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socrateez
Moderator
Joined: 01 Feb 2008
Posts: 1370
Location: I'm your next door neighbor
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 Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 9:19 am Post subject: How many Cops Know a "PotHead" personally? |
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After my morning spiritual regimen of "Wake & Bake", these thoughts occurred to me:
To elaborate on the topics title, I began thinking of the numbers of law enforcement officers compared to citizens.
Heres the numbers for 2004: 836,787
Taken from:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/lawenf.htm
Total population for the same period: 281,421,906
Minus the number of officers, and incarcerated: 1,492,973 which excludes State and Federal prisoners in local jails), the ratio is: 333 to 1
The only info I could dig up for minimummandatory guard to inmate ratios is 48:1. http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/007276.html
Police arrested an estimated 771,608 persons for marijuana violations in 2004, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report.
These numbers got me wondering a couple things. With nearly as many pot smokers busted as there were cops in 2004, just how many people do cops know personally that toke? Lets face it, there are a lot more than 700,000 potheads! I haven't entered a workplace, or social level that pot tokers haven't existed. I can see most LEO's isolating themselves from those around who do, but that must be getting difficult. Do the cops that let people go for minor pot offenses feeling guilty because of someone perhaps close that tokes?
The next thing that interested me was guard to inmate ratios. How close are we to being "policed" ala "police state". The more recent number of 1:100 incarcerated in our Country is very disturbing compared to the ratios above.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/law/research/icps/worldbrief/wpb_stats.php?area=all&category=wb_poptotal
 Sorry so long. It's good shit!  |
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Lushh
Civil Libertarian
Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 140
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 10:09 am Post subject: |
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A stoner smokes pot, but his/her life does not revolve around it. A stoner will smoke pot responsibly, and realizes there is a time and a place for consuming marijuana. A true stoner realizes his/her personal limitations, and is aware of how marijuana will positively or negatively affect their work, etc. In other words, a stoner knows whether or not they can smoke without it affecting their productivity at work, or at home. A stoner isn't going to go to work high if he knows it's going to negatively affect his ability to do his job, or smoke when he has important shit to do. Some events and/or occasions are just not appropriate for smoking, and a responsible user knows this. For example, it is not cool to go to a funeral or something and be laughing because you are fucked up(unless of course it's a hippie funeral, different rules apply in that case). Anyways, a stoner can use marijuana without it being the focal point of their existence. It's called recreational for a reason.
i am that exact definition.
and for a pothead:
A pothead, on the other hand, lives to smoke pot and get high. These are usually the people who give users bad reputations because they make it a center of their life, and make it out to be a mental addiction. A pothead smokes for all the wrong reasons, and doesn't know when to lay off. They will go to work and/or school high regardless of whether or not they can handle it. These are the nasty bitches who crush seeds and smoke them, or actually sink low enough to steal people's shit to buy marijuana. They are the bane of your existence as a stoner, because they make you look bad because you use marijuana. They are the equivalent of a serious alcoholic, a fall down drunk, someone who cannot function without drinking. Marijuana remains illegal because these people sustain the belief that all marijuana smokers either are, or will eventually be like this. |
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stopthemadness
Antiprohibitionist
Joined: 20 Mar 2008
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 1:51 am Post subject: Genius |
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| Lushh wrote: | A stoner smokes pot, but his/her life does not revolve around it. A stoner will smoke pot responsibly, and realizes there is a time and a place for consuming marijuana. A true stoner realizes his/her personal limitations, and is aware of how marijuana will positively or negatively affect their work, etc. In other words, a stoner knows whether or not they can smoke without it affecting their productivity at work, or at home. A stoner isn't going to go to work high if he knows it's going to negatively affect his ability to do his job, or smoke when he has important shit to do. Some events and/or occasions are just not appropriate for smoking, and a responsible user knows this. For example, it is not cool to go to a funeral or something and be laughing because you are fucked up(unless of course it's a hippie funeral, different rules apply in that case). Anyways, a stoner can use marijuana without it being the focal point of their existence. It's called recreational for a reason.
i am that exact definition.
and for a pothead:
A pothead, on the other hand, lives to smoke pot and get high. These are usually the people who give users bad reputations because they make it a center of their life, and make it out to be a mental addiction. A pothead smokes for all the wrong reasons, and doesn't know when to lay off. They will go to work and/or school high regardless of whether or not they can handle it. These are the nasty bitches who crush seeds and smoke them, or actually sink low enough to steal people's shit to buy marijuana. They are the bane of your existence as a stoner, because they make you look bad because you use marijuana. They are the equivalent of a serious alcoholic, a fall down drunk, someone who cannot function without drinking. Marijuana remains illegal because these people sustain the belief that all marijuana smokers either are, or will eventually be like this. |
Lushh, I couldn't have said it better myself. I had to wear my wife down until she said it was alright for me smoke. Her mother is a "pothead". Seen her tear her house apart looking for a roach. Pathetic. It is potheads who make responsible people look bad. We just want to enjoy a bowl on our downtime; like you would enjoy a beer while watching tv after you get home from a long day at work.
If there are any "potheads" in here, stop making the grown folks look bad you assholes. |
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socrateez
Moderator
Joined: 01 Feb 2008
Posts: 1370
Location: I'm your next door neighbor
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 3:22 pm Post subject: |
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| What does the any of the above have to do with my topic or its questions? |
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Lushh
Civil Libertarian
Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 140
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 4:43 pm Post subject: |
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| socrateez wrote: | | What does the any of the above have to do with my topic or its questions? |
The title says it all:
| Quote: | | How many Cops Know a "PotHead" personally? |
I think cops assume all cannabis users are potheads, The correct title would be How many Cops Know a "Stoner" personally. If they do know a pothead, that's probably how they develop there anti-marijuana bias.
