Come on Down

November 5, 2007 11:48 AM

Drew Carey defends medical marijuana.
posted by Curry (61 comments total)

"Batshitsane?"
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 11:51 AM on November 5, 2007

"Batshitsane?"

I heard marijuana cures that ailment.
posted by NationalKato at 11:53 AM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Sure, but Drew Carey would defend medical call girls too, amiright?
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:00 PM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Carey, like Cleveland, rocks.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 12:02 PM on November 5, 2007

batshitinsane

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
posted by loquacious at 12:04 PM on November 5, 2007 [3 favorites]

Drew Carey is no Michael Moore. I like him better. :)
posted by anthill at 12:06 PM on November 5, 2007 [5 favorites]

batshitinsane

Not really. Carey is a libertarian, and the video itself is fair and well-reasoned.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:09 PM on November 5, 2007

Here's a better headline: Price is Right Host Defends Medicinal Marijuana
posted by roll truck roll at 12:12 PM on November 5, 2007 [3 favorites]

Well done, Marine!
posted by pax digita at 12:13 PM on November 5, 2007

Plinko might be way more fun if they used little bricks of hash instead of those plastic discs.
posted by Bighappyfunhouse at 12:15 PM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

'Cause all we need is some weed
And a laid back beat
Black lights if you stereotype
Couple bean bag chairs
And a lack of airs
A marathon of The Price is Right.

- MC Chris, Wiid
posted by Parasite Unseen at 12:22 PM on November 5, 2007

Here's a better headline: Price is Right Host Defends Medicinal Marijuana

Or perhaps: Price is Right Host says "Spray and nurture your plants"
posted by Curry at 12:25 PM on November 5, 2007 [9 favorites]

The spaying and neutering of pets was a polarizing platform when Bob Barker became its spokesperson years ago. Now that the old guard is ceding to the new, Carey needs to find that volatile subject of our age, society's demarcation line. Surely this is it.



[Drew Carey holds an impossibly skinny microphone as "Carey's Beauties" stand smiling beside him.]

"This is Drew Carey saying, 'Remember to have your glaucomaproperly treated .'"

[Carey sucks hard on a spliff. Credits roll.]
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 12:27 PM on November 5, 2007

Twelve replies in and still no "Drew Carey's fat because of the munchies" joke?
posted by secret about box at 12:27 PM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Since (so I've been told) pot cultivation requires culling the male plants, couldn't he just say " Remember to spay or neuter your plants"?
posted by Benny Andajetz at 12:31 PM on November 5, 2007

Alvy Ampersand: "Not really. Carey is a libertarian, and the video itself is fair and well-reasoned."

That's probably why the tag reads "batshitsane." Although I don't see why it's so necessary. Amazingly, the tag appears to have been used once before.
posted by koeselitz at 12:36 PM on November 5, 2007

After watching this last week, I decided I am going to make a cannabis tincture and see how that works with my SO's chronic back pain.
posted by chillmost at 12:39 PM on November 5, 2007

In fact, "batshitsane" is an interesting word, in that it's one of those words that nobody really parses; they just assume it's the word they've always seen that looks like that, so they don't even notice that it's lacking the "in."

That's what I did, anyway.
posted by koeselitz at 12:39 PM on November 5, 2007

But, really, outside of the federal government is medical marijuana really such a controversial topic? Yeah I know there are plenty of people who shudder at the though of the demon weed being used for anything, but I am guessing that a majority of people would have no real trouble for it's use for legitimate medical situations, or am I wrong?
posted by edgeways at 12:45 PM on November 5, 2007

That's probably why the tag reads "batshitsane."

Times like this I wished I smoked the marijuana, if only to excuse my lack of attention to detail.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:48 PM on November 5, 2007

May I just briefly add that this morning I watched the last ten minutes of the Price is Right and I believe that Drew Carey is already and unsuprisingly miserable in his new position as daytime gameshow host; regret colors his every expression and movement, and he wears the pained expression of a clown who hates children. So of course he's smoking marijuana. The next 30 years of his life aren't going to go by listlessly and unremarkably all by themselves!
posted by billysumday at 12:48 PM on November 5, 2007 [5 favorites]

edgeways: Are you talking about the average person? What, do you think that things would be better if we let the average person have a say in government? Ahahaha, yeah! Maybe we should have them all pick people to make decisions that are representative of their opinions! Hahahaha. Oh, that's a good one.

