Seventh sentence in the article: "He turns 86 this spring and has a history of emphysema, so Annie, who’s been with Willie for 33 years, tries to get him to look out for his lungs, especially on show days."
In Mongolia, it's raw marmot organs. In America, it's marijuana. You have problems you'd like to solve, and here's this substance that might help. In Mongolia, plague. In America, emphysema.
[Willie] pauses for a second, before telling a joke he’s told a thousand times. “I don’t know anybody that’s ever died from smoking pot. Had a friend of mine that said a bale fell on him and hurt him pretty bad, though.”But Willie has emphysema... and he also has an economic interest in marijuana commerce:
The idea for a weed business started a few years ago; Nelson had bronchitis and he couldn’t smoke, so Annie started making him weed chocolates... She lent some to a friend, and big business came knocking....Branding. He's selling his name and he's being the face of the business to the press. He's a very old man with emphysema, but the product is edibles. Problem solved, no?
Nelson’s official title is “CTO: chief tasting officer.” The company even had business cards made up. He explains: “If I find something that’s really good, I say, ‘This is really good.’ ” Despite 65 years of pot use, Nelson is not a connoisseur; he shrugs when asked for his favorite Willie’s Reserve strains.....
How did pot save his life? He switched to it from cigarettes and whiskey, 40 years ago, and those other things would have killed him.
"I wouldn’t have lived 85 years if I’d have kept drinking and smoking like I was when I was 30, 40 years old. I think that weed kept me from wanting to kill people. And probably kept a lot of people from wanting to kill me, too — out there drunk, running around.”Great branding. Wreck your memory. You'll live longer.
Nelson uses the phrase “delete and fast-forward” a lot. It’s the title of a recent song of his, and it means forgive, forget and move on — a way to get through painful times. Weed, he says, helps him delete and fast-forward. “You don’t dwell on shit a lot. The short-term thing they talk about is probably true, but it’s probably good for you.... They say people who smoke pot have a short-term memory. Maybe that’s good, you know?... Because [otherwise] you start remembering a lot of negative things that you’re not supposed to remember. And the next thing you know, you’re back drinking whiskey. So weed helps you forget about stuff you don’t wanna think about."
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74 comments:
Weed is used to exterminate brain cells before they can get you into trouble. Mind controlling your own mind. Now that’s what they call free will.
Wreck your memory. Oh, is that the reason he didn’t pay his taxes? I forgot?
A nation of dopeheads. Can’t pay for boomer dementia, but the young willingly might ruin their brains.
Willie Mays just turned 88 the other day.
Isn’t Willie saying weed helps not dwelling on the painful stuff, not that it completely obliterates your memory?
Isn’t medical science looking for this, in the case of severe conditions like PTSD experimenting with Ecstasy and hallucinogens?
I have a friend who has smoked pot heavily his whole life. He is retirement age now, but, wouldn’t you know it, he never had much power to appreciate the long term implications of his big life decisions, or even that he was making big life decisions by doing certain things.
Yeah pot used to be weak and made people all peacey and mellow.
Not so much anymore. Not when they sell strains called Trainwreck and Dementia. As medicine, yet. And now 100% THC extracts...yikes...it's just like the move to hard liquor during Prohibition.
I feel sorry for anyone trying to raise kids with legalization on the horizon everywhere. Maybe Utah will stay sane.
The premise is bunk. If his lungs are really as bad as the article implies, he would be ingesting pot without smoking it.
Michael Phelps is better branding, IMO.
I took a couple of serious hits on a joint for the first time in decades while playing golf the other day. All I can say is never trust the self reported score of a pot head.
"I’m pretty sure I’m lying three here.”
“I’m pretty sure your lying too because it took you three shots to get past the ladies tee!"
Think what a Great Country we'll live in; once Everybody's Stoned All Day!
No One will notice that we're broke, and living like Venezuela! Oh HAPPY DAY!
Even Better, no one will remember that it used to be much better
Soma For ALL!!!
The premise is bunk. If his lungs are really as bad as the article implies, he would be ingesting pot without smoking it.
Clearly.
Cue the old joke about however old Keith Richards is now and the fact that Jim Fixx dropped dead of a heart attack at 52. There is a strange evangelism that exists among pot heads; I've engaged in a bit of it myself. The love affair pot heads form with weed is certainly unlike any other substance I've seen, with perhaps the exception of hallucinogenics. And cannabis is, in part, a psychedelic. I am not sure that an octogenarian with COPD and memory deficits is much of an indictment. But then again, there really is no free lunch. Perhaps the pleasure Willie derives from it is worth the price he pays. That risk/reward calculus is one we all have to make all the time.
