For the past two days, I've been harangued by phone and e-mail and in person over a letter to the editor we published Monday. It spoke against the recent City Council proposal to ban K2:
I've smoked the synthetic marijuana numerous times, and I have never been compelled to hurt anyone or break any laws. This can be an alternative to alcohol, which is 100 times more damaging to individuals and the Fort Wayne community than anything else. I would like to know how many homicides in Fort Wayne were directly connected to people drinking too much, like the two brothers who were drinking and the one stabbed the other one for leaving his door open.
And it was signed "Mary Jane." Don't you know, chortled the critics, that "Mary Jane" is common slang for marijuana and that someone arguing in favor of synthetic marijuana might use such a nickname instead of a real name? Har-har-har, you've been had, you big dummy.
Well, let's see. Yes, it's remotely possible that somebody like me, who came of age in the hippie era, might be vaguely aware of various slang terms for marijuana and might therefore have checked and doublechecked the name "Mary Jane," to the point where the person who answered the phone "Jane residence" got fairly annoyed. I might even have gone so far as to look up "Mary Jane" in the phone book and note that the number listed was the same one on the letter.
You big dummies.
(I'm still trying to verify the letter from Donny Ditchweed. Keep you posted.)