What next, paying for other people's hospital trips?
posted by blacklite at 12:49 PM on November 5, 2007

You know what medical marijuana isn't going to cure? Drew Carey's giant fat ass.
posted by contessa at 12:51 PM on November 5, 2007

Drew is actually looking a little chunkier, not that there's anything wrong with that. My favorite part: "Smell that? That's the smell of freedom!"
posted by mecran01 at 12:52 PM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

yeah, I'm talking about the average person. I also don't think medical marijuana is at the top of the list when the average person votes in the federal elections, so the federal government is not elected on a platform to legalize it medically and is more concerned about not pissing off vocal people over what they see is a small issue, then making sound policy.
posted by edgeways at 12:56 PM on November 5, 2007

It is pretty funny that morphine is a-okay, but THC is just evil.
posted by Talanvor at 12:57 PM on November 5, 2007 [2 favorites]

Damn hippy.
posted by mazola at 12:58 PM on November 5, 2007

But, really, outside of the federal government is medical marijuana really such a controversial topic?

Heh, you must not live in a red state. Dude, people get arrested for possessing tiny amounts of weed all the time. I believe the number was around 830,000 marijuana related arrests last year.
posted by chlorus at 12:58 PM on November 5, 2007

edgeways writes "But, really, outside of the federal government is medical marijuana really such a controversial topic? Yeah I know there are plenty of people who shudder at the though of the demon weed being used for anything, but I am guessing that a majority of people would have no real trouble for it's use for legitimate medical situations, or am I wrong?"

I encounter a large number of people who don't think marijuana should be illegal, but they doubt its efficacy in medical use. There is an underlying assumption that medical marijuana is a canard or Trojan horse, IOW just a way to get legal marijuana in the door. I know that there are people who abuse the medical marijuana system as it stands, but that's aside from its legitimate medical uses (and I know it helps with nausea due to chemotherapy from personal experience).
posted by krinklyfig at 1:01 PM on November 5, 2007

But, really, outside of the federal government is medical marijuana really such a controversial topic?

I think the following pretty well summarizes what marijuana continues to symbolize in a forty-year-old cultural divide:

Damn hippy.

If you could somehow separate the facts from that symbolism (or better yet, demonstrate how moronic it is that we're fighting over the same symbols forty years after they were relevant), I doubt many would care at all.
posted by scottreynen at 1:05 PM on November 5, 2007 [2 favorites]

Times like this I wished I smoked the marijuana, if only to excuse my lack of attention to detail.

Heh. I caught the missing "in" immediately, so don't go there.
posted by wsg at 1:08 PM on November 5, 2007

Why hasn't this thread degenerated into a pot vs. alcohol debate? You are all showing remarkable restraint.
posted by Area Control at 1:09 PM on November 5, 2007

Dude, people get arrested for possessing tiny amounts of weed all the time. I believe the number was around 830,000 marijuana related arrests last year.

This is the result of bad laws, not public opinion. Cops enforce the laws whether they agree with them or not. The majority of American citizens wouldn't care if it was decriminalized for medical purposes.
posted by wsg at 1:12 PM on November 5, 2007

According to this, we are currently spending about $42 billion each year to fight marijuana.

Yeah, that makes sense.
posted by quin at 1:12 PM on November 5, 2007

Yeah I know chlorus, while I haven't touched the stuff long enough to qualify me to be president (by the GWB standard), my dad actually got busted a few years back in TN. It was about 1/2 legit medical use and 1/2 recreation, but whether or not you are red or blue state you can get busted, I just think (and could be wrong in some cases) that it is driven by federal policy. Hell when my dad got busted the most serious charge against him was related to tax laws because you are, I guess, suppose to by tax stamps for the stuff even though it is illegal, seems like double indemnity to me, but there is a real reason I left TN and that is just indicative of the mindset.
posted by edgeways at 1:21 PM on November 5, 2007

California, knows how to party. Ca-li-for-nia knows how to party.
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth at 1:36 PM on November 5, 2007

The baby boomers are entering their 60s. Practically all of them have smoked weed. Why haven't *they* legalized it?
posted by zorro astor at 1:37 PM on November 5, 2007 [3 favorites]

Related. Medicinal marijuana is OK ... until you make too much money and the feds want to seize your goods.