Mongolians say marijuana laced marmot innards are better when smoked and their dual organic composition is better for you, too.
Yeah, Willie Nelson can smoke three packs a day, drink a quart of whiskey, be constantly stoned, and still be a megastar and live to 86 and beyond.
He's Willie Nelson. You're not. Do not try this at home.
"How did pot save his life? He switched to it from cigarettes and whiskey, 40 years ago, and those other things would have killed him."
So he changed one addiction for another.
The problem with their logic: for every "Meth changed my life! I lost 80 pounds and was able to work 36 hour days building my house-flipping empire! And I'm not even addicted!" there are another 1000 stories of "Meth destroyed my life, I lost all my teeth, my job, my house, my spouse, my kids."
I know people who are high-functioning drug addicts. Doesn't mean drugs are good for the other 99.99% of the population.
There is a strange evangelism that exists among pot heads;
They seem so angry now, and sooo uptight, when they're clearly winning. I don't get it. But any negative talk about cannabis, and whew, here comes the libertarian butthurt. Worse than saying you hate tattoos.
There's two kinds of forgiving:
1: You're not an important part of my life, you're not worth the effort of carrying a grudge
2: You are a part of my life, you hurt me, I need repentance from you, then I can forgive your failure
"Delete and fast forward" works great for not carrying crap you don't need. It's pretty useless for actual forgiving and reconciliation
Willie made it to 86. What’s the problem? You’ve got to die of something.
He continues to write great songs that are in the American songbook.
Most people use a vaping device to smoke now. Eliminates the hot gasses and particulate matter.
Smoking pot is a pleasurable vice. Willie is doing fine. I doubt that I’ll make it to 86. Whatever weed he’s smoking that causes him to write such great songs, please tell me where I can buy it.
I always heard that his herb was top shelf
Lord I just could not wait to find out for myself
Well don't knock it till you've tried it
And I've tried it my friend
I'll never smoke weed with Willie again
Now we learned a hard lesson in a small Texas town
He fired up a fat boy and he passed it around
The last words I spoke before they tucked me in
I may discount bungee jump but
I'll never smoke weed with Willie again
I'll never smoke weed with Willie again
My party's all over before it begins
You can pour me some more Whiskey River my friend
But I'll never smoke weed with Willie again
We hopped on his old bus, the Honeysuckle Rose
The party was Huntsville, it was after the show
Alone in the front lounge, just me and him
I took one friendly puff and the Grim Creeper set in
I'll never smoke weed with Willie again
My party's all over before it begins
You can pour me some more Whiskey River my friend
But I'll never smoke weed with Willie again
Now we're passin' the guitar, we're tellin' good jokes
I can tell one's a comin' 'cause I'm smellin' smoke
But I do not partake I just let it pass by
With a grin on my face and a great contact high
I'll never smoke weed with Willie again
My party's all over before it begins
You can pour me some more Whiskey River my friend
But I'll never smoke weed with Willie again
In the fetal position with drool on our chin
We broke down and smoked weed with Willie again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDQANmQO2g0
Back in college I had a fun experience in my Rhetoric class. Teacher split the class into two sides and gave us a list of debate topics. Legalization of Marijuana was the favorite.
My side argued against. We came armed with reams of evidence and sharp points. We were well-prepared for every line of argument the other side was expected to put forth.
The other side... did very little. It was obvious they didn't do much research, hadn't really thought through their arguments or even "red teamed" them to find holes to patch. Their presentation was very weak.
Almost as if they lacked any will or motivation because they were smoking week all weekend :)
"Willie Mays just turned 88 the other day."
So did Mickey Mantle who famously said something like, "If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken a lot better care of myself by spreading canna butter on my toast instead of pouring liquor down my gullet."
I just made my first legal buy in Barrington, MA.
On a weekday morning, lines for a block.
The first thing you’ll find out when you take a look at the legal pot trade is that everybody is smoking pot.
I didn’t see or meet any angry people. I met housewives, lawyers, house painters, students, etc.
Once pot is legal on a nationwide scale, you’ll notice, if you care to see, that everybody is smoking pot.
