Who
Are
You ? ? ?
Who is this man that just calmly strolled into my house and announced that he and Wife2 have decided to start selling "Medical Marijuana".
Have you lost your mind?
For God's sake, our 17 year old son still lives with you part time! So does Wife2's 16 year old daughter, for that matter. On what planet is it acceptable for a child's parents to be blatantly growing, using and selling drugs? Are you crazy?
Medical Marijuana is "Pot" and whether you call yourself a "Provider" or the King of Siam; in the end you're gonna be just another small-time drug dealer. You might as well throw a couple of shoes in a tree in front of your house and take out ads in the local paper.
Don't even try to tell me that "it's legal now" and you're only going to be selling it to medical patients who had it prescribed for them. That's how they sold the idea to naive fools like me at election time, but its sure not how its turned out now is it ? You know, I actually thought it would be regulated and controlled ! It's been less than a year later, and the doctors are giving out scripts like cheese samples! Everyone and his brother is getting one!
Don't give me that bull about wanting to help people either. If you want to help people, why aren't you volunteering in a soup kitchen or a nursing home. At least be honest about why you're doing it ! Admit it, you're just like every other burned-out Bubba who thinks this is their big chance to smoke dope "legally" and get rich at the same time.
Which I find more than a little ironic, because it seem pretty obvious that even if the government doesn't smarten up and things keep going the way they are, it won't be long before the bottom fall s out of the market. You went to college. Did you somehow miss the Economics lecture titled "There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"?
Come on, try hard, remember the part about the price of a product reflecting both it's supply and demand? If even half of the over fifty thousand applying for a license to grow the stuff actually get one,there's going to be a whole hell of a lot of pot available. At some point the supply is going to be equal to, or even exceed, the demand. Just like alchohol and prohibition, once people could get it anywhere, the price dropped. It doesn't take much thought to figure that one out.
If it's really an increase in income you are after, I'm sure you could find a better venue. Sending Wife2 to Marijuana Collage, and turning your basement into a state-of-the-art green house is going to set you back several thousand! How many patients and how many months will it take for you to get back your initial investment?
by the way, will this sudden new influx of cash mean you'll be willing to help pay for the boy's college or living expenses? No, I didn't think so.
It's amazing, all these years and you still have the same priorities you had when I married you twenty years ago! That simple list of one, with your name, first and only, in big capital letters right at the top.
Silly me, I actually thought you might be maturing, not just aging!
I still can't believe that you stood here and told me that you'd be smoking weed as well,to help with your lower back pain. Back pain? You go to the Health Club and pumps weights three nights a week! How badly can it hurt? In case that didn't sway me pointed out that the pot would help you "get off the Vikes".
Get off of Vikes? How did you ever get on them? More importantly, exactly how long have you been addicted to them?
Now you're telling me that you've been "hooked" on vicodin and in the future, you plan on smoking pot on a regular basis. My god, you use to give me hell for having a glass of wine on a school night?
Speaking of school, have those Vicodin destroyed a portion of your brain? Are you listening to yourself at all?
How can you possibly truly believe that there is no reason your school district is not going to find out what you're doing? They do criminal checks every year! You are in the state's database now. Do you think that "reminding them it's all legal,and threatening to sue them if they fire you" will actually change anything ? You are a teacher in a public high school who is growing and selling marijuana - those are the only "facts" they are going to care about.
Apparently, during all those years as union president, you never heard the term "Moral Turpitude"? You're going to find out exactly how broadly that term is defined when it comes to school teachers.
Meanwhile you are just going to go on standing in front of your students day after day, wearing your little "What Would Atticus Do?" bracelet, as though nothing has changed ? You are actually going to lecture them on the "evil of drugs" while passing out those little red "Just Say No." ribbons, all the while knowing that as soon as that bell rings you'll be on your way home to grow and smoke some grass with your wife? Why stop there? Hell, maybe you're can convince a couple of your students to make you their "Provider"! That would be convenient.
You fucking hypocrite!
Finally, you didn't say a word about our sons. Did they slip your mind? What happened to "our" belief that as parents it was critical that we always "walk our talk"? "Our" commitment to not to just lecturing them, but instead helping them to understand why drugs should have no place in their lives? "Our" moral and values, especially regarding our children, was one of the few things I always had confidence in. Boy was I wrong! I'll tell you this, if the boys were any younger, I'd have been at family court the day after you made your announcement, demanding full custody! I'd have got it too.
I can't imagine how you had the nerve to look them in the eye and tell them about all this. Did you think that since you were their father, that somehow that would make anything you did seem alright?
I've got news for you, whatever and however you told them, it didn't wash. They are both as appalled and disappointed as I am. Our youngest will be eighteen in just a few weeks, legally able to make his own decisions, and just like his brother, it may be that his first decision is to move in with me full time.
I almost wish I could say you've lost their respect, that disappoint, betrayal, and disillusionment can't begin to describe what they both are feeling. I wish I could say that, but I can't. Unfortunately, this event is just the finale of a long and painful play. All the explanations, all the excuses I have made for you over the years, mean nothing now. The best Public Relations Firm in the country couldn't put a positive spin on this. This time, I think you've lost them .
In in the end, do you know what else surprised me?
Even after all this time,
after all we've gone through . . .
you can still make me cry.