Cops pinch confiscated sacks all the time. My best friends dad is a cop, and he has admitted to it in his earlier days, as well as his other fellow workers. |
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dawsonspaw
anonymouse tipster
Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Posts: 398
Location: Somewhere in the temporal space inside my mind
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 7:12 pm Post subject: |
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I see what you are saying,but I have called myself a Pot head for years,but in your logic I am really a stoner,There are even times I can pass a piss test without studying or cheating......I will continue to attest that I am a pot head,but you now know that I am really a stoner  |
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Lushh
Civil Libertarian
Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 140
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 9:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Whatever floats your boat. |
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von
Anonymous tipster
Joined: 25 Jan 2008
Posts: 400
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| Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 6:56 am Post subject: |
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socrateez, i am not a cop, but i can answere for the cops that i know, i went to school with most of them in the 70's. one police chief, 2 state troupers and 6 other officers know me personally and that i am a STONER/POTHEAD. not one of them messed with me in 30 years, thats how long they have known i smoke.
dawson, i guess i'm a stoner but always thought of my self as a pot head. i never knew there was a difference. but information is power and there is a difference so i would say i am a stoner/pothead. old habets are hard to break.
peace & pot |
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dawsonspaw
anonymouse tipster
Joined: 11 Apr 2007
Posts: 398
Location: Somewhere in the temporal space inside my mind
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| Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 8:45 am Post subject: |
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| I guess like other words or phrases regionality has alot to play in the in what is acceptable,here in the south east,especially here in east Tennessee,there are alot of words or phrases that would make somebody from here sound like a back woods country bumkin,anywhere else in the country.People who know me,understand that when I say that I am a pot head,that I am not an EVIL drug crazed thief,but just an old fashioned stoner,listening to Pink Floyd,eating cheetoes. |
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von
Anonymous tipster
Joined: 25 Jan 2008
Posts: 400
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| Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 10:18 am Post subject: |
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hey dawson its kinda different here in the deep south, a stoner is worst than a pot head, we know a stoner as the head in town that walks around stoned daily and takes anything he can get to get high. and a pot head is some one that just smokes cannabis. kinda simple
O' you should here us cajuns talk, every place i go people ask if i'm cajun. i'll say yaa. or talking we say DAT instead of THAT, very broken language. most like it. 'it turned a girl on in Amsterdam big time' 'i'll say no more' LOL
peace & pot 
Last edited by von on Mon May 26, 2008 10:34 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Lushh
Civil Libertarian
Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 140
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| Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 10:34 am Post subject: |
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It's giving responsible cannabis users a bad name. In the future, when marijuana gets legalized (because one day I believe it will) there will be people who are completely ignorant, the same fundamentalists there were in the past and the few we have today. The same people who know nothing of it and assume its bad. They think we do it because we crave getting away and because of the pressure from other people has made us do it to be cool. In reality we smoke to make ourselves feel better, to heal naturally and enjoy doing something recreational that will not kill you, or make you violent.
During Alcohol prohibition responsible drinkers were called drunks
During the Civil rights movement African Americans were called the N word.
I think the way of the modern age is responsible cannabis consumer or stoner. Both are more friendly than pothead. |
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von
Anonymous tipster
Joined: 25 Jan 2008
Posts: 400
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| Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 10:47 am Post subject: |
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OK, i am a responsable cannabis consumer, never been busted, never went to jail, never was arrested for anything and i did not start smoking yesterday. i have been a cannabis consumer for 33 years and if anybody wants to make a good impression for cannabis consumers its me. hopefully cannabis will be decrim or legalized one day. 
peace & pot |
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von
Anonymous tipster
Joined: 25 Jan 2008
Posts: 400
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| Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 10:58 am Post subject: |
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lushh i understand where you are coming from. we cannabis consumers have to make a good impression so the country can see its not the big bad drug like the gov has said it is. very understandable
peace & cannabis  |
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socrateez
Moderator
Joined: 01 Feb 2008
Posts: 1370
Location: I'm your next door neighbor
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| Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 11:02 am Post subject: |
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I see, didnt mean to offend! Sorry all.
I tend to use all phrasing regarding Cannabis consumption equally. Pothead, stoner, toker, doper, and numerous others all have the same meaning to me: someone who smokes pot.
I wasnt attempting to stereotype a specific consumer but making a connection between police and the pot consumer at large. I assumed "pothead" was a catchall phrase nationally.
I naturally don't care why anyone smokes, tokes, partakes, or whatever terminology you prefer. If it be for genuine medical value or downright abuse, we all have a equally valid reasons for what we do. I'm no Elitist or self righteous Crusader.
I am surprised though that the terminology I used has seemed to illustrate some form of class distinction or at least social bias among some the consuming populace.
If a low class urban "Silent Bob" type is a Pothead,
than I'm guessing middle class America deems themselves "Stoners". BTW, we called ourselves "Stoners" in high school and it held the same connotation as pothead has been described in this thread, to non smokers. Change the names, the model is the same anywhere you go.
Ive seen that in parts of Europe anyone who abuses any substance in the fashion ascribed to "Potheads" are called "Junkies". A term I tend to agree with and use for that purpose.
I'll restrict myself to more general terminology when possible.
Interesting side route through this topic however.
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von
Anonymous tipster
Joined: 25 Jan 2008
Posts: 400
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| Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 11:15 am Post subject: |
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socrateez you did no wrong, its a geographical thing, LOL
peace & geo |
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