I’d like Jim Belushi (“Cannabis Transplant,” EW 4/14) to be less comfortable wanting people to be more comfortable with cannabis. And the Weakly twice so. I’ll tragically remind us that his brother John Belushi died at age 33 of mixed drug intoxication.
Is pot a gateway drug? For me cigarettes got first try, alcohol second and pot third. The last was attached to some of the most painful missteps of my life. And yes, I would say smoothed the road towards other experiments.
The Weakly doesn’t extend its helpful hand nearly so far to cigarette or alcohol products, or their use. Why pot? Obvious enough: The paper would be half its size without cannabis ads. Does that justify it? No. If you can’t pay the bills otherwise, then staff and owners are capable of working harder to find suitable solutions. I, for one, would pay a price for the helpful and informative side of the paper.
My son, who was in ninth grade at North Eugene High, came home from a classmate’s where the parents were having a party. I suspected and asked him if he was high, and he said no. After consulting with his girlfriend the next day, he said he had eaten a pot cookie, unaware. The parents are owners of one of your advertised cannabis businesses.
We told him before any more visits to that house we would all go over together. That was the remarkably easy ending of that concern.
I consulted him again in about junior year; he said he had looked into it and decided that, after research, he wouldn’t use it until older, because the brain wasn’t fully developed yet. Again, grateful.
Jim Belushi doesn’t need your plug, and our community will be better for healthier alternatives. Get strong and please wrap up this incestuous relationship.
Kevin Jones
Eugene