This song DOES have something to do with marijuana

[Shomino]

To me the song is about American hypocrisy in all its forms. One of the most glaring hypocrisies in America is our drug laws. It's OK to smoke cigarettes, OK to drink alcohol (one of the most destructive drugs in humanity if not THE most), but not OK to smoke marijuana.

The song is about hypocrisy, and marijuana is contained within that big hypocritical melting "pot" that is our nation.

The funny thing is, so many people are brainwashed into thinking that drugs are nothing but destructive to humanity. Even people on this forum... I would've thought TOOL fans would be more open minded.

I'm not saying that drugs are good, I'm just saying that they're not evil either.
People are the ones who are good or evil, not inanimate objects or substances.

If you think drugs are nothing but destructive to society, throw out all your music albums, because most of the people who made that wonderful music you all love so much.... rrreeeal f*ckin high on drugs. (isn't this a quote in a TOOL album?)

;)

Now I'm not saying thats ALL this song is about, but in my opinion it is definitely ONE of the hypocrisies MJK is talking about.

[Alcawhorlick]

I dont really mind the population in general preferring alcohol/cigarettes to weed. It is after all, illegal. More often than not, laws make sense. Also, beer is not so bad in some cases.
It's also been hammered into our heads since we were very young that beer is good.


The problem is that so much of the population never does question why it's illegal in this country

If you fancy yourself the questioning type, you might want to question that.

Money has a lot to do with it, I'm afraid.

So yeah, I like to think of it as being about drugs at least partially. As to who it's directed at, who knows.

I like to think of Rush Limbaugh when I hear it. I also think of the millions of folks popping legally prescribed mood altering drugs everyday while frowning upon the pot users medicating themselves by other means to make it through the same tedious jobs day after day.
What truly is the difference?

[Shomino]

I dont really mind the population in general preferring alcohol/cigarettes to weed. It is after all, illegal. More often than not, laws make sense. Also, beer is not so bad in some cases.
It's also been hammered into our heads since we were very young that beer is good.


The problem is that so much of the population never does question why it's illegal in this country

If you fancy yourself the questioning type, you might want to question that.

Money has a lot to do with it, I'm afraid.

So yeah, I like to think of it as being about drugs at least partially. As to who it's directed at, who knows.

I like to think of Rush Limbaugh when I hear it. I also think of the millions of folks popping legally prescribed mood altering drugs everyday while frowning upon the pot users medicating themselves by other means to make it through the same tedious jobs day after day.
What truly is the difference?

Heh, Rush Limbaugh.

"Who are you to point your fatty finger at me?"

[Alcawhorlick]

I'd like to add this guy to this list as well:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/05/kennedy.accident/index.html

SORRY MAN, YOU JUST LIKE GETTING HIGH AS MUCH AS I DO.

[loaded memory]

I don't smoke weed (seriously);(no i'm dead serious). I definitely agree that marijuana is part of the message in this song. You can't carry a bag with a plant in it down the street? Uh, is this really necessary. A person has to be held accountable for their actions and that's the bottom line. I don't care if you just ate 5 hits of acid, a choice you made led up to the stupid sh*t you're about to do. So for some old white guy to make the decision for me, whether it be about drugs or the war in iraq, it's the same wrong. Combine that with people twisting and turning the law for their own financial benefits and it becomes a circus. This album is f*ing good. It should be required listening in elementary schools.

[mrhubof]

It has POT in the title. Maybe they named it "The Pot" because radio and tv might not play a song if it was named POT. Or they would rename it like they did when Stinkfist came out. "The Pot" sounds better than just "Pot", but who knows we can only make assumptions.

[burning bridges]

In a couple more decades I'll be running for office and I'll get your pot legalized along with DMT, mushrooms, and LSD.

[Bill_Hix]

It has POT in the title. Maybe they named it "The Pot" because radio and tv might not play a song if it was named POT. Or they would rename it like they did when Stinkfist came out. "The Pot" sounds better than just "Pot", but who knows we can only make assumptions.

Tool isn't about to change a song title as a precaution for radio, they might give the radio stations permission to call it "track 1" as in the case of stinkfist.

[DavidG36]

It's about marijuana... It's about the ridiculousness of marijuana laws, and in some ways hypocrisy. In the end it's clearly heard that Maynard sings "Ganja police you must have been out your mind."

[mrhubof]

Tool isn't about to change a song title as a precaution for radio, they might give the radio stations permission to call it "track 1" as in the case of stinkfist.

You are absolutely correct. I was drunk when i posted that bs. Sorry, going to go to "The Pot", and drop the kids off at the pool.

[rogerdoger]

It has POT in the title. Maybe they named it "The Pot" because radio and tv might not play a song if it was named POT. Or they would rename it like they did when Stinkfist came out. "The Pot" sounds better than just "Pot", but who knows we can only make assumptions.

Ok, I doubt that it was named "The Pot" for any of these reasons. And I don't think it's solely about weed either. I think the title most likely refers to something more broad than just marijuana. Though weed is a part of this song, it's used to represent something bigger.

[rogerdoger]

^^^IMO^^^

[Mosis]

In a couple more decades I'll be running for office and I'll get your pot legalized along with DMT, mushrooms, and LSD.

You have my vote.

I realized after posting this that we're not even in the same country, but that's irrelevant.

[deuceman]

Idiots, Idiots, Idiots.....and not even Useful ones....

It is called The Pot because that's what calls the Kettle Black.....

How many f*cking times does this need to be explained to people????

So far the only reference to weed seems to be the lyric Ganja Police.....and my interpretation of this lyric is:

"Ganja Police!" (shouted, as if he's narking somebody out. In other words, he's saying "You must have been high on pot when you said / did whatever, you are a f*cking hypocrite....and then he's saying "Ganja Police!" as if he's shouting out to the cops and pointing at the subject of the hypocrisy. You know, like, "Hey! He's over here! The dude, who's high...on drugs. Arrest him!"

And if anybody even says something stupid like "But MJK wouldn't nark somebody out. He's too cool...." I am just going to f*cking lose it......or at leasy shake my head in pity.

[Xeph]

Most people don't want to hear this, but alcohol is actually the #1 most damaging drug to mind (brain) AND body. Over even the "dreaded" Heroin.

Do we really need a government telling grown adults what they can and cannot put into their own bodies?

[Wonko The Sane]

Most people don't want to hear this, but alcohol is actually the #1 most damaging drug to mind (brain) AND body. Over even the "dreaded" Heroin.

Do we really need a government telling grown adults what they can and cannot put into their own bodies?
I agree that drugs should not be illegal. But, c'mon...Imagine if people used heroin to the same extent that people use alcohol. Things would get pretty fucked up, pretty quick.

[deuceman]

I agree that drugs should not be illegal. But, c'mon...Imagine if people used heroin to the same extent that people use alcohol. Things would get pretty fucked up, pretty quick.

Wow, things would get VERY fucked up, VERY quickly.....

Everybody would be shitting the bed...

[deuceman]

Anyway the whole point of which drug is worse is a moot one.

Alcohol is legal and it causes MAJOR problems in our society.
Tobacco is legal and it causes MAJOR health problems and burdens the health system (but with all the revenue from tax FUCK 'EM, the smoker pays his dues and his healthcare).
Pot is illegal (in the U.S, ha, ha....in Aussie it is decriminalised...woo hoo!). Anyway, it has the potential to create MAJOR problems in society. Like schizophrenia, health problems, paranoid, fucked up, unmotivated, individuals who can't remember what they were talking about.....where was I? Ha, I remember now (only just).

Etc, etc....short term memory is just appalling.

The government will decide what is okay for you and what drugs aren't. It's their job to control us, make us conform, keep us down, etc. Most of all the government likes it's citizens to have plenty of debt so they keep turning up for work every day. They also like them to have alcohol and tobacco and gasoline (or fuel or whatever) so they can drive to work and drive places where they can consume and spend money.

If they keep you buried in enough debt and give you enough toys and consumer goods then you will spend your most productive (taxable) years NOT asking questions and NOT causing trouble. And hopefully you will also produce offspring who will also consume and will one day replace you and provide tax revenue. Which will make you somewhat redundant (because you have been replaced by a newer, younger, model), and at this point you better hope you have enough money to survive until you die, because if you don't the government won't FUCKING help you!!

Which is all very heavy, anti political type stuff. I'd love to talk more, but I have to work and help pay off my debts. And there's an even bigger TV that I need to buy, to watch people die, from a good, safe distance.....

Wow, I am awesome.

[adavadas]

Wait....Ganja Police? Are you guys serious? The lyric sounds a lot more to me like "Catch up with lies".

[deuceman]

Wow, I am awesome.

Yes, Deuceman, you sure are.

[Shomino]

Idiots, Idiots, Idiots.....and not even Useful ones....

It is called The Pot because that's what calls the Kettle Black.....

How many f*cking times does this need to be explained to people????

So far the only reference to weed seems to be the lyric Ganja Police.....and my interpretation of this lyric is:

"Ganja Police!" (shouted, as if he's narking somebody out. In other words, he's saying "You must have been high on pot when you said / did whatever, you are a f*cking hypocrite....and then he's saying "Ganja Police!" as if he's shouting out to the cops and pointing at the subject of the hypocrisy. You know, like, "Hey! He's over here! The dude, who's high...on drugs. Arrest him!"

And if anybody even says something stupid like "But MJK wouldn't nark somebody out. He's too cool...." I am just going to f*cking lose it......or at leasy shake my head in pity.