Tolerance and normalization. They need legally and ethically impenetrable walls. Still, it's only their lives at risk. Pro-Choice.
Btw, double-posting comments is a sign of either alcoholism, cannabinoid deficiency, or both. :-)
I walked on to the lawn at Willie show in Saratoga in the mid 1980s after I got done working. Willie came out on stage, slurred through two songs then the whiskey kicked in full and he was so shitfaced it took them over an hour to stand him up and get him right enough to fake the rest of the set. He's probably right about switching vices.
Smoking is fine for people who do the same kinds of repetitive jobs day in, day out. The kinds of jobs that don’t require sharp mental facilities, like keeping several factors in ones head at the same time, and don’t suffer if the mind wanders. Sure, why not?
Once pot is legal on a nationwide scale, you’ll notice, if you care to see, that everybody is smoking pot.
There’s some bubble thinking! Housepainters and students? You don’t say!
"I just made my first legal buy in Barrington, MA."
In other words, you just made your first buy in Barrington, MA. Right?
Btw, double-posting comments is a sign of either alcoholism, cannabinoid deficiency, or both. :-)
It was an edit, I never catch spelling mistakes until after I hit post. And they are usually the kind that destroy whatever rhythm I had going.
But just to be safe, I'll take your advice, lighting up as we speak. Ahhhh.
I just made my first legal buy in Barrington, MA.
Great Barrington, MA. The weed made you forget how great it was...
If he becomes chained to an O2 machine, he can join the fun folks in casinos.
There's a fun "debate" Rogan had about pros and cons of pot.
Despite being an evangelist for it, he ended up disclosing the dangers of edible form, knowing people who suffered permanent damage...essentially losing their mind.
I remember living on Mifflin St. when my roommate was weirded out and paranoid after eating some of those brownies at the block party.
In pretty much any other legalization discussion I've encountered, there's little to no discussion/distinction re edibles.
I didn’t see or meet any angry people. I met housewives, lawyers, house painters, students, etc.
Yeah but just wait 20 years and they'll all be violent schizophrenics living on the street.
"But just to be safe, I'll take your advice, lighting up as we speak. Ahhhh."
NO NO NO! One or the other, but never BOTH at the same time!
An’ like a fool I mixed them
An’ it strangled up my mind
An’ now people just get uglier
An’ I have no sense of time
@Nobody:
Smoking is fine for people who do the same kinds of repetitive jobs day in, day out. The kinds of jobs that don’t require sharp mental facilities, like keeping several factors in ones head at the same time, and don’t suffer if the mind wanders. Sure, why not?
There are plenty of people who do jobs that require "sharp mental facilities" who are regular users of cannabis. The Spicoli trope is certainly real, but it's more a SoCal thing than a weed thing. Unwinding after a hard day at the office with a joint isn't really that different than the dry martinis or gin and tonics of yesteryear.
The other day I realized that all the people I've known who died from using drugs died from alcohol, including the guy who sold pot and cocaine for 25 years and his customers.
My grandfather chain-smoked hand-rolled cigarettes from the age of thirteen and lived to be eighty-eight. Perhaps it was the beer he drank for breakfast.
Farmer,
Fwiw, one of Rogan's arguments re smoked pot referenced how high(!)level Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitors use it before "rolling".
Great Barrington is a interesting town. Site of the original Alice’s Restaurant. Low level starter venues for folkies and rockers because the area has a half dozen artsy fartsy colleges.
The cafes and bars are filled day and night with college kids looking for a pick up.
And as I was leaving town, I saw a small demonstration against domestic violence by the local feminists.
A life of pickups in bars and cafes will lead you eventually to a tryst with somebody who’s crazy. The gay male lifestyle of wild promiscuity carries the same risk.
"The gay male lifestyle of wild promiscuity carries the same risk."
Weird. Sounds exactly like the straight male lifestyle of wild promiscuity.
Smoking is fine for people who do the same kinds of repetitive jobs day in, day out.
Like theoretical physics.
And the origin of the penguin Feynman diagram in quantum physics. Ellis’s account (Trigger warning: weed is involved!)
..."We made a bet that if I lost I had to put the word penguin into my next paper." ...
"Then, one evening, after working at CERN, I stopped on my way back to my apartment to visit some friends living in Meyrinwhere I smoked some illegal substance. Later, when I got back to my apartment and continued working on our paper, I had a sudden flash that the famous diagrams look like penguins. So we put the name into our paper, and the rest, as they say, is history."
