Puff The Magic Dragon is not about smoking weed

[Ambiguity]

@jsroberts

Sometimes being in an altered state can show you how you are being affected in your normal state, and how you can change.

Agree 100%. In the same way that psychologist study the extreme cases of mental functioning not only to find out about those extreme cases but also about more normal functioning, we can learn a lot about our own minds by observing how it functions under many different perturbations and states.

Psychedelics and meditation are both good technologies for that!

[popobawa4u]

@bexwhitt

I never said it was “just say no” was just off the cuff, take all the drugs you want

I rarely do what I want - it’s too compulsive! I prefer to devise elaborate systems for deciding what to do.

@bexwhitt

just stop the association for no real reason.

Lots of thought and memory is based upon association. My experience has been that there is hardly ever much deliberate reasoning behind what associations people make. It mostly just happens.

[TooGoodToCheck_]

the association between “just say no” and drug prohibition, on the other hand, is the result of a long and deliberate campaign.

Anyway. . . I’m currently lit up on a few beers, and I’d be smoking if I wasn’t worried about the feds taking my house or my kids or whatever (actual probability of this happening - remarkably close to zero, but still too high for my comfort). The day they legalize pot can’t come too soon.

I think what this thread is really missing is songs that actually are about smoking weed. Time to remedy!

Ben Harper : Burn One Down

Phish : Blaze On

Jigsy King : Gimme Di Weed

ETA lyrics! because I love Ben Harper so much!

My choice is what I choose to do
and if I’m causing no harm it shouldn’t bother you
your choice is who you choose to be
and if you’re causing no harm then you’re alright with me
if you don’t like my fire
then don’t come around
’cause I’m going to burn one down

[PhasmaFelis]

@bexwhitt

I have never took any drug apart for a moderate amount of booze so it worked for me, I like my brain just the way it is, fully functioning.

I like how you get all smug about keeping your brain unfogged immediately after you cheerfully admit to drinking alcohol.

[Wanderfound]

@neonflame

I love that people say this. Have you taken prescription drugs? Some of them are just as bad, if not worse.

A striking memory from my childhood: my Mum, cigarette in hand, glass of wine to one side and cup of coffee to the other, telling me that she’d “never done drugs”.

To her credit, she then did a quick double-take of the situation and cracked up laughing at herself.

[anon67050589]

@Ambiguity

I personally don’t think there is such a thing as a “fully functioning brain.”

Have you seen the MRI scans of a normal brain versus one on LSD? Virtually every single part of the brain is lit up while on LSD. Apparently it’s as close to being a fully functioning brain as we can get!

[stinkinbadgers]

@Michael_Black

That wasn’t supposed to be a children’s song. It wasn’t a Wobbly song, but was written by a Wobbly. Much later it morphed into a children’s song. But I can’t remember what recording we had around when I was a kid, or what the “childrenified” lyrics were.

I would say it’s to my parents’ credit that the version I grew up with (not sure who sang it) included all the adult stuff, but that was back before it became assumed that hearing the word “cigarette” or “whiskey” meant that you’d turn into a juvenile delinquent.

[Mister_Eppy]

@OtherMichael

They do make out pretty good from speeding tickets, though.

How??? I mean, what with the wooden legs and all…

[PhasmaFelis]

@Michael_Black

That wasn’t supposed to be a children’s song. It wasn’t a Wobbly song, but was written by a Wobbly. Much later it morphed into a children’s song. But I can’t remember what recording we had around when I was a kid, or what the “childrenified” lyrics were.

Whatever recording you had had already been somewhat bowdlerized: apparently the original (never recorded, only busked on the street) version was about a hobo seducing a boy into the hobo life, and included the verse “I’ve hiked and hiked till my feet are sore/And I’ll be damned if I hike any more/To be buggered sore like a hobo’s whore/In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.”