Dueceman, what exactly is the point of this rant? If you really think MJK is so pro-drug-war why the hell would Bill Hicks be one of his major influences? You do know who Bill Hicks is right? http://www.billhicks.com/

Also: the only reference to weed is Ganja Police? How about "You must've been so high" To me this is a reference to the people who wrote drug laws... as in they must've been high to think they had the right to dictate to people how to live their lives, when they're probably on drugs themselves. (alcohol, prescription meds, etc.)

From what I've seen MJK seems to believe that expanding consciousness and creativity is a good thing, which includes using hallucinogens if it will help open your mind (don't forget marijuana is actually a hallucinogen). I could be wrong... prove it to me if you think I am, because everything I've seen in their lyrics and comments indicates this to me.

[third_eye77]

I agree w/ the deuceman.

I really think that "you must've been high" is like saying "you must be retarded" when making the alleged hypocritical statement.

But the subject of the hypocricy???? hmmmmmm

[K In Yo Mouf]

Condoleeza Rice...

[The_Librarian]

Anyway, it has the potential to create MAJOR problems in society. Like schizophrenia, health problems, paranoid, fucked up, unmotivated, individuals who can't remember what they were talking about.....where was I? Ha, I remember now (only just).

Etc, etc....short term memory is just appalling.

You must have been high.

[eslupminoyler]

Amotivational syndrone is prevalent amongst chronic marijuana smokers. Chronic smokers. On the degree of most first time smokers it usually excites the user or with mutiple use over time non-chronically. Regardless, over time amotivation sets in once that particular individuals intake exceed his threshold. Unmotivated is a different term for a different context. Being a smoker, I understand the side affects. I am bi-polar, was in a car accident last year, and I use (weed) frequently. I stopped using alcohol (once in a blue moon) of course, as that pickles the body. Give me a pain killer aside from acetal salicylic acid, and I have adverse reactions. Keeps me straight and reduces pain from my knee. Bad mood, smoke. IF, you cannot calm down by self. Animals, as with humans, also drink alcohol. (Indian) Elephants ferment their fruit to drink. hahathatssomefunnyshit. Anything chemically created by man should never be ingested, ie. meth, cocaine (the refined, not plant) heroin (go opium) and Adderall or Ritalin. I must be feeling a little high as I dropped off topic.

Finnis: Only when high(name drug) is one stupid, when they come back they have opened. Wether they learned the lesson? Being human and to alter the frequency of the brain to see what one's overlooked. Don't burn out the antenna.
AM I HIGH?

Hope that was purposeful

[putty]

Could "Ganja Police" be "Not your place"? It seems to fit the hypocrisy theme of the song. If you are "eyeball deep in muddy water" it is "not your place" to be critical of someone else.

[Shomino]

Could "Ganja Police" be "Not your place"? It seems to fit the hypocrisy theme of the song. If you are "eyeball deep in muddy water" it is "not your place" to be critical of someone else.

No, upon further review of the Coachella performance video, I would say he is definitely saying Ganja. As for the next word, I'm still not sure...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99tqdbxEcNI

[Max T.]

I agree w/ the deuceman.

I really think that "you must've been high" is like saying "you must be retarded" when making the alleged hypocritical statement.

But the subject of the hypocricy???? hmmmmmm

I think the core message in this song IS in fact about the hypocrisy used today in society. If you think it isn't about this directed theme, listen to the opening line, "Who are you to point the finger....?" That to me is what makes the theme clear. I think this song has actually two references implied by the name "The Pot." The references such as, "you must've been high," give the song a predicting "boundary" of the context.

The opening line further clarifies, as posted earlier, that these government law-enforcers are being hypocritical by telling citizens that is it legally wrong for any individual to use these "officially" illegal substances. The reason being that they are intending to control the INDIVIDUAL'S (no, not just the public) MORAL standards (telling us that it is against the law to do this in our own time and disgression, even if it won't disrupt the general public); also it is hypocritical because these law-enforcers most likely used these substances when they were at a certain age.

The second implication of "The Pot" is, like others felt, is a more subliminal, in-the-basement name for a "melting pot" representing either the US, or even the world because of consumers and society's standards.

[Hanover_Fist]

...

If you think drugs are nothing but destructive to society, throw out all your music albums, because most of the people who made that wonderful music you all love so much.... rrreeeal f*ckin high on drugs. (isn't this a quote in a TOOL album?)

...

"See I think drugs have done some good things for us. I really do. And if you don't believe drugs have done good things for us, do me a favor: Go home tonight, take all your albums, all your tapes and all your CDs and burn 'em. 'Cause you know what, the musicians who made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years. Rrrrrrrreal fucking high on drugs."
-Bill Hicks, "Drugs Have Done Good Things" from Relentless, sampled in Tool - Third Eye

[deuceman]

You must have been high.

I was / am / will be again

[deuceman]

Dueceman, what exactly is the point of this rant? If you really think MJK is so pro-drug-war why the hell would Bill Hicks be one of his major influences? You do know who Bill Hicks is right? http://www.billhicks.com/

Also: the only reference to weed is Ganja Police? How about "You must've been so high" To me this is a reference to the people who wrote drug laws... as in they must've been high to think they had the right to dictate to people how to live their lives, when they're probably on drugs themselves. (alcohol, prescription meds, etc.)

From what I've seen MJK seems to believe that expanding consciousness and creativity is a good thing, which includes using hallucinogens if it will help open your mind (don't forget marijuana is actually a hallucinogen). I could be wrong... prove it to me if you think I am, because everything I've seen in their lyrics and comments indicates this to me.

No, you misunderstood me. I do not believe for a minute MJK is pro-drug-war. The opposite in fact. What I was saying is merely that if the line is "Ganja Police" then I believe it's being used in the context I described.

Which was, basically, as part of "telling the story", MJK is saying "Somebody call the Ganja Police", or whatever, "Because this guy is out of his mind" (metaphorically on drugs, 'cause the whole drug angle in this song is pure metaphor). He's not calling out "Ganja Police!" because he wants the guy busted, he's calling out because it's in the context of the song, like:

This guy is out of his fucking head (on drugs),
quick, somebody call the Ganja Police!

I could only describe it as almost a slapstick kind of lyric. Like the Marx Brothers or something with a line like, "Call this man a doctor!" Then: "Okay, you're a doctor".

It's okay. Forget about it. I know what I'm trying to say (even though nobody else does!!)

[?Cogito Ergo Sum?]

"When ya piss all over my black kettle, you musta been high" Anyone ever heard of THE POT calling the kettle black?

[deuceman]

Yeah, that's been done, Cogito Ergo whatever......repeatedly....

I just listened to The Pot lyric OVER and OVER again about 10 times and it's "Ganja Police".....

So........be fucked.....that lyric is LOCKED IN, MOTHER FUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Shomino]

No, you misunderstood me. I do not believe for a minute MJK is pro-drug-war. The opposite in fact. What I was saying is merely that if the line is "Ganja Police" then I believe it's being used in the context I described.

Which was, basically, as part of "telling the story", MJK is saying "Somebody call the Ganja Police", or whatever, "Because this guy is out of his mind" (metaphorically on drugs, 'cause the whole drug angle in this song is pure metaphor). He's not calling out "Ganja Police!" because he wants the guy busted, he's calling out because it's in the context of the song, like:

This guy is out of his fucking head (on drugs),
quick, somebody call the Ganja Police!

I could only describe it as almost a slapstick kind of lyric. Like the Marx Brothers or something with a line like, "Call this man a doctor!" Then: "Okay, you're a doctor".

It's okay. Forget about it. I know what I'm trying to say (even though nobody else does!!)


Ah, OK now I get your meaning deuce. Sorry bout that.

[Elepherious]

[QUOTE=Alcawhorlick]I dont really mind the population in general preferring alcohol/cigarettes to weed. It is after all, illegal. More often than not, laws make sense. Also, beer is not so bad in some cases.[QUOTE]



http://www.drogeninfo.de/files/hempfaq.html#iii4a

check it out some time, and look into the illegality area, pot was crushed, prior to 'reefer madness' due to racism, against mexicans first and foremost, and secondly blacks. white folk werent ready for jazz music it seems.

[scar]

Idiots, Idiots, Idiots.....and not even Useful ones....

It is called The Pot because that's what calls the Kettle Black.....

How many f*cking times does this need to be explained to people????

So far the only reference to weed seems to be the lyric Ganja Police.....and my interpretation of this lyric is:

"Ganja Police!" (shouted, as if he's narking somebody out. In other words, he's saying "You must have been high on pot when you said / did whatever, you are a f*cking hypocrite....and then he's saying "Ganja Police!" as if he's shouting out to the cops and pointing at the subject of the hypocrisy. You know, like, "Hey! He's over here! The dude, who's high...on drugs. Arrest him!"

And if anybody even says something stupid like "But MJK wouldn't nark somebody out. He's too cool...." I am just going to f*cking lose it......or at leasy shake my head in pity.


i don't know how anyone could explain this any better. oh, and by the way, mrhubof's avatar is fucking with me!

he is speaking to euphamistic pot, in the "calling the kettle black phrase." i know you were just re-iterating what others have talked about, but good job on setting that straight in this particular thread.

