Life, liberty, and the pursuit of a buzz

Smoking pot is something I have enjoyed for most of my adult life.  This spring I had to give it up for the most part as my breathing condition worsened into the full blown diagnosis of COPD.  The hotter that it got in my house, the harder it was to breathe.  So it was with great reluctance that I stopped smoking marijuana this spring. Cigarettes are what caused my COPD.  If I could have just stopped 10 years before I did, I might be able to partake in a joint once in a while!  Before I quit smoking cigarettes I was smoking 2 packs a day.  So I was in a world of hurt by the end of a lifetime of smoking.
  The effects of pot are wonderful and worthy of trying to score a bag once in a while.  But over the years the friendly drug dealer went from the nice guy in bib overalls, to the creepy guy with the guns and mean dogs.  I have to admit that some of these characters that I have had to deal with killed my buzz.  One man I knew since high school murdered his wife and committed suicide in the CVS parking lot 50 feet from where my grandmother lives.  She heard the shot.  This man had been my drug dealer years before the incident and his over all meanness drove me away.  Somehow these people who sell smoke seem to turn mean after a while and I admit I don't miss that part of it at all.  It is just not worth it to me.
When Lori and I got together her X was in prison for robbing a bank.  Lori had smuggled pot into the prison by a very cleaver ingenious plan of planting it in the bottom of a certain trash can that the prisoners emptied.  It never made since to me that she would risk her freedom for a woman who had cheated on her.  The woman got parole, contacted Lori and because we were out of pot, she let her back into our lives.  Tears were streaming down my face the first time I met Lori's X.  We had a steady supply of dope, but my truck got towed once to the tune of about $175.  Things were stolen from the house.  The X robbed Norka Futon and framed the manager.  She then hired Lori, robbed the store again and was gonna frame the new guy but got caught because of the paperwork.  Lori got promoted and thankfully we didn't ever have to deal with that X again.
It was during this time that Lori's mother told me about Callahan Lori's favorite cat.  I had heard stories about Callahan and his untimely death.  But Lori's mom said Callahan was killed because Callahan followed Lori across the street because she went across the street every night to smoke pot with the neighbor.  That was the only story about Callahans death that actually made sense.  Lori was robbed when she lived there.  Her robber seemed to know she had her income tax return and a bag of weed.  Thankfully he didn't hurt her, but she didn't feel safe there anymore and she moved away.  I had heard enough parts of the story that her mothers version fit.  Denial is quite powerful though and getting high more important than safety...I keep encountering the theme no matter where I go.  
Three years ago at Comfest this other X that I knew to be a probation officer wanted us to get high.  This other woman was present and I whispered and warned this woman that we had a cop among us.  This stranger informed me she was the cops boss (which made her a cop as well) and tried to tell everyone that we should just go right ahead and smoke a joint.  She was downright forceful about it....insistent even, which really made me uncomfortable.  Of course we waited till they left.  But Lori and I fought over that woman right up until the day I left.  For seven years I had to be subjected to robbers, thieves, X lovers and even cops...all for what...a bag of weed!  I am free of them now.  I miss a quiet contemplative buzz, but I don't miss those ugly mean people.  I got locked up once for 27 days for refusing a drug test.  Ironic that these people who launched their legal campaign against me last week threatened to call my old probation officer in addition to the two cops that were going to be sent to beat and arrest me.  That would have been hilarious as she was a stickler for drug testing and did not approve of pot.  It would be an instantaneous eviction if I were to sell pot at this house.  It is a wonder they didn't think of that and plant an ounce here before I changed the locks.  Oh that's right my landlord is a drug dealer!  It is probably why she doesn't have clear title to this property, and why she hasn't paid the taxes.  Weed is wonderful till you start losing things that are important to you.