Has anyone read/seen any rational arguments about why marijuana should be illegal? I've seen attempts to downplay the medical benefits, but really, even without the medicinal issue, or even the economic one, can anyone honestly explain why it should be illegal to grow and ingest your own marijuana?
posted by mrgrimm at 1:47 PM on November 5, 2007

I want to hear more about the medical call girls Astro Zombie mentioned. Do you guys know where I can get a prescription for those?
posted by well_balanced at 2:04 PM on November 5, 2007

“can anyone honestly explain why it should be illegal to grow and ingest your own marijuana?”

Lobbying. Marijuana would compete with stuff folks are making money off of now. That and the whole gorilla/firehose tradition thing.
posted by Smedleyman at 2:07 PM on November 5, 2007

The baby boomers are entering their 60s. Practically all of them have smoked weed. Why haven't *they* legalized it?

Not all of them. I tried and failed to find a study within the time i was prepared to spend on it, but my gut feeling is it's not even most, more like 40%, and peak usage age of marijuana has, I suspect, remained at around 20 years old across the last 50 years or so. For the baby boomers, this was 1966-1974 - an era we think of as having a very high level of use and acceptance of marijuana, but in which (again, I can't back this up with statistics yet) I suspect the consumption per capita was significantly less than it is today.

Marijuana was legally prohibited over the 1920's and 30's in the USA, contemporaneously with alcohol prohibition, and in the context of strong racist and political propaganda. This was the time of the youth of the boomers' parents, the WWII veteran cohort.

In human beings generally there seems to be a tendency to rebel from parental influence during late teens to early 20's, and revert back to parental expectation during late 40's and forward, the peak years of political power. My prediction is that, were matters to continue as they are, in itself unlikely, so long as the boomers remain politically more powerful than their descendents, ie until the boomers' children reach their 50's, around 2010 to 2020, drug policy will continue to be fiercely proscriptive.

The boomers' children, Generation X, grew up with parents who were still in, or only just leaving, their rebellion phase. The attitude to drugs we received from parents and teachers, our parents' contemporaries, was that drugs were more a medical issue than a moral issue. We were told "Drugs will screw up your body and your mind." They were told "Drugs will make you evil."
posted by aeschenkarnos at 2:08 PM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

I've wondered if the disastrous effect of harder drugs like cocaine didn't kind of "spoil it" for the softer drugs.
posted by zorro astor at 2:16 PM on November 5, 2007

Drew is actually looking a little chunkier, not that there's anything wrong with that.

It's probably just the skinny microphone.
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:29 PM on November 5, 2007

Medicinal marijuana is OK ... if the price is right.

Medicinal cocaine is OK ... but whose line is it, anyway?

Medicinal LSD is OK ... as long as you're not watching The Drew Carey Show on it.

*runs out of Drew Carey shows*
posted by hellbient at 2:41 PM on November 5, 2007 [4 favorites]

Medicinal cocaine actually is OK. It sees a little use as an anesthetic that also reduces blood flow, I believe.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 2:46 PM on November 5, 2007

His defense of dope is understandable. I only find him funny when high. Ditto for Kevin Smith movies and Adult Swim.