[helix templ]

i'd be more inclined to say that although the song is referring to hypocrisy as in the pot calling the kettle black, that the ganja police part isn't referring to narking someone out. i don't think mayanrd's character in that song would be doing that, but what i think he's doing is, calling for ganja police on someone who is abusing their high by being closed-minded hypocrite.

and the high could be refering to cannabis, ego, or any other potential intoxicant.

by ganja police he could be reeferring (hehehe) to
like when someone is dressed relatively unstylish and the fashion police is called to show the person how to be stylish.

the ganja police would probably be ganga enthusiasts but intelligent and unhypocritical ones (one would hope)..

i may have confused myself here. gonna have to let it go and contemplate it later on, but for now

that's my 2 cents on that

oh, and. . .

maybe.

Idiots, Idiots, Idiots.....and not even Useful ones....

It is called The Pot because that's what calls the Kettle Black.....

How many f*cking times does this need to be explained to people????

So far the only reference to weed seems to be the lyric Ganja Police.....and my interpretation of this lyric is:

"Ganja Police!" (shouted, as if he's narking somebody out. In other words, he's saying "You must have been high on pot when you said / did whatever, you are a f*cking hypocrite....and then he's saying "Ganja Police!" as if he's shouting out to the cops and pointing at the subject of the hypocrisy. You know, like, "Hey! He's over here! The dude, who's high...on drugs. Arrest him!"

And if anybody even says something stupid like "But MJK wouldn't nark somebody out. He's too cool...." I am just going to f*cking lose it......or at leasy shake my head in pity.

[beligerentfokker]

in case you didn't see it on the other threads........

link posted below... maybe this shed's some light on the meaning.. hmmm

http://www.loompanics.com/cgi-local/...html?E+scstore

Pot Activist Railroaded By Kangaroo Court

We all know, of course, that juries are supposed to be randomly selected, not stacked with those who will agree in advance to convict.

Yet in January 2003, in San Francisco, California, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer was being anything but “random” as he carefully interviewed and sorted through 80 prospective jurors before settling on 12 – mostly out-of-towners – who appeared most likely to bring the conviction he sought against Oakland's self-styled “pot guru,” 58-year-old Ed Rosenthal.

After a two-week trial, that jury unanimously convicted Rosenthal, a world-renowned marijuana advocate, after finding as a matter of fact that he'd been growing more than 100 pot plants, conspired to cultivate marijuana, and maintained an Oakland warehouse for a growing operation. “He was painted as a major drug manufacturer,” The AP reports, “and put on little defense.”

And why did Rosenthal and his attorneys present so little defense? Because “Throughout the trial in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, (Judge) Breyer had refused all efforts by the defense to disclose to the jury that Rosenthal was growing marijuana as an 'officer' for the City of Oakland's medical marijuana program, authorized under California's Proposition 215, passed by the voters in 1996,” points out syndicated columnist Alexander Cockburn.

“Throughout the two-week trial, Rosenthal's defense team had repeatedly tried to call witnesses to testify that Rosenthal was growing medical marijuana ...acting as an agent of the City of Oakland's medical marijuana program,” confirms AP legal affairs writer David Kravets. “The judge denied those requests. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the judge twice during mid-trial appeals.”

In other words – and as usual these days – the federal courts worked to conceal as much of the truth of the case as they saw fit, to make sure the jury made only a finding of fact, without being given any chance to decide whether the federal law was being appropriately applied in Rosenthal's case.

“Within hours of finding ...Rosenthal guilty on three felony counts of conspiracy and marijuana cultivation,” columnist Cockburn relates, “a sobbing juror was overheard saying she and others jurors had been terrified that U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer would throw them in prison if they had found Rosenthal innocent, although she herself had had a strong disposition to do so.”

[Goodwin]

If you think drugs are nothing but destructive to society, throw out all your music albums, because most of the people who made that wonderful music you all love so much.... rrreeeal f*ckin high on drugs. (isn't this a quote in a TOOL album?)


I didn't read the rest of the thread after I noticed the hypocracy of callin yourself such a TOOL fan when you don't even know one of the greatest/epic TOOL songs of all time Third Eye. Thats just the way I see it.

[Shomino]

I didn't read the rest of the thread after I noticed the hypocracy of callin yourself such a TOOL fan when you don't even know one of the greatest/epic TOOL songs of all time Third Eye. Thats just the way I see it.

Point your fuckin finger up your ass! (Hooker with a Penis) There I know that one don't I asshole?

[LunarWomb]

TOOL are not anti-POT thats for SHURE. Also its a great song about the stupidity of drugs laws (esp with pot) and the current government ruining lives while deep into oil and other shitty and other right wingers loaded off pills (rush L) waving their fingers at nice folks who just want to smoke (ie pissing over my black kettle etc etc). We all know some drug dealers are guilty of being scum bags(selling to kids, throwing crack in with weed etc etc if you livied around shit head dealers in shitty cities you know, but others are people who enjoy a plant and shouldnt be railroaded (IE hung the guilty with the innocent) Some of the lyrics come across as coming from the other side, like a dialog. Its pretty straight forward. I could go on forever about this because I love this song (My explination is flawed as a type this really fast with out cheaking grammer and spelling lol). Also as a normal person who enjoys "the pot" and has a family and is a good person I like how its a good Fuck you song to those who ruin people based on enjoying a plant.
READ THIS it was posted before it pretty much explains it (i know it was posted before)

Activist Railroaded By Kangaroo Court

We all know, of course, that juries are supposed to be randomly selected, not stacked with those who will agree in advance to convict.

Yet in January 2003, in San Francisco, California, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer was being anything but “random” as he carefully interviewed and sorted through 80 prospective jurors before settling on 12 – mostly out-of-towners – who appeared most likely to bring the conviction he sought against Oakland's self-styled “pot guru,” 58-year-old Ed Rosenthal.

After a two-week trial, that jury unanimously convicted Rosenthal, a world-renowned marijuana advocate, after finding as a matter of fact that he'd been growing more than 100 pot plants, conspired to cultivate marijuana, and maintained an Oakland warehouse for a growing operation. “He was painted as a major drug manufacturer,” The AP reports, “and put on little defense.”

And why did Rosenthal and his attorneys present so little defense? Because “Throughout the trial in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, (Judge) Breyer had refused all efforts by the defense to disclose to the jury that Rosenthal was growing marijuana as an 'officer' for the City of Oakland's medical marijuana program, authorized under California's Proposition 215, passed by the voters in 1996,” points out syndicated columnist Alexander Cockburn.

“Throughout the two-week trial, Rosenthal's defense team had repeatedly tried to call witnesses to testify that Rosenthal was growing medical marijuana ...acting as an agent of the City of Oakland's medical marijuana program,” confirms AP legal affairs writer David Kravets. “The judge denied those requests. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the judge twice during mid-trial appeals.”

In other words – and as usual these days – the federal courts worked to conceal as much of the truth of the case as they saw fit, to make sure the jury made only a finding of fact, without being given any chance to decide whether the federal law was being appropriately applied in Rosenthal's case.

“Within hours of finding ...Rosenthal guilty on three felony counts of conspiracy and marijuana cultivation,” columnist Cockburn relates, “a sobbing juror was overheard saying she and others jurors had been terrified that U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer would throw them in prison if they had found Rosenthal innocent, although she herself had had a strong disposition to do so.”

[Elepherious]

i bet TooL gets off on all of us fighting over lyrics, we arnt even sure of yet. and the meaning therein

[Triple Six Mafia]

To me the song is about American hypocrisy in all its forms. One of the most glaring hypocrisies in America is our drug laws. It's OK to smoke cigarettes, OK to drink alcohol (one of the most destructive drugs in humanity if not THE most), but not OK to smoke marijuana.

The song is about hypocrisy, and marijuana is contained within that big hypocritical melting "pot" that is our nation.

The funny thing is, so many people are brainwashed into thinking that drugs are nothing but destructive to humanity. Even people on this forum... I would've thought TOOL fans would be more open minded.

I'm not saying that drugs are good, I'm just saying that they're not evil either.
People are the ones who are good or evil, not inanimate objects or substances.

If you think drugs are nothing but destructive to society, throw out all your music albums, because most of the people who made that wonderful music you all love so much.... rrreeeal f*ckin high on drugs. (isn't this a quote in a TOOL album?)

;)

Now I'm not saying thats ALL this song is about, but in my opinion it is definitely ONE of the hypocrisies MJK is talking about.





Good point

[DiSoLiDeYeS]

It seems you have all missed the point of the title "pot." It has nothing to do with marijuana, though you can certainly argue the hypocracy point. The title should be evident, "when you piss all over my black kettle".....clearly the reference to "pot" is the "pot calling the kettle black." Your argument towards marijuana may be a valid point, however the reference to the title is very subjective!

[the usual]

I want to quit but i'm addicted,I'm a dick ted to you....

[obwah]

I can't see how anyone can be so sure they're correct. Maybe, just maybe, you're all heading in the right direction. Or maybe you're all completely, unbelievably wrong. After listening to the song over and over in the past couple of weeks, and then reading this entire thread, I think both sides of the argument have valid points. Part of the brilliance of Tool is the different way they inspire/influence/affect different people. I'm confident MJK intended for discussions like this to take place when he wrote the song - from the title, the references of being high and to the kettle, so many different conclusions and opinions can be born. Am I the only one who appreciates this? Unless I hear it from the mouth of the man himself, I doubt I'll be convinced that one argument is correct and the other isn't. And again, I'm confident that won't be happening - Tool want it to be this way. Open up, allow it...

[HateSolstice]

I've noticed that about 99.9% of Tool's music is pretty androgenous(sp?), meaning it can go either way really.

I've also noticed that I'm hungry. Time for a sandwhich.

[Towelie]

I wanted to add a few thoughts abou

Wait, is this the Funky Town forum?

