THE LEGALISATION OF MARIJUANA — 1967-1968: Diary of a Posh Schoolgirl

Sep 1

Sep 1 THE LEGALISATION OF MARIJUANA

1960s Culture

F R I D A Y, 1 S E P T

Wore my hair loose for once, and everyone, including myself, was staggered at how much I’ve got! It’s too long to look good, but also too short. It’s best up, but it won’t stay there.

Grandma and Grandpa came again. Grandma absolutely gets Chump and me - she can’t mention a thing without bringing in the price. Also, the only thing she talks about is the 21st birthday 'do' she went to, and the wedding Sozzy's going to go to. It's very dull. Jane’s so sweet, but she does say to Sozzy “no” and “I don’t want to” a lot! Later Chump and me went for a walk with her round the block and this chap in a lorry went “whoosh” in my ear as he passed by. Honestly, it gave me such a shock.

I’m so utterly thrilled: I wore my pink jumper for the first time for ages today and it’s shrunk to a mini!! I also took the patch off my jeans and took the legs in because the bottoms were too wide.

“That marvellous programme ‘Your Witness’ has begun again. It was about marijuana.”

What surprised me was the lack of feeling on both sides. Probably because legalisation is more a scientific question than a psychological one. Anyway, it was extremely interesting: before the programme I was rather indifferent, and now I think it would be mad to legalise it. Surely it’s more important to deprive the people who just enjoy it for the sake of the few who wreck their lives from it? Alcohol is bad enough, why bring in another type of addiction? And nobody can deny it’s more dangerous – it is. Marijuana can lead you on to heavy drugs such as heroin and LSD. I really think the only thing to do is to stamp it out, but it is going to cause a lot of hardship, like people being sent to prison for partaking in a mild smoke.

But just what will happen when everybody’s on drugs? The steady decline of civilisation. You could argue “so what?” It might even be a good idea if the whole world became lethargic on mild drugs. But somehow I can’t see it working out.