‘Found my way upstairs and had a smoke and somebody spoke and I went into a dream’ Beatles: A day in the Life.

There are some touchstones in rock and roll. One of them is ‘The Rolling Stones’ who are still touring after all these years. We’re astounded. Not in the fact that Mick can get up there and shake a geriatric booty and his fans will still swoon, but that Keith Richards is still alive.

Their compatriots, the Beatles of course led us down the psychedelic path of discovery which promulgated hair growth and expanded our minds. Remember when the moptops were awarded the MBE (Member of the British Empire) after ‘toking up’ in the Buckingham Palace loo. They altered their state of mind for that signal honor and we laughed as we too, partook of the ‘herb superb’. Paul got busted for bringing pot into Japan and spent 9 days in jail. We forgave him. How could we not?

It seemed everyone in rock & roll did, and now legalization is bringing pot out of the back room and into the living room.

At this time in our history, baby boomers are more lax about the 4-20. Some States have decriminalized or legalized the so called ‘evil weed’ and boomers think more openly about the innocuous plant with the medicinal properties when all of a sudden one of our leaders, one of our forerunners, one of our ‘tokes-persons’ decides that “For the sake of his grandkids”, he’s off the spliff.

Hey Paul, we would have taken the news a little better if you had simply said you would close the door to the ‘rec room’ to toke up. Who hasn’t had to face the authority of family members, police or teachers with a little ‘red eye’ and talk our way out of it? It builds self-confidence and leads to a good story when the ‘troops gather’.