Oh man, I have no idea what's going on.

[durkabajung]

The problem is that so much of the population never does question why it's illegal in this country
If you fancy yourself the questioning type, you might want to question that.


Americans aren't taking advantage of the freedom of speech, besides with music and racism and such. For f*cks sake, illegal immigrants are standing up and fighting for their rights haha....but not US!



nailed it

[teonanacatl]

ahh thanks for the article, nice work.

i actually thought this one was quite obviously about the drinking, tobacco smoking, prescription pill popping assholes who call friendly pot smokers criminal drug users. so essentially it is about both pot (mj) and "the pot calling the kettle black" syndrome which drenches our drug laws. so in this sense it's not advocating the use of pot either, just pointing out the hypocritical flaws.

and btw, did someone say pot was decriminalised in Australia ?? not in my neck of the woods buddy

[tool/rush/mars]

nobody in tool has ever done drugs, infact they all hate drugs and are totally for making everything illegal hahahahaha

i love you guys

[PatXMM]

Good thread. I agree with The Pot calling the Kettle Black.

Wonder what MJK thinks when he reads these posts.
BTW...am I the only one that got a chuckle out of the name Alexander Cockburn?

[shineonforever]

New to forum, "hi" everyone. Haven't read all the posts, so forgive me. Jesus would. <big ass grin>

Absolutely this song is about pot, corruption and the whole drug war. The drug war has done, and is doing imeasurable damage to our countries and cultures.

"Hang the Jury with the innocent." Juries judge those being prosecuted for possession and use laws. In part, because of the drug war, the rights of juries and lawyers/liar to know their rights and roles as jurors is being shoved under the rug. In the United States the jury has the absolute right to acquit ANY defendant for ANY crime for ANY reason. This ability, called jury nullification, has been a fundmental part of American Crimminal Justice since our FIRST supreme court, since out nation as a nation. Juries could use the power to make it impossible for the government to prosecute crime, essentially, through popular movement, nullifying the law. What crimminal law is enforcable if a jury acquits? None.

Oor jury system has been squashed by efforts to proseucte this drug war. Injustice anywhere leads to injustice everywhere. Efforts to limit the juries in the drug war cases, HAVE led to juries abilities to judge cases EVERYWHERE.

Know this, if you serve on a jury, you are NOT simply there to MINDLESSLY apply fact to law, but to judge the law, and encourage other's to do so. Drug use and abuse can be a problem. The drug war is destroying our country. Our government's cure is worse than the disease of drug addiction.

I don't believe MJK was narcing anyone with the Ganja Police bit. He was calling out the Ganja police for being out of their minds.

"Guilty as the government" CIA drug dealers ring a bell?

A plant that's been with us since recorded human history began, and even used to record some of the first bits of history by man, has been banned. Cultural, industrial, commerical, spiritual and medical use EVERYWHERE in our development. In Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America (probably Australia too, giving the British Empires NEED for hemp products, but not sure). They were really out of the fucking minds to create the ganja police.

I am getting windy and long. Vicarious and The Pot are two ideas I personally have been trying to express for years now, and TOOL has done so very well.

The plant is older than YHWH as YHWH

Anyone know where Anslinger's grave is? It's time the the kettles to piss all over the pots.

[Ertai]

*ganja police, you must have been out ur minnnndddddd!!!!!!*

*kangarroo be STONED, he's as guilty as the government*


and your telling me this song isnt about marijuana, i believe this song is in reference to the ganja and the pot calling the kettle black.

[3dglver]

To me the song is about American hypocrisy in all its forms. One of the most glaring hypocrisies in America is our drug laws. It's OK to smoke cigarettes, OK to drink alcohol (one of the most destructive drugs in humanity if not THE most), but not OK to smoke marijuana.

I never did understand that law.

[lachrymoIogy]

*ganja police, you must have been out ur minnnndddddd!!!!!!*

*kangarroo be STONED, he's as guilty as the government*


and your telling me this song isnt about marijuana, i believe this song is in reference to the ganja and the pot calling the kettle black.
.

[DTrain]

It has POT in the title. Maybe they named it "The Pot" because radio and tv might not play a song if it was named POT. Or they would rename it like they did when Stinkfist came out. "The Pot" sounds better than just "Pot", but who knows we can only make assumptions.


"The pot calling the kettle black"

This song is about "The pot"... or whatever is calling the kettle black.

The song gives a clear message that it is about hypocracy of some kind -- I don't think that is in question? Who the hypocrite is, and what they are accusing the character (played by MJK) of doing is what is in question.

That's why it's called "The pot".

I admit It may be a double meaning, and I agree that this song could easily be about hypocracy behind the war on drugs. However, I don't think that it's called "The pot" only because of drugs.

[nfinaT]

Yeah, that's been done, Cogito Ergo whatever......repeatedly....

I just listened to The Pot lyric OVER and OVER again about 10 times and it's "Ganja Police".....

So........be fucked.....that lyric is LOCKED IN, MOTHER FUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I listened twice, its Ganja ABLAZE...you must have been out you mind. So I say, but I was blazed at the time...

[djqwerty13]

What purpose? To sit on an electronic typewriter, staring at micro dots, flickering the specific color to provide the illusion of letters and pictures. There is nothing to claim writing on a message board. My thoughts this, your thoughts that, we differ, we agree. What exactly was accomplished...
Like anything we are concerned about is special, or new to this generation, lifetime, or era. Earth abides.
And -->>this<<-- song is about ANYTHING HYPOCRITICAL

wisperinginmyhead; "Just an old fashion love song, playing on the radio."
The classics, like "You're so vain". Continues to tell me how others extrapolate too much, and think everything is relatable to them.


Right on Derge.... I was hoping someone would get the point.... and stop reading into the weed reference so much. The entire song is a poke at the "authorities", as well as the "better than you's". Stop talking shit about my life style and let me live dammit!!!!

[knpoole]

in case you didn't see it on the other threads........

link posted below... maybe this shed's some light on the meaning.. hmmm

http://www.loompanics.com/cgi-local/...html?E+scstore

Pot Activist Railroaded By Kangaroo Court

We all know, of course, that juries are supposed to be randomly selected, not stacked with those who will agree in advance to convict.

.....

“Within hours of finding ...Rosenthal guilty on three felony counts of conspiracy and marijuana cultivation,” columnist Cockburn relates, “a sobbing juror was overheard saying she and others jurors had been terrified that U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer would throw them in prison if they had found Rosenthal innocent, although she herself had had a strong disposition to do so.”


This is the first time I've seen this association with that case. Thats pretty interesting. By the way, your link doesn't work. (at least not for me)

[knpoole]

Anyone know where Anslinger's grave is? It's time the the kettles to piss all over the pots.

Has to be the coolest thing I have heard on any of these forums.

[DevilsLeftHand]

The only reason that sweet, sweet MJ is not legal is because the government can not tax it if it were. They can't tax anything that is grown naturally (See how cigarettes dont count? Its all that shit they put in them). Everything is about the money, from drug companies (intentionally holding back cures in order to sell more pills) to dairy farmers (pumping unnatural amounts of hormones into their cows, causing more milk, but raising our tolerance to anti-biotics, which renders them usless and us vulnerable). All about the $$$$$.

[Choice Breath]

Maynard's lyrics are often susceptible to many interpretations/meanings at once. All of those interpretations/meanings can be true at the same time. The lyrics to this song can be about the inherent hypocricies on both sides of the drug issue, the Bush administration, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq, that article someone cited (which by the way seems right on point to me), Maynard's relationship with his mom, and just hypocrisy in general: all at the same time.

One interpretation I had, in regard to the "Ganja police" line (if that's what he says), is that he is talking about the U.S. being the world police, and is saying that as those world police, the U.S. acts in that role as if it is stoned. Now that I write it, it seems a little far-fetched, but what the hell.

[Shomino]

Maynard's lyrics are often susceptible to many interpretations/meanings at once. All of those interpretations/meanings can be true at the same time. The lyrics to this song can be about the inherent hypocricies on both sides of the drug issue, the Bush administration, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq, that article someone cited (which by the way seems right on point to me), Maynard's relationship with his mom, and just hypocrisy in general: all at the same time.

One interpretation I had, in regard to the "Ganja police" line (if that's what he says), is that he is talking about the U.S. being the world police, and is saying that as those world police, the U.S. acts in that role as if it is stoned. Now that I write it, it seems a little far-fetched, but what the hell.

Summed it up pretty much for me. QFT

[paraflux]

Has to be the coolest thing I have heard on any of these forums.
Not because it makes sense, thats for certain.

[Opiate_Mass]

I agree that drugs should not be illegal. But, c'mon...Imagine if people used heroin to the same extent that people use alcohol. Things would get pretty fucked up, pretty quick.
deathtoll would be huge from Od's

[Opiate_Mass]

Point your fuckin finger up your ass! (Hooker with a Penis) There I know that one don't I asshole?
it's arse, noob and he's mentioning that you also typed the quote out wrong, not to mention TOOL didn't come up with that quote it's an extract from one of bill hick's shows (Dangerous?) and you also didn't mention the name of the song and as for him calling it one of the GREATEST songs in Tool's repertoir, he's way off.... but it all comes down to personal opinion in the end with EVERYTHING.

[Opiate_Mass]

Wait....Ganja Police? Are you guys serious? The lyric sounds a lot more to me like "Catch up with lies".
Patch up the lies?