No, it isn’t weird, Meade, and you know it.
The average gay man has 400 trysts per year and he engages in anal sex with strangers.
The average straight man has no opportunity to land that many partners and he doesn’t engage in anal sex with strangers.
I watched an entire generation of gay men shit themselves to death with AIDS, Meade. I’m tired of your lies.
Science!
"The average straight man has no opportunity to land that many partners and he doesn’t engage in anal sex with strangers."
Yeah. Good thing the average straight man has woman to save him from himself.
Site of the original Alice’s Restaurant.
Alice's Restaurant was in Stockbridge. The church is in Great Barrington. Blame the weed again...
Yeah, you are welcome now to show me where he smoked pot regularly. It only affects your memory for a couple of days after. It’s people who smoke regularly that are destroying their own IQs.
When I was young and living in San Francisco, this was the standard come on from gay guys who wanted to bust my cherry. (This was before the AIDS epidemic broke out and was understood.)
Gay guy: “I used to be into women, too. If you fuck men you can have all the sex you want. Women always are saying no.”
Like all the others, he was dead before he turned 35.
My memory is pretty good.
I’d estimate that I remember the lyrics and chords to more than 500 songs.
And was that the “origin of Feynman diagrams” or origin of the name “penguins.”
Here is what Feynman said about drugs:
American physicist Richard Feynman has already experimented with LSD, marijuana and ketamine but was always careful about drug use, for fear of what it might do to his brain. He had given up booze when he began to show signs of alcoholism. In “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” , he writes, ”You see, I get such fun out of thinking that I don’t want to destroy this most pleasant machine that makes life such a big kick. It’s the same reason that, later on, I was reluctant to try experiments with LSD in spite of my curiosity about hallucinations”
I don’t make any claims to be in Feynma’s class as an intellect, or even the environs of his class, but the bolded text is how I feel too. But unsurprising that a pot head would come up with such a weak example. “Man, they came up with a funny name for something a brilliant man who wasn’t a pot smoker came up with and settled a bet at the same time, man!"
Anybody living within a 20 mile radius of Woodstock will tell you he lives in Woodstock, although in reality he lives in Phoenicia or Saugerties.
’d estimate that I remember the lyrics and chords to more than 500 songs
LIke I said, repetitive stuff.
Anonymous said...
"How's your mother doing, meade?"
Not too bad, Anonymous. Thanks for asking. Better than liquor or weed, her love just keeps lifting me higher and higher...
https://youtu.be/8AXkfhqvO44
I've never read a negative story about Willie Nelson. He's like Mr. Rogers. Good pr or good person?
An 86 year old man who is still doing shows is pretty impressive. Otherwise,as an attorney it’s my medical opinion that setting dried plant material on fire and inhaling the smoke is not good for your lungs, (But they’re your lungs.)
"He's like Mr. Rogers."
https://youtu.be/deebKNI-dTE
My favorite argument against legalization is the Libertarian Party 2016 campaign.
These people had been whining for decades about their 3rd party status. "Coach put me in the game, come on, you won't be disappointed, I can lace 50 yard completions!" All they need was that one moment to shine and show the nation who they were.
Then 2016 season. Their platform was mostly legalization of marijuana. They still complained a lot about being benched. But they didn't train in the off-season. They didn't put much work into Spring Camp. Glassy-eyed and chilled idealism. In the pre-season they couldn't even be relied on to show up for practice.
Some time later, as we headed to the playoffs, Team GOP was struggling - their veteran quarterbacks humiliated, surrendering gracefully to an upstart walk-on. Team Dem was overconfident, cocooned from several indications their goal of an 18-Year Dynasty was in jeopardy. So neither the Republicans and Democrats were playing like they deserved to make it to the Superbowl. One of them could be picked off. Maybe both.
We come to the 2 min warning. Libertarian Quarterback walks out from the locker room. "Put me in coach, I know I got fat in the off-season, showed little motivation during Spring Training, been late to practices or missed them entirely, but I can win this thing! I have waited for this moment since Ross Perot. FINALLY we will have a national platform from which to put our ideals of Liberty into practice. A win here will knock the 2 Big Teams into 3rd party status and usher in a political dynasty centered around Liberty. We can change the direction of American politics for generations. THIS OUR MOMENT COACH!"