I stopped smoking dope years ago, consequently I haven't watched TV in ages.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 2:58 PM on November 5, 2007

Sea Urchin Eggs Plus Marijuana Equal Amazing New Drugs
posted by homunculus at 3:25 PM on November 5, 2007

Chomsky on pot
posted by hortense at 4:34 PM on November 5, 2007

Put me down as one who finds the whole medical marijuana argument offensive. As Doug Stanhope says, let's start the argument where it begins... pot should be legal because I like to get high, and nobody else is harmed by me toking up. The fact that weed is illegal is just about the biggest hypocritical joke in this supposedly free society we enjoy.
posted by autodidact at 5:02 PM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Is this like those "Even nuns want Bush impeached" posts on Reddit? Because what the fuck does it matter if Drew Carey supports medical marijuana?
posted by Captaintripps at 5:12 PM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

one of my friends was having a chat to a girl we knew about legalization.. she was totally against it, but conceded to all of his points about why it should be legal. then he did a double take - hold on - hundreds of thousands of people are arrested and charged, sent to jail and fined for small amounts of marijuana every year around the world. shouldn't *she* be the one trying to convince him that it shouldn't be legal, that it's worth ruining all these people lives for the minimal effect we have in controlling it?
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 6:29 PM on November 5, 2007

Amen, Autodictact. I was about to write a comment saying basically the same thing, but you neat me to the punch!

As long as I smoke in my home, why the fuck is it anyone else's business that I like to get high.

I live in suburbia, and I'm a professional. I hurt no one.

grrrrrrr.
posted by JKevinKing at 7:03 PM on November 5, 2007

You BEAT me to the punch ... and I'm not even high!!!
posted by JKevinKing at 7:04 PM on November 5, 2007

Does anyone else think Carey's nasal voice and style (not to mention his weight, of course) are just a little too on-the-nose Michael Moore? At times I thought they were, well, fungible.

Glad to agree with him, however.
posted by fungible at 7:07 PM on November 5, 2007

Hypocritical ,yes, but pragmatic. There's basically no more reason to be arrested for pot here in California any more. Doctors who will prescribe are easy to find. Sorry if your state's not cool like that.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 7:20 PM on November 5, 2007

aeschenkarnos writes "Not all of them. I tried and failed to find a study within the time i was prepared to spend on it, but my gut feeling is it's not even most, more like 40%, and peak usage age of marijuana has, I suspect, remained at around 20 years old across the last 50 years or so."

I'm reminded of John Manley having to concede in an interview May 1st, 2003 with The Canadian Press that the psychedelic 60s passed him by. "No, never," Manley deadpanned when asked if he'd ever smoked pot. "I regret that, now, because apparently it's 'de rigueur.' "
posted by Mitheral at 7:45 PM on November 5, 2007

If we're going to let people drive like they're stoned while using cell phones, we might as well legalize pot.
posted by mecran01 at 7:50 PM on November 5, 2007

Sorry if your state's not cool like that.

ah the unification of America.
posted by Frasermoo at 8:45 PM on November 5, 2007

aeschenkarnos: For the baby boomers, this was 1966-1974 - an era we think of as having a very high level of use and acceptance of marijuana, but in which (again, I can't back this up with statistics yet) I suspect the consumption per capita was significantly less than it is today.

You are probably looking for something like this.
posted by daksya at 1:55 AM on November 6, 2007

Does anyone else think Carey's nasal voice and style (not to mention his weight, of course) are just a little too on-the-nose Michael Moore?

Newsflash -- they're both from the same section of the Great Lakes (Cleveland- and Detroit-area burbs, respectively). We grow our menfolk big and strong here, with liberal doses of pierogi and beer. Sometimes a chunk of sauerkraut blocks their nasal passages. Hence, accent.

We can't help it!
posted by bitter-girl.com at 6:09 AM on November 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

Put me down as one who finds the whole medical marijuana argument offensive.

To be fair, the many organizations and people who work very hard to make medicinal marijuana do if for the reason that you find offensive.

Marijuana has been proven effective in treating a wide range of diseases and symptoms, including cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, nausea, pain, psychosis, and schizophrenia.

The fact that you find the medicinal marijuana argument offensive is no concern to the people who could use marijuana to ameliorate their medical problems.

Why not make a contribution to Americans for Safe Access?

Even without a secret goal of allowing you to smoke doobs while watching Adult Swim, they're still doing important work.
posted by mrgrimm at 3:57 PM on November 8, 2007