[Opiate_Mass]

*ganja police, you must have been out ur minnnndddddd!!!!!!*

*kangarroo be STONED, he's as guilty as the government*


and your telling me this song isnt about marijuana, i believe this song is in reference to the ganja and the pot calling the kettle black.
i think it's Can't you puhlease? you must have been out your mind.
and it's definetely Kangaroo beast on knees, guilty as the government

[jlpeezworld]

I'm thinking it's Ganja Puhleeese (Please). In other words...Ganja made you act like that? Please...You must have been out your mind! It's showing that in order for someone to be such a hypocrite, they must be on something way more mind-altering than ganja. Proving they're no better than the ones they judge, and may in fact, be worse. opinions?

[DTrain]

i think it's Can't you puhlease? you must have been out your mind.
and it's definetely Kangaroo beast on knees, guilty as the government

Kangaroo Beast on Knees?

That's just silly.

[Luosdasa]

I'm not saying that drugs are good, I'm just saying that they're not evil either.
People are the ones who are good or evil, not inanimate objects or substances.

A perfect truth.

[Roadiepat]

Could "Ganja Police" be "Not your place"? It seems to fit the hypocrisy theme of the song. If you are "eyeball deep in muddy water" it is "not your place" to be critical of someone else.

yep.. could be it... sounds like it

[Stickman]

Patch up the lies?

What about ketchup on fries? Its equivalent to the whole "Ganja Police/please" theory. The main point is that the song is about hypocrisy. And IMO, its one of the best tracks on the album.

[original f/x]

are kangaroos from australia?

[enterclevernamehere]

Ok, I doubt that it was named "The Pot" for any of these reasons. And I don't think it's solely about weed either. I think the title most likely refers to something more broad than just marijuana. Though weed is a part of this song, it's used to represent something bigger.

Check it out... "The pot who calls the kettle black". This is an old saying...it's about hypocracy. The song doesn't have to be about marijuana at all. "The pot".. who ever this song is about... is pissin' on Maynards "black kettle"...the pot must have been high, because the pot is "black" too. Guilty of the same thing the kettle is being accused of. Both the pot and the kettle are black, but the pot doesn't see it's own blackness (the blackness could be anything, but w/i the saying it's from sitting on the stove). So, that's why it's called the pot. Now the question is who is the pot?

[enterclevernamehere]

"See I think drugs have done some good things for us. I really do. And if you don't believe drugs have done good things for us, do me a favor: Go home tonight, take all your albums, all your tapes and all your CDs and burn 'em. 'Cause you know what, the musicians who made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years. Rrrrrrrreal fucking high on drugs."
-Bill Hicks, "Drugs Have Done Good Things" from Relentless, sampled in Tool - Third Eye

Maynard used to be real fuckin high himself....but as far as I know he's now a friend of Bill W., like myself. And sure, most addicts and alcoholics are creative geniuses...look at Maynard. Actually, let me reverse that, most creative geniuses are alcoholics or addicts, whether practicing or SOBER.

[enterclevernamehere]

nobody in tool has ever done drugs, infact they all hate drugs and are totally for making everything illegal hahahahaha

i love you guys

ummmm..beg to differ, Maynard is a recovered alcoholic/addict...but I bet ur right about the band not being pro-drug use. There are many songs that I believe are about certain steps w/i the program of AA/NA, u just got to know the program to catch it. : )

[Mike590]

I dont think you can validly argue if the song is about pot or not. While the band probably has a a singular meaning for the song, it can be interpreted many many ways.

I dont think anyone argues they say ganja at the end. Can there be a metaphor or other term for that? You can say there ather words and meanings for the pot and high, but not ganja. Then again, he could be talking about both. Saying to the authorites, you must have been high, or saying, your so stupid its like your high. Its all interp.

[snominius]

I dont think you can validly argue if the song is about pot or not. While the band probably has a a singular meaning for the song, it can be interpreted many many ways.

I dont think anyone argues they say ganja at the end. Can there be a metaphor or other term for that? You can say there ather words and meanings for the pot and high, but not ganja. Then again, he could be talking about both. Saying to the authorites, you must have been high, or saying, your so stupid its like your high. Its all interp.

Exactly...the interp of any tool song is difficult...why cant they just tell us what they were thinking so that I can get back to work! I am wasting too much time...

[T00L]

Before we all go into ultra speculation mode (like fans tend to do). Just remember the old saying 'The pot' calling the kettle black. It's about hypocrits. Not friggin reefer.

[Alcawhorlick]

Before we all go into ultra speculation mode (like fans tend to do). Just remember the old saying 'The pot' calling the kettle black. It's about hypocrits. Not friggin reefer.

and the word "ganja"? is there another meaning of that word that I'm not aware of?

[æmoeba•°·.]

Our Drug law is "limited". it's ok to have a limit on things, but illegal abuse to marijuana would take place if it would become legal. Cigarette's and alcohol do destroy the nation 'a bit', but marijuana causes different side affects. so don't call it "hypocritical", because all marijuana is, is wrong. there is no 50/50 debate about it.

[beny2]

Most people don't want to hear this, but alcohol is actually the #1 most damaging drug to mind (brain) AND body. Over even the "dreaded" Heroin.

Do we really need a government telling grown adults what they can and cannot put into their own bodies?

No we don't. It is time to resort to violence and overthow the whole system. It is not the Government's responsibility to protect me from me.

[beny2]

Just kidding...although Thomas Jefferson envisioned a violent overthow of the government once a generation.

[bellamadia]

I dont really mind the population in general preferring alcohol/cigarettes to weed. It is after all, illegal. More often than not, laws make sense. Also, beer is not so bad in some cases.
It's also been hammered into our heads since we were very young that beer is good.


First, there are laws out there prohibiting anal sex in something like 20 states, so is oral, and other sex acts. For more crazy laws visit http://www.crazylaws.com/ So laws don't always make sense.

Aside from the legality of it, alcohol and cigarettes are proven to be worse for our health, so if laws were truly to protect us, these would be illegal. Don't get me wrong though, I don't want these things to be illegal. If some fucktard wants to smoke for 50 years and act surprised when he is diagnosed with lung cancer, then let him, etc. The government shouldn't tell people how to live their lives, or how to keep from hurting themselves. Where would the line be drawn? Imagine this: New law passed, people who have ever thought of suicide no longer allowed to purchase kitchen utensils and shoelaces. Now the law requires a psychological evaluation upon checkout if any of these items are in your basket at Wal-Mart.

My point is, when the government begins to cross the line and become involved in our personal lives and decisions, things become dangerous.

And I am not sure what you comment about beer being hammered into our heads as good is about but if you are referring to advertising... DUH! Beer companies need to make money!

The problem is that so much of the population never does question why it's illegal in this country.

Well, many people do. Those that don't question either don't agree with the rules but are too lazy to care enough to do anything about it, or don't think it will matter and the other half don't question authority because they are scared and choose to live life according to how others tell them because its safer and easier.


Money has a lot to do with it, I'm afraid.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. If you are saying that it is illegal because of the money you are mistaken. (If not, ignore the rest of my post).

Making pot legal would have a huge economical advantage. The government would heavily tax it as they do alcohol and cigarettes. Tax money from this and the money we'd save from jail time and police work could be reallocated to other areas that are severely lacking in assistance. There would be no future need to raise the taxes on these other areas because of that reallocation.

[swampyfool]

Just kidding...although Thomas Jefferson envisioned a violent overthow of the government once a generation.
Jefferson didn't specify a violent overthrow, just a drastic reform.

[swampyfool]

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. If you are saying that it is illegal because of the money you are mistaken. (If not, ignore the rest of my post).

Making pot legal would have a huge economical advantage. The government would heavily tax it as they do alcohol and cigarettes. Tax money from this and the money we'd save from jail time and police work could be reallocated to other areas that are severely lacking in assistance. There would be no future need to raise the taxes on these other areas because of that reallocation.
I love your idealism here, but I must maintain that the prohibition of cannabis is solely an issue of finances. You are right when you assert that legalizatioin would generate new sources for income (and ease the necessity for excess spending), but is that really enough to satisfy our government? You must also consider how this new income would be distributed. There are so many established industries that don't want to do anything to fix a system that they do not consider broken. They make plenty of money for themselves, and they do not have any intention of letting that boat be rocked. The legalization of cannabis will not only begin a restructuring of the marketplace, it will herald the beginning of a redistribution of the wealth- shrinking the gap between rich and poor. The corporations that own our elected officials are doing everything in their formidable power to make sure that this doesn't happen.

Consider, if you will, a selection of the existing industries that would be effected by the legalization of cannabis . . .
1.) The pharmaceutical industry- Abbot, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. . . and these guys have lobbyists . . .
2.) The lumber/paper industry- 84, Boise (formerly Boise-Cascade), Pacific . . . and these guys have lobbyists . . .
3.) The alcohol/tobacco/caffeine industries- Altria (Phillip Morris), American Brands, RJ Reynolds . . . and these guys have lobbyists . . .
4.) The petrochemical industry (plastics and fuels)- I don't even need to name any of them, because under this president, these guys don't NEED lobbyists . . .

I have only scratched the surface of the financial institutions that would lose a significant market share, but the ones listed above would be enough of an impediment on their own.

