a possible lifetime of wasting your time and money on this shit. Street marijuana can be of dubious quality, and it’s expensive and illegal.

Don’t doom yourself to a life of meetings in dark parking lots, close calls with cops and other ridiculous stress-makers. Use your energy to work to end prohibition.

I could bore you to a mellow stupor with all the stories I have of purchasing tiny, expensive bags of dried flowers from a variety of suspect characters in various undignified Seattle locales, but I won’t. No reason to pick on any of these brokers, who were just trying to make some extra cash providing meds for my small-time needs. Dirty Doug, Jessica Painless, the guy in Tad’s building, Donnie Dreadlock, Somali Mafia, Phuc Hu, Cougar on a Moped, Methy Terry, Ripoff Ronnie, Sooge, Alki Alkie, Sandy Sugar, Terry Tard and all the rest — your secrets are safe with me.

Any law enforcement folks reading this must know, deep in their hearts, that it would have been better for our capitalist economy for me to have been buying my damn marijuana at the 7-11 all these years, saving gas, paying sales tax. Ask Norm Stamper, Seattle’s former police chief, now friends with all kinds of stoners on Facebook, travelling the country extolling the virtues of drug legalization. He says we should make jail a place for violent offenders, not dabblers in consensual soft drugs. For the first time in my life, I agree with a cop! We are indeed living in a fast-changing world.

by Ray Lee Marx - ray@wildworldnews.com

This story originally published in Mary Jane Magazine #1, Spring 2010.