Reading this NY Times article on Prop 19 and the quest to legalize mariquana in California, it came as quite a surprise to hear that one of the main areas of obstruction to the legalization is coming from what the author calls 'Big Alcohol'. Author Timothy Egan writes: "One of the biggest contributors to the campaign against legalization is the California Beer and Beverage Distributors. Having branded their products with nearly every major American recreational ritual, Big Alcohol does not want marijuana to get a piece of that large pie of legal money spent to distract ourselves from ourselves". If you look at this from a garden variety conspiracy theory perspective, this is a surprising discovery of who's holding back change is this instance. I wouldn't have guessed it.
But that aside, I'm disappointed by Big Alcohol. It's ignoring an already existent culture in American society, which is particularly evident in music. What's the core message of this culture? That weed and alcohol go great together!! Take the classic words of Snoop Dogg- "Later on that day, my homey Dr. Dre came through with a gang of Tanqueray and a fat ass j, of some bubonic chronic that made me choke, shit, this aint no joke, I had to back up off of it and sit my cup down,Tanqueray and chronic, yeah I'm fucked up now". See Big Alcohol, it's Tanqueray AND chronic, no competition here. In the song Life Goes On 2Pac is on the roof getting "smoked out" while "drinking Hennessy". Hip hop culture abounds with support for the benefits of mixing marijuana and alcohol.
Outlaw Country is another musical genre who champions this combination. Here redneck 
looking country artists also happen to have long hair and smoke weed while drinking their whisky and honky tonkin. Even Merle Haggard, who once wrote the infamous lines about not smoking marijuana in Muskogee, recently told Rolling Stone magazine (9/19/09) that he likes a daily dose of weed and red wine. And rock n' roll culture? C'mon, you know rock ain't afraid of a little puffin down while imbibing. In the documentary about the making of the Rolling Stones record Exile On Main Street, Mick and Keith talk about how joints were constantly being passed around and the wine was a flowin. Young acts like the Kings of Leon (in another Rolling Stone interview) also report they enjoy a little smoke with their wine, and I'm sure that list could expand indefinitely. And jazz music? The history of reefer and jazz go way back.
So Big Alcohol, it's time to get on board with an already existent culture and let this Proposition pass. Some of the country's best music has been made while under the influence of this old mutually enhancing friendship. We need only to ask ourselves, what would Willie do?