Here are a couple of links that I find interesting (follow their links, too). . .
Hempcar (http://www.hempcar.org/)
Chris Conrad (http://www.chrisconrad.com/)

[swampyfool]

Our Drug law is "limited". it's ok to have a limit on things, but illegal abuse to marijuana would take place if it would become legal. Cigarette's and alcohol do destroy the nation 'a bit', but marijuana causes different side affects. so don't call it "hypocritical", because all marijuana is, is wrong. there is no 50/50 debate about it.
First of all, if cannabis were to become legal, any abuse of it that took place thereafter would not be "illegal." Second of all, stop calling it "marijuana." That use of that Mexican word for cannabis was the brain-child of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst in an attempt to exploit the racist tendencies of 1930's America (where hemp was still legal) by associating hemp and cannabis with the shiftless, unlawful Mexicans. It worked, and now it's illegal.

Back to the point, tobacco kills; alcohol kills; cannabis doesn't. That's a fact, and drug law is hypocritical. You are right that cannabis causes different side effects; like creativity in recreational useage, or like a lack of crippling nausea in medical usage; or like a revival of the American family farm in industrial usage. You are also right when you suggest that it's not a 50/50 debate. Prohibition of cannabis is 100% wrong/insane/counterproductive/hypocritical.

Now, for the sake of argument, I will abandon my position that cannabis is not harmful and go from there. All you have to do is look to the model of the 18th and 21st Amendments to the Constittution of the United States of America to see that prohibiting a substance does not reduce its availability or the harm that it can and will do to society-at-large. The 18th amendment reads as follows . . .

Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

It was submitted by congress on December 18, 1918, fully ratified on January 16, 1919 and was subsequently put into effect on January 16, 1920.

The 21st amendment reads as follows . . .

Section 1.
The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2.
The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

It was submitted by congress on February 20, 1933, fully ratified on December 5, 1933 and was put into effect immediately.

Thus, in the thirteen years of alcohol prohibition, the production, import, distribution and sales of alcohol was prohibited in the hopes of reducing consumption and the requisite harm it caused. However, in that same time period, the production, import, distribution, sales and consumption increased significantly, thus yielding increased harm done to society. Given that alcohol was no longer a regulated industry, the alcohol itself began to see higher concentrations of impurity, thus yielding increased harm done to society. Given that there was no legal channel to supply this demand, alcohol became the domain of organized crime, and Al Capon milked that cow for all it was worth. Pre-Prohibition, the Mafia was teetering on the brink of self-destruction. As soon as alcohol was prohibited, they began to cash in on a grand scale- earning enough money to buy Las Vegas, an investment whose decades of return have allowed the mafia to entrench itself in our nation- yielding increased harm done to society.

It only took thirteen years for America to realize alcohol prohibition was doing only harm to society, but we are currently in the sixty-ninth year of cannabis prohibition. It has been hallmarked by the same problems as alcohol prohibition (increased abuse, incidences of impurity, booming organized crime rings), and yet the hypocrisy continues.

[bellamadia]

I love your idealism here, but I must maintain that the prohibition of cannabis is solely an issue of finances. You are right when you assert that legalizatioin would generate new sources for income (and ease the necessity for excess spending), but is that really enough to satisfy our government? ..........

All very good points. And in the post above this. I have to admit, though I feel it should be legal, I haven't really given a lot of time to think/learn about it in detail. I'm going to check out those sites and what you wrote was a good start. Thanks.

[noisetherapy]

Back to the point, tobacco kills; alcohol kills; cannabis doesn't. That's a fact, and drug law is hypocritical. You are right that cannabis causes different side effects; like creativity in recreational useage, or like a lack of crippling nausea in medical usage; or like a revival of the American family farm in industrial usage. You are also right when you suggest that it's not a 50/50 debate. Prohibition of cannabis is 100% wrong/insane/counterproductive/hypocritical.


cannibis cannot kill you? prove this for everyone please.

[bellamadia]

cannibis cannot kill you? prove this for everyone please.

Do you have proof that it can????

For answers to your question..... http://www.cannabis.com/faqs/hemp3.shtml

If you don't care enough to click the link, then here I copy and pasted a good part....


4) Don't people die from smoking pot?

Nobody has ever overdosed. For any given substance,
there are bound to be some people who have allergic
reactions. With marijuana this is extremely rare, but it
could happen with anything from apples to pop-tarts. Not
one death has ever been directly linked to marijuana itself.
In contrast, many legal drugs cause hundreds to hundreds of
thousands of deaths per year, foremost among them are
alcohol, nicotine, valium, aspirin, and caffiene. The
biggest danger with marijuana is that it is illegal, and
someone may mix it with another drug like PCP.

Marijuana is so safe that it would be almost impossible to
overdose on it. Doctors determine how safe a drug is by
measuring how much it takes to kill a person (they call this
the LD50) and comparing it to the amount of the drug which
is usually taken (ED50). This makes marijuana hundreds of
times safer than alcohol, tobacco, or caffiene. According
to a DEA Judge ``marijuana is the safest therapeutically
active substance known to mankind.''

I will say this. I was recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disease where you typically experience radiating pain in your back, legs, buttocks, neck and shoulders daily. The only treatment is excercise, reduce stress and pain meds. Well, I refuse to pop a vicodin a day like 3 Dr.s told me I should. The side affects and the addiction possibilities are too strong. I have been seriously exploring the use of cannabis as a treatment. I have not smoked in quite a few years ( I used to do it quite a bit, recreationaly of course). Though I know I won't be able to get it medically, I do know folks that grow it so that I can get it clean and pure. Point is, if it were legal, I wouldn't have to stuggle with these thoughts, I wouldn't have to try to find a trust worthy source for pure cannabis, I wouldn't have to worry about losing my job if I were caught, or getting arrested for buying or possesion. It all seems SO RIDICULOUS to me considering I can go to my local CVS and openly get a bottle of pills that are 1000x more harmful.

[Edge386]

4) Don't people die from smoking pot?

Nobody has ever overdosed. For any given substance,
there are bound to be some people who have allergic
reactions. With marijuana this is extremely rare, but it
could happen with anything from apples to pop-tarts. Not
one death has ever been directly linked to marijuana itself.
In contrast, many legal drugs cause hundreds to hundreds of
thousands of deaths per year, foremost among them are
alcohol, nicotine, valium, aspirin, and caffiene. The
biggest danger with marijuana is that it is illegal, and
someone may mix it with another drug like PCP.

Marijuana is so safe that it would be almost impossible to
overdose on it. Doctors determine how safe a drug is by
measuring how much it takes to kill a person (they call this
the LD50) and comparing it to the amount of the drug which
is usually taken (ED50). This makes marijuana hundreds of
times safer than alcohol, tobacco, or caffiene. According
to a DEA Judge ``marijuana is the safest therapeutically
active substance known to mankind.''

I will say this. I was recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disease where you typically experience radiating pain in your back, legs, buttocks, neck and shoulders daily. The only treatment is excercise, reduce stress and pain meds. Well, I refuse to pop a vicodin a day like 3 Dr.s told me I should. The side affects and the addiction possibilities are too strong. I have been seriously exploring the use of cannabis as a treatment. I have not smoked in quite a few years ( I used to do it quite a bit, recreationaly of course). Though I know I won't be able to get it medically, I do know folks that grow it so that I can get it clean and pure. Point is, if it were legal, I wouldn't have to stuggle with these thoughts, I wouldn't have to try to find a trust worthy source for pure cannabis, I wouldn't have to worry about losing my job if I were caught, or getting arrested for buying or possesion. It all seems SO RIDICULOUS to me considering I can go to my local CVS and openly get a bottle of pills that are 1000x more harmful.

There you have it folks, the cold hard truth that isn't so cold and hard unless you talk about the illegality of it. Also, if Maynard does say indigo in the song. A quick search in wikipedia revealed: "Indigo is the color of light between 440 to 420 nanometres in wavelength..."

[swampyfool]

cannibis cannot kill you? prove this for everyone please.

Doctors determine how safe a drug is by measuring how much it takes to kill a person (they call this the LD50) and comparing it to the amount of the drug which is usually taken (ED50).

Though i've never seen this published, I've been told (by people who would know) that you would need to smoke a pound in fifteen minutes in order to "overdose" fatally with cannabis. That is physically impossible.

[wearethestories]

"Indigo is the color of light between 440 to 420 nanometres in wavelength..."
ohcomeon...

[parables in the world]

Just read this :

No one seems able to determine the exact date that hemp/cannabis/marijuana appeared on the scene. This document will trace hemp back as far as history will allow, from 8500 BC in China to present day, noting the important role this much maligned weed has played in numerous civilization down through the ages.

The oldest human ever found was wearing a hemp blouse with a silk like quality. In 2700 BC Chinese written history tells us that hemp was used for fiber, oil, and as medicine. By 450 BC hemp was being cultivated in the mid east for the same purpose. Hemp was first introduced into Europe around 1000 AD, and by the sixteenth century it was known to be the most widely cultivated crop in the world producing rope, sails, cloth, fuel, paper, paint, food and medicine.

Of course hemp was an important product to the new world. In 1762 Virginia rewarded farmers with bounties for hemp culture and manufacture, and imposed penalties upon those who did not produce it. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper, and Betsy Ross chose hemp as the material for this country's first flag. George Washington grew hemp for fiber and recreational use, and Thomas Jefferson acquired the first American patent for his hemp break, a devise used to separate the hemp stalk into usable hurds and fiber with greater speed than the retting of past.

Without hemp America could not have successfully waged the revolution, and for the next one hundred and fifty years hemp enjoyed the position as America's top cash crop. Why then, in 1937, was the Marijuana Tax Act imposed to effectively make hemp non competitive in the commercial arena?

