MovieChat Forums > Dragnet 1967 (1967) Discussion > 'The Big High' and legalizing marijuana

'The Big High' and legalizing marijuana

posted 12 years ago by lvrepoman
9 replies | jump to latest

This episode was on Antenna TV today, and I always get a big kick out of it. It has to rank right up there with "Reefer Madness."

During the course of the episode, Tim Donelly's character talks about how the laws regarding marijuana will change when the "kids" who were smoking it grow up and vote. Well it occurred to me that the episode is 45 years old--45!--and all these years later, grass is still illegal. Yeah, you probably won't get thrown in the clink for smoking it, but it is still illegal on the federal level and generally illegal in the states.

Now, I'll admit that I'm a big square--I've never smoked pot--but having grown up in the 70's, I always figured that it would eventually be legalized. So my question is to all you baby boomers, what happened? Why is pot still against the law? Did you change your minds?

I still figure that pot will eventually be legalized, and should be for medical purposes, but I'm amazed that things have changed so little over the years. Forty-five years is a long time.

"He was running around like a rooster in a barnyard full of ducks."--Pat Novak

[–] monkeemama 12 years ago

yeah, 45 yrs is a long time. But it is progressing slowly. As of this week, legal use/ownership of MJ passed in Washington and Colorado but failed in Oregon, where I live. Go figure....there are pot smokers EVERYWHERE in Oregon!!!!

Sometimes I go into my own little world...but that's okay, they know me there.

[–] lvrepoman 12 years ago

I wasn't aware of the measures on the ballots of the states you mentioned at the time of my original post. I guess my timing was pretty good. As I stated, although I am not and never have been an MJ user, I think it it high time that the laws regarding its use be changed. It remains to be seen if anything will be done about the federal prohibitions.

And it remains baffling to me that baby boomers have had the vote--and huge numbers--for 40 years, yet have done so little to change the laws. Maybe they know something....

"He was running around like a rooster in a barnyard full of ducks."--Pat Novak

[–] ck1-5 12 years ago

...or maybe most of them grew out of their "hippie" phase and turned into the same old people that their parents were, with the same attitudes, especially after they had children. Don't get me wrong; although I haven't smoked pot in many years, and probably never will again, it wouldn't bother me if it was legalized. The millions of tax dollars it would represent wouldn't hurt, and I don't remember anyone getting violent from smoking it....just lazy and hungry. Maybe there'd be an increase in people holding up convenience stores and making off with all of the Doritos.

[–] lvrepoman 12 years ago

I was born in 1963, which is or is not part of the boomer generation, but either way I have spent a lot of time among boomers and I can tell you they have mostly turned into the fuddy-duddy's they used to make fun of.

Like you, I don't see much good out of smoking grass, but that doesn't mean it should be illegal. People do all sorts of stupid things for all kinds of stupid reasons. It's called "liberty" and it is what America is all about. Of course, if you do something stupid, you must be willing to live with the consequences and not expect the rest of us to bail you out...

"He was running around like a rooster in a barnyard full of ducks."--Pat Novak

[–] jconn426 12 years ago

Ask any moonshiner: it's hard to get tax dollars from something you can make yourself. If they tax pot heavily like they do tobacco, the people who now grow their own or sell it on the sly will still be doing so. Plus, I'll take odds that the really "good" stuff, which is adulterated with extra THC or whatever someone can whip up in a lab next, won't be the stuff you can legally buy.

===
And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

[–] ck1-5 12 years ago

jconn, your argument is flawed; sure, moonshiners and the illegal brew they peddle still exist, but the government seems to be collecting lots and lots of tax dollars from the legal alcohol that's sold every day. I'm not naive enought to believe that there still wouldn't be "homegrown" on the black market. Sure, moonshine still exists, but what small percentage of total alcohol sales does it account for, when the legal stuff is available everywhere?

[–] SpikeDurden 12 years ago

That episode is idiotic.

A couple in their 20s has a "marijuana party" and during the party their baby drowns in the bath tub.

The moral of the story is marijuana users go on to use heroin and cocaine etc and becomes a junkie, which is simply untrue in 99% of cases.

It's funny how relevant the episode is though. The debate the police have with the young people in the middle of the episode is funny in that everything the young people said is basically true while the heroes of Dragnet are spewing the same government propaganda that was responsible for the failed war on drugs. The influence of this episode on the people of 1968 disturbs me. The young people made perfect sense in their argument. And then they drowned their baby proving, in Dragnet's reality, that marijuana is dangerous.

[–] lorenzb-2 11 years ago

Yes, I'm a former hippie and an aging boomer. Now that we're entering late middle age, we've become completely square. The folks I know that are still alive are straight, mundane and even a few are republicans. The youngsters now consider us obsolete fossils. And we rail about them and their decedent lifestyles. Time marches on. Groovy and far out man.

[–] burnsmajor 10 years ago

Yes you can still be thrown in the "clink" for smoking marijuana.
Where have you been? I would argue that the laws about marijuana on a state level have changed quite a bit. The kids who smoked it did grow up and vote