Middle Class Weed Run

I'm sitting here on a bench in Trinidad Colorado waiting on my wife. She's inside one of the many dispensaries that line Commercial avenue as you drive into Trinidad. On one block I count at least eight of them. All of them are busy, all the time.

I see an older bald man in a brown t-shirt and plaid shorts come out of one dispensary. He looks like anyone. He could easily be a businessman or someone's grandpa. He gets into a nice newer Honda Accord. The plates say Texas. I look around. A lot of the plates are from Texas. There are more vehicles from Texas than there is from Colorado. Overwhelmingly more than any other state. Most of us will be criminals by nightfall.

It's 2020 and we are in the middle of a pandemic. Social distancing is happening in Colorado. Dispensaries are only letting a few in at a time and all require masks. My wife is in line at a dispensary called the Underground Station. A sign sits in the window that says, “Face covering required to buy some weed man." I think It’s funny. A stoner type of joke from days gone by... a quote that could have come from a modern-day Lebowski. Very few of these people look anything like the Dude though (if you don’t get the reference let me go ahead and recommend The Big Lebowski, a great movie).

Stoners, or what I once would have thought of as stoners make up very little of the crowds we see waiting in line. Instead, I see everyone. I see people from literally all walks of life. People in suits driving nice cars. Athletic types in workout clothes. Little old blue-haired ladies. Everyone. I see Democrats, Republicans, and even Trump supporters. Yes, seriously.

I don't always wait outside when we are here. I talk to people from all over Texas. Many of those working in the dispensaries are not only from Texas but from West Texas. A security guard at one dispensary tells us how he used to work on the oil rigs a few blocks from where I live until he got hurt. He moved here to help manage his pain without opioids.

Half the customers in this particular waiting area are from my home state. All of them are here for the same reason, there is no legal weed in Texas, medical or otherwise, so they are here in a manner of speaking to turn legal Colorado weed into illegal Texas weed.

We can relate to the security guard. My wife was almost hooked on opioids due to back pain from degenerative disk disease. It was destroying our marriage. She was angry and downright mean. We decided to try to get her weed and I don't trust people enough to try and get it locally. So, we came to Colorado for regulated quality-controlled weed. The first time we stayed a few days in Denver, but since then we come to Trinidad or Pueblo for a night and head home the next day.

The difference in our family’s life has been nothing short of amazing. My wife is more loving, more caring, and more energetic. She is a better person to me and to our children. It works for her. That is why we take this risk. That is why we travel 500 plus miles to Colorado from West Texas knowing the entire time we could be stopped fined, jailed, and even lose our vehicle (Texas does seize assets, especially if they are worth less than the fines). To help my wife manage her pain it is very much worth the risk.

The funny thing I have still never even smoked a joint in my life (and still have not). I grew up scared to death of weed. I believed all the hype about it ruining lives and being a gateway drug. I believed in Reefer Madness! I was a Church kid and although Cannabis was never mentioned in the bible, I just knew it was a sin. I was sure it would lead to all sorts of debauchery and hard drugs. Even after I left the church and dove into a life of what most people would consider debauchery, I had mental blocks against its use.

My attitude changed over the years as I read and learned more. It was an awakening of sorts, but about 10 years ago I became a CDL driver. I have a lot of aches and pains from years working in the oil field and I think I'd benefit from weed myself, but I just won't risk it. I'm out of work at the moment because of the pandemic, but when I find a job there will be a drug test. I have seen it do wonders for my wife and others though, so I am a believer.

So, we, like hundreds of other Texans each day drive through either New Mexico or Oklahoma to come to Colorado for Legal weed. Then we all break the law by bringing it back into Texas. Most will visit several dispensaries. You can watch them going from line to line. Some will take it back and sell it illegally, but even for personal use, they are carrying back more than Colorado's legal limit. Almost none of them look or act like criminals or addicts (because they aren't), mostly they are people in pain, or their loved ones are.

The end result is they (like us) risk jail time and large fines in Texas to self-medicate. While Texas throws away what could be millions upon millions in what could be revenue for the state. In 2019 Colorado passed $1 billion dollars in tax revenue from $6.5 billion in legalized weed sales according to a June 12, 2019, Denver Post article. That same article states that in addition to jobs that money was used to fund mental health services, youth literacy initiatives and anti-bullying programs in schools. This doesn’t even count the millions of dollars that would be saved each year by police departments that no longer having to use resources to fight weed.

Or they take a worse path. Pain doctors here seem all too willing to prescribe addictive opiates. Even after telling the doctor, she didn’t want them they would ask every visit without fail. My wife’s ex-doctor shut down his practice after he was investigated for overprescribing pain meds. These drugs have been an existential threat to this country for some time. Drugabuse.gov shows that opiates were involved in 70% of all overdose deaths in 2018. They are deadly addictive and dangerous. Any state that is serious about combating them should seriously consider legalized pot as an alternative.

Until they do though, my wife and I will keep on trekking to colorful Colorado.