William Randolph Hearst had accumulated a chain of newspapers that made him the most influential man in America. He also owned vast timber holdings which fed the paper industry. Lammont Du Pont was his friend and supplied toxic chemicals which were needed for making paper. He was also the spearhead for a fledgling petrochemical industry. Both men stood to loose large if hemp turned the industrial revolution corner, which it looked like it was about to do with the invention of the "decorticator", a far superior machine to Jefferson's hemp break. With this new invention, it appeared that hemp could now be processed quickly enough to be used for paper and plywood instead of trees, and the petrochemical industry was and embarrassment considering you can make the same five hundred biodegradable products from hemp. This was not good news for Mr. Hearst or Mr. Dupont. Henry Ford had already made and fueled a car almost entirely from hemp, and it actually looked as if hemp had the capacity to affect Hearst and DuPont's bottom line.

Hearst ordered all his editors to write scathing stories about marijuana to which they replied, "What's that?" Hearst made the word up because he knew no one would believe scathing stories about hemp. The articles all denigrated Mexicans, African Americans, Jazz Musicians, and the city of New Orleans, suggesting that marijuana use would certainly lead to crime, insanity, and early violent death. After a few years of this bombardment, the country was primed for the marijuana tax act of 1937.

The marijuana tax act was sent through the good old boys network with help from Hearst and Dupont allies until it was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 2, 1937. A slam dunk for the corporate giants, and a great lose for America. The bill actually charged a one hundred dollar an ounce tax on any commercial hemp transaction, which made American hemp noncompetitive. All hemp used by America had to be imported, that is until 1942 when our supply was cut off by the war, and the Government started it's "Hemp for Victory" campaign.

The plan called for the planting of three hundred thousand acres of hemp, and for building seventy-one processing plants... a strange position for our government to be in only four years after taxing it to death. As the end of the war drew near, the government's position on hemp flip-flopped yet again. Over night this war time wonder plant had once again become the demon weed from hell...

On November 2, 1951, Congress passed the Boggs act, increasing the penalties for all narcotics violations. They also included marijuana on the list of narcotics which was the beginning of a whole other problem. All of a sudden our jails were filling up with middle class kids caught smoking pot. Now there was a whole counter culture revolving around smoking pot, and by the mid seventies everyone was thinking it would only be a few more years till the government came to it's senses and repealed the marijuana prohibition. They must have been pipe dreaming.

Every study done on marijuana since the 1944 Laguardia report suggests that legalization is the only way out. In 1996 there were six hundred thousand Americans arrested on drug charges, of these, eighty six percent were for simple possession. Of the one million six hundred thousand people in federal and state prison, twenty-five percent are there for drug violations. This immense expenditure, capturing, prosecuting, and incarcerating, not to mention funding "the drug war", and the loss of revenue through billions of untaxed drug dollars is not a sane situation by any standards.

In the last decade Hemp's popularity has become even more prevalens; both as a recreational drug and as a raw material. Not only has smoking increased drastically, but there are now over three hundred companies in the United States that deal exclusively in hemp produucts. California and Arizona have passed the medical marijuana initiative, while other states block attempts to legalize industtrial hemp. In the meantime, once again, hemp has become America's largest cash crop beating second place corn by a mere twenty billion dollars.

There have been many little parts of the hemp/cannabis/marijuana story told, but no one has ever done a comprehensive history. We shouldn't let Misters Hearst and Dupont dictate the way we view the hemp plant today. We intend to present the truth, and, as the old saying goes, "truth is always stranger than fiction."

-Jonathan Stuart

[nafloot]

in case you didn't see it on the other threads........

link posted below... maybe this shed's some light on the meaning.. hmmm

http://www.loompanics.com/cgi-local/...html?E+scstore

Pot Activist Railroaded By Kangaroo Court

We all know, of course, that juries are supposed to be randomly selected, not stacked with those who will agree in advance to convict.

Yet in January 2003, in San Francisco, California, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer was being anything but “random” as he carefully interviewed and sorted through 80 prospective jurors before settling on 12 – mostly out-of-towners – who appeared most likely to bring the conviction he sought against Oakland's self-styled “pot guru,” 58-year-old Ed Rosenthal.

After a two-week trial, that jury unanimously convicted Rosenthal, a world-renowned marijuana advocate, after finding as a matter of fact that he'd been growing more than 100 pot plants, conspired to cultivate marijuana, and maintained an Oakland warehouse for a growing operation. “He was painted as a major drug manufacturer,” The AP reports, “and put on little defense.”

And why did Rosenthal and his attorneys present so little defense? Because “Throughout the trial in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, (Judge) Breyer had refused all efforts by the defense to disclose to the jury that Rosenthal was growing marijuana as an 'officer' for the City of Oakland's medical marijuana program, authorized under California's Proposition 215, passed by the voters in 1996,” points out syndicated columnist Alexander Cockburn.

“Throughout the two-week trial, Rosenthal's defense team had repeatedly tried to call witnesses to testify that Rosenthal was growing medical marijuana ...acting as an agent of the City of Oakland's medical marijuana program,” confirms AP legal affairs writer David Kravets. “The judge denied those requests. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the judge twice during mid-trial appeals.”

In other words – and as usual these days – the federal courts worked to conceal as much of the truth of the case as they saw fit, to make sure the jury made only a finding of fact, without being given any chance to decide whether the federal law was being appropriately applied in Rosenthal's case.

“Within hours of finding ...Rosenthal guilty on three felony counts of conspiracy and marijuana cultivation,” columnist Cockburn relates, “a sobbing juror was overheard saying she and others jurors had been terrified that U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer would throw them in prison if they had found Rosenthal innocent, although she herself had had a strong disposition to do so.”

I remember that witch hunt. What a joke our system is. I believe pot is not legal because the Government has no way of taxing it. As other people have said drinking and smoking are both legal and also taxed. I have been smoking pot since I was about 10 (45 now) and every argument that was presented to me by the so called authorities proved wrong except one. It does affect your short term memory. Some of my friends do prescribed drugs that mess them up more than pot. My father was a Philly cop for 22 years and we would have this argument quite a bit. Not until he was older in his mid 60's did he finally agree that at the very least drinking is worse than pot. If they would legalize all drugs, then the prison's would be filled with criminals instead of drug addicts.

[nafloot]

Do you have proof that it can????

For answers to your question..... http://www.cannabis.com/faqs/hemp3.shtml

If you don't care enough to click the link, then here I copy and pasted a good part....


4) Don't people die from smoking pot?

Nobody has ever overdosed. For any given substance,
there are bound to be some people who have allergic
reactions. With marijuana this is extremely rare, but it
could happen with anything from apples to pop-tarts. Not
one death has ever been directly linked to marijuana itself.
In contrast, many legal drugs cause hundreds to hundreds of
thousands of deaths per year, foremost among them are
alcohol, nicotine, valium, aspirin, and caffiene. The
biggest danger with marijuana is that it is illegal, and
someone may mix it with another drug like PCP.

Marijuana is so safe that it would be almost impossible to
overdose on it. Doctors determine how safe a drug is by
measuring how much it takes to kill a person (they call this
the LD50) and comparing it to the amount of the drug which
is usually taken (ED50). This makes marijuana hundreds of
times safer than alcohol, tobacco, or caffiene. According
to a DEA Judge ``marijuana is the safest therapeutically
active substance known to mankind.''

I will say this. I was recently diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disease where you typically experience radiating pain in your back, legs, buttocks, neck and shoulders daily. The only treatment is excercise, reduce stress and pain meds. Well, I refuse to pop a vicodin a day like 3 Dr.s told me I should. The side affects and the addiction possibilities are too strong. I have been seriously exploring the use of cannabis as a treatment. I have not smoked in quite a few years ( I used to do it quite a bit, recreationaly of course). Though I know I won't be able to get it medically, I do know folks that grow it so that I can get it clean and pure. Point is, if it were legal, I wouldn't have to stuggle with these thoughts, I wouldn't have to try to find a trust worthy source for pure cannabis, I wouldn't have to worry about losing my job if I were caught, or getting arrested for buying or possesion. It all seems SO RIDICULOUS to me considering I can go to my local CVS and openly get a bottle of pills that are 1000x more harmful.

When I was 16 I used to get weed for a friends mother who had cancer. She was totally against pot until she started her chemo. We all know what happens when you get chemo. Her daughter talked her into trying it, and until her death she was eating daily, even after a chemo treatment she would come home and eat. I live in Vegas and the voters(myself included) passed a marijuana law to decriminalize it. The feds then told our state if they put it on the balot and it passed we would lose millions in federal grants. Oh well my lunchtime is over and I need to get down off my soapbox......PEACE OUT....lol.

[swampyfool]

ohcomeon...
Agreed, and you and I don't do that much.

[swampyfool]

Just read this :

No one seems able to determine the exact date that hemp/cannabis/marijuana appeared on the scene. This document will trace hemp back as far as history will allow, from 8500 BC in China to present day, noting the important role this much maligned weed has played in numerous civilization down through the ages.

The oldest human ever found was wearing a hemp blouse with a silk like quality. In 2700 BC Chinese written history tells us that hemp was used for fiber, oil, and as medicine. By 450 BC hemp was being cultivated in the mid east for the same purpose. Hemp was first introduced into Europe around 1000 AD, and by the sixteenth century it was known to be the most widely cultivated crop in the world producing rope, sails, cloth, fuel, paper, paint, food and medicine.

