"Actress Under Fire for Backing Marijuana"
You go, girl! And not just for the Mary Jane itself, but peoples in this "democracy" need to understand that speaking one's mind is one's right -- folks here are too used to sanitized discourses controlled by dictators. MBC should issue an apology for airing her opinion? It's called freedom of speech. But I can't blame people too much -- there wasn't REAL democracy in Korea until the 1990's.
Kind of disappointing, the public's reaction being to simply try to muzzle her. And she's right -- WEED has been around and used in Korean culture since forever, and was only illegalized in the 1970's under Pak Chung Hee, who feared it would lower workers' productivity.
Well, if there's one thing that I betcha Chinese medicine might agree with me on, it's that Koreans smoking weed would be MUCH better for the country than Koreans getting blasted on soju to ease the pain of this competitive and stressful society.
Weed for the Korean masses -- a modest proposal!
Seriously, even the language about "illegal drugs" is warped in the Korean language, as the term "mayak" has such bad connotations, in the way one thinks of doing heroin straight to the vein in the US. And with the strict ban on drugs and information on drugs in Korea (note, John Cho, one of the most famous persons of Korean descent in the US, was an unknown until Star Trek, since neither of the Harold and Kumars could be showcased here since they so unabashedly advocated marijuana use), there is a lot of ignorance about what these basic drugs even do.
One commentator in the article said: "If marijuana is an Oriental medicine, is methamphetamine a Western medicine? It is not right to justify narcotics even though it is a minority opinion." Huh? Marijuana is marijuana. Even in the legalization-averse US, some states approve its medical use because the proof of its medical properties is so overwhelming. And the pressure to illegalize marijuana not only came from Pak Chung Hee's idea that it would reduce productivity, but from direct US pressure to illegalize it.
Koreans had been smoking out for generations, people! Or did you think that was just tobacco people were putting in the old long pipes in those old pictures? With as much hemp use as there has been for clothes, observed from my time spent living in the Korean countryside, I know for a FACT that people out there burn hemp, smoke the weed, and secretly plant stashes in rural areas.
Marijuana has only been illegal in Korea for the span of my own lifetime, people. Koreans act like the Devil himself inhabitant that curious weed, but it's been a part of Korean culture for centuries. People who don't think so are simply unaware of historical facts, like them or not.
And back to the quote -- marijuana is marijuana. It calms you, isn't narcotically addictive (like nicotine in cigarettes), and the worst side effects are generally extreme hunger pangs. Meth? It makes you fucking crazy, stop eating, and a sniveling remnant of a human being, akin to Chris Rock's character Pookie in New Jack City. And no one needs a nation of Pookies.
But I'd say that given the average Korean's tendency -- especially in men -- to drink soju and other hard liquor to excess at least 3-4 times a week, all the pissing in the streets, barfing on the sidewalk, cursing in public, fights started between friends, not to mention the fact that many fathers in this country would rather stay out drinking most nights than return home to their families, not to mention the role alcohol plays in other related issues such as the well-known high rate of domestic violence and acquaintance rape in this country --
Why is Korea against marijuana again? Does anyone think that a nation that must be nearly half alcoholic by the puritanical American definition of the term has a reasonable argument against marijuana use?
If marijuana were legalized, and there were bars where you could smoke out in socially-acceptable ways, I think that would be one of the best things to happen to Korea in a long time. People need to CALM THE FUCK DOWN, not get riled up into the violent, drunken idiocy caused by that evil spirit known as soju. Which the old dictators wanted to keep cheap, by the way, to keep the masses usefully soused, to some extent. But Mary Jane would have been too much relaxation. And maybe they were right.
But seriously -- in present-day Korea, who would argue that marijuana wouldn't vastly improve the quality of life here? Whom would I rather meet in a large group in a dark alley -- a group of ajussis ready to fight for their honor, blasted on soju and whiskey, or floating happily home, smoked out on weed?
Ask fucking John Cho, Korea, who has become a new household word. But don't miss out on the fact that his REAL claim to fame is being one of the first Koreans to comedically SMOKE THE FUCK OUT, and help make weed all the more popular and funny to Americans -- who definitely know that marijuana does NOT equal METH.
Ferchrissakes.
