Up in Smoke? No shit? Really?
It’s nice to see that the Kentucky DEA and State Patrol (SP) are developing a sense of humor about naming their marijuana eradication efforts with a nod to the pot-culture classic from Cheech and Chong. Kudos, coppers! Finally, you serious dudes in, uh, camouflage, are seeing your “supplementary” employment for the joke that it really is (or at least for the billion dollar pun that it really is now). But I write this more as good-citizen dialogue than diatribe: DEA/KSP, please be careful! Some may see your nod to pot-culture as a not-so-subtle attack on popular Latino pastimes. Or maybe even racial profiling. You might consider a name-change, in which case you’ll also want to avoid “Operation Friday.” All young African Americans do not live in East L.A. and spend their waking hours baking.
Really, the only safe alternative is to rename your assault on botany as Reefer Madness and give a nod to another classic film aimed more at protecting white kids. I’m not sure about the racial composition of the DEA or KSP, but I can say with some surety that the criminals you seek are, in fact, bored white kids with re-creative ways and financial means. Can’t go wrong with them culprits cuz they actually pay fines! In fact, Reefer Madness would dramatically (and appropriately) signify the insanity of America’s longest war, the one “on Drugs.” At 40 billion dollars a year, continuing to wage an open-ended war against a valuable commodity is truly madness.
Gortimer T. Spotts
Send letters to the editor to noceditors@yahoo.com; 430 N.MLK, Lexington, KY 40508; or just post on our website, noclexington.com
Leave a Reply