(Superbowl Commerical: Budweiser Clydesdales rescue John Wayne, join the Avengers)
... and we're back. Here we go, down to the final minutes. Libertarian QB comes onto the field and the crowd is hushed. They know they are about to witness a dream of a lifetime made real and given form. This could be THAT moment that changes everything. 2 minutes left in the game, Team Liberty breaks huddle, takes the line of scrimmage at their own 30 yard line AND... Libertarian QB fumbles the snap away.
Welcome to another decade of irrelevance. Yet another metaphor of pot users who can't find the motivation or will to effectively organize a petition signing event.
People who want legalization of marijuana should study the game film. Witness what it did to the Libertarian party.
"Nobody," Feynman diagrams are an invention to make it easier to identify and calculate all the possible contributions to an interaction. The story was about one scientist who looked at one of those graphs and decided that it looked like a penguin. The name caught on. Feynman himself had nothing to do with it.
I didn’t see or meet any angry people.
I should have clarified, as an online phenom. The proponents go nuts.
Sort of like when you get really, really angry at our host. I get it now.
According to the cdc and national cancer society regular tobacco smokers have about a 10% chance of getting lung cancer.
Non-smokers have about a 5% risk.
John Henry
Yeah. Good thing the average straight man has woman to save him from himself.
And they do. When I was single, getting women was akin to culling through a cold call list. For every hundreds women I approached I got maybe 3 interested, 2 of which were up for a date, 1 of which was up for sex outside of dating.
If every woman I chased after had agreed to sex, I would probably be dead at 30 too.
I did discover that women are just as horny, but their restraining influence is society. In college, I was a frat boy but a loner with a condo off campus. I was amazed (and grateful!) for the number of Sorority Social Girls who would swing by once a week because they knew I was discreet and wouldn't tell. Closeted Sluts. Mild mannered students by day, very naughty in the bedroom at night.
If every woman I chased after had agreed to sex, I would probably be dead at 30 too.
Probably not. The real killer is unprotected anal sex. Women, even those lovable sluts, are seldom into that.
However, I'm old (69). That might be changing with the proliferation of porn.
I shall cease and desist from harshing your mellow, Thomas...
Willie's golf course is a hoot. I'd like to see what they'd do to Althouse's resident golf scold/scold scold...
Shouting Thomas said...
I just made my first legal buy in Barrington, MA.
On a weekday morning, lines for a block.
The first thing you’ll find out when you take a look at the legal pot trade is that everybody is smoking pot.
Except of course, for those of us that don't. And there's a lot of us.
Weird. Sounds exactly like the straight male lifestyle of wild promiscuity.
straight males seldom get regular doses of bodily fluids injected into their mucus membranes
If you don't want aids, pitch, don't catch (and be circumcised, to prevent catching fluids in the flap)
IOW, he used Weed to stop being a Drunk. Worked out well for him. Peckinpah used Cocaine to get off booze. Wrong drug.
All drug users think their drug use is OK. Burroughs used to tout Heroin. Others pushed LSD or Cocaine. Certain personalities can't just use something, no everything they do has to be Great or the the "right way" and they push it on others. No doubt its an ego thing.
I have attended Nelson's concerts more than any other artist- 5 times- which is 3 times more than the runner up Bruce Springsteen. The man is a true legend.
Of course, Nelson is an anecdote. I think it abundantly clear on the data available that smoking pot isn't good for most people. It might be less harmful than smoking tobacco and drinking every day, but that doesn't make it good for you.
Yeah. Good thing the average straight man has woman to save him from himself.
Ironically, I think this was Shouting Thomas's point...
One of the benefits of electro convulsive therapy is memory loss. I'm sure there are lots of people who live with trama who would welcome memory loss. One thing I would like to forget is my time in government schools. For many kids who are both poor and smart, these places are like being in a horrible prison.
Here are some fun things: on the bus the kids spit on me, they set my hair on fire, they wouldn't let me sit down, the held me and beat me. I could go on.
I'd love to forget that. I use a THC inhaler for my BPD, which men don't get. I'd like to be in a BPD group, but that is for women only.
So my opinion is to legalize marijuana for everyone, be happy about it, and outlaw public schools. The world would be a better place.
But marijuana really does cause short-term memory loss. It lessens the ability to record memories. So Nelson is really confused!!! Marijuana doesn't help you forget bad memories.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/scientists-explain-marijuana-short-term-memory-loss/
You're right.
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