Of course hemp was an important product to the new world. In 1762 Virginia rewarded farmers with bounties for hemp culture and manufacture, and imposed penalties upon those who did not produce it. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper, and Betsy Ross chose hemp as the material for this country's first flag. George Washington grew hemp for fiber and recreational use, and Thomas Jefferson acquired the first American patent for his hemp break, a devise used to separate the hemp stalk into usable hurds and fiber with greater speed than the retting of past.

Without hemp America could not have successfully waged the revolution, and for the next one hundred and fifty years hemp enjoyed the position as America's top cash crop. Why then, in 1937, was the Marijuana Tax Act imposed to effectively make hemp non competitive in the commercial arena?

William Randolph Hearst had accumulated a chain of newspapers that made him the most influential man in America. He also owned vast timber holdings which fed the paper industry. Lammont Du Pont was his friend and supplied toxic chemicals which were needed for making paper. He was also the spearhead for a fledgling petrochemical industry. Both men stood to loose large if hemp turned the industrial revolution corner, which it looked like it was about to do with the invention of the "decorticator", a far superior machine to Jefferson's hemp break. With this new invention, it appeared that hemp could now be processed quickly enough to be used for paper and plywood instead of trees, and the petrochemical industry was and embarrassment considering you can make the same five hundred biodegradable products from hemp. This was not good news for Mr. Hearst or Mr. Dupont. Henry Ford had already made and fueled a car almost entirely from hemp, and it actually looked as if hemp had the capacity to affect Hearst and DuPont's bottom line.

Hearst ordered all his editors to write scathing stories about marijuana to which they replied, "What's that?" Hearst made the word up because he knew no one would believe scathing stories about hemp. The articles all denigrated Mexicans, African Americans, Jazz Musicians, and the city of New Orleans, suggesting that marijuana use would certainly lead to crime, insanity, and early violent death. After a few years of this bombardment, the country was primed for the marijuana tax act of 1937.

The marijuana tax act was sent through the good old boys network with help from Hearst and Dupont allies until it was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 2, 1937. A slam dunk for the corporate giants, and a great lose for America. The bill actually charged a one hundred dollar an ounce tax on any commercial hemp transaction, which made American hemp noncompetitive. All hemp used by America had to be imported, that is until 1942 when our supply was cut off by the war, and the Government started it's "Hemp for Victory" campaign.

The plan called for the planting of three hundred thousand acres of hemp, and for building seventy-one processing plants... a strange position for our government to be in only four years after taxing it to death. As the end of the war drew near, the government's position on hemp flip-flopped yet again. Over night this war time wonder plant had once again become the demon weed from hell...

On November 2, 1951, Congress passed the Boggs act, increasing the penalties for all narcotics violations. They also included marijuana on the list of narcotics which was the beginning of a whole other problem. All of a sudden our jails were filling up with middle class kids caught smoking pot. Now there was a whole counter culture revolving around smoking pot, and by the mid seventies everyone was thinking it would only be a few more years till the government came to it's senses and repealed the marijuana prohibition. They must have been pipe dreaming.

Every study done on marijuana since the 1944 Laguardia report suggests that legalization is the only way out. In 1996 there were six hundred thousand Americans arrested on drug charges, of these, eighty six percent were for simple possession. Of the one million six hundred thousand people in federal and state prison, twenty-five percent are there for drug violations. This immense expenditure, capturing, prosecuting, and incarcerating, not to mention funding "the drug war", and the loss of revenue through billions of untaxed drug dollars is not a sane situation by any standards.

In the last decade Hemp's popularity has become even more prevalens; both as a recreational drug and as a raw material. Not only has smoking increased drastically, but there are now over three hundred companies in the United States that deal exclusively in hemp produucts. California and Arizona have passed the medical marijuana initiative, while other states block attempts to legalize industtrial hemp. In the meantime, once again, hemp has become America's largest cash crop beating second place corn by a mere twenty billion dollars.

There have been many little parts of the hemp/cannabis/marijuana story told, but no one has ever done a comprehensive history. We shouldn't let Misters Hearst and Dupont dictate the way we view the hemp plant today. We intend to present the truth, and, as the old saying goes, "truth is always stranger than fiction."

-Jonathan Stuart

Where did you find this? It's execellent. Got a link? Or a book title?

[parables in the world]

yeah its on this website, theres an album about this


http://www.viperrecords.com/newprohibition/truestory.shtml

[JAG]

Have you guys ever thought that a song might have multiple interpretations? To me this song has always been about Bush, Katrina, and the FEMA Kangaroo Court finger pointing debacle.. It also talks about those who are "high on power" hence the line "you must have been so high". It does also contain "the pot calling the kettle black" theme and might also have to do with pot as well. There are several possible interpretations to this song. Which one varies according to that ones point of view and perspective.

[swampyfool]

Have you guys ever thought that a song might have multiple interpretations? To me this song has always been about Bush, Katrina, and the FEMA Kangaroo Court finger pointing debacle.. It also talks about those who are "high on power" hence the line "you must have been so high". It does also contain "the pot calling the kettle black" theme and might also have to do with pot as well. There are several possible interpretations to this song. Which one varies according to that ones point of view and perspective.
I think it's quite obvious that "[us] guys" have most certainly realized that a song- and particularly this song- can have multiple interpretations. The name of the thread is "This song DOES have something to do with marijuana," which would seem to imply that there are also other things that the song has to do with . . .

[swampyfool]

Ooooh!
Nice post count!







<== I'm gonna go oblige! (If you don't get it, you're too late, as I've obviously opened my big mouth again.) Thought I'd post it in this thread. Seemed appropriate.

[swampyfool]

^^^D'OH!^^^

[Shomino]

There you have it folks, the cold hard truth that isn't so cold and hard unless you talk about the illegality of it. Also, if Maynard does say indigo in the song. A quick search in wikipedia revealed: "Indigo is the color of light between 440 to 420 nanometres in wavelength..."

Weaker shades of indigo! 420! OMG!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo

"Indigo is the color of light between 440 to 420 nanometres in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet."

I believe he's saying "weaker shades of indigo" which would be 420 nanometres!

"The Pot". Concidence? I think not.

[Kadelic]

Idiots, Idiots, Idiots.....and not even Useful ones....

It is called The Pot because that's what calls the Kettle Black.....

I tend to agree with you. The first couple of weeks I had the album,

I thought he was saying "when you pissed all over my black halo..."

I must have been high.

Kettle eventualy ruled itself in, but I still sing along that way sometimes.

[3ulogy]

"The Pot" i think is a little to obvious to be about marijuana, like every other tool song it is riddled with hidden meanings and ideas that continually change based on the person that is listening to the song. I may listen to the song and get one meaning out of it while another person listens to the song and gets a whole different idea. Neither idea is wrong nor right, its what you get out of it, the fact that people are taking the time to analyze the song themselves is the main idea.

I think the whole idea behind their music is to get you thinking, about different ideas and perspectives, it makes you educated in the idea of free thought, and not allowing you to stick with one idea but to see that there is more than what appears on the surface.

Tool promotes freedom of self, and the freedom of choice

[3ulogy]

Exactly...the interp of any tool song is difficult...why cant they just tell us what they were thinking so that I can get back to work! I am wasting too much time...


Because if they made it that easy then you wouldnt have to think for yourself...aka dont be a tool

[nafloot]

I wanted to add a few thoughts abou

Wait, is this the Funky Town forum?

Oh man, I have no idea what's going on.

Let's get high!

[swampyfool]

I posted this (http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=19962467&blogID=34812757&Mytoken=D5C77FEC-048E-49D2-B90E2D699741DD351354578296) on MySpace awhile back (god I hat that thing anymore- fucking Murdock!) and I thought maybe this Bush decree could have been among Maynard's motivations.

This one (http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=19962467&blogID=36592396&Mytoken=D5C77FEC-048E-49D2-B90E2D699741DD351354578296) is not bad either . . .

[Caduceus11]

yea, that sounds about right. I too have been criminalized for marijuana and just completed my 3 years of probation due to getting caught with crumbs of weed in my car. I was sentenced by a local, small, redneck Texas judge....while the crime is considered a misdemeanor in Texas, it cost me 3 very long years of mind-fucking. I was about 1/2 convinced they were right, what with all the rehab and bs they put me through. Not that I got the treatment of this Rosenthal, but I do know that they courts are a joke. I even paid 2-grand to a lawyer whom sat in silence as the gavel fell. I later found out that he was "in-bed" with the system and probably got a cut of all my fines and fees as well. Somehow tho, I managed to get through it. All I can say is, "Yes, Smoke, by all means, enlighten yourself. Just be careful, because yes, the Ganja Police are very much real, and looking desperately for some hard working, income generators like myself. I wouldn't wish what happened to me on my worst enemy, so to all you heads out there whom can draw nothing more from this song than its references to weed, (thats only part of it) just BE CAREFUL. Thats how they got me, I was making some good ca$h with this stuff and had goten bold and careless. And I certainly paid for it. You will meet no open minds in the courts, they just see you as ca$h potential. Their favorite thing to do, is to check into your background and see what you do for a living and see how much money you make. Then they levy their fees and fines and shake you down for years at a time through their favorite new income generator : Probation. IF you do get caught, I'd highly (pun intended) reccomend you spend your time in jail. They really won't hold you long for it, and its much better than probation!...sorry if this isn't what we were really working on here, its just something I thought I should share....

[weesper]

That's tough man. I am a non-smoker, I believe that the relationship between marihuana and schizophrenia is causal (plus imo a joint isnt all that) but I still think any country in its right mind would not allow its legal system to get clogged up with soft-drug offences.

[Caduceus11]

That's because you are still under their influence in what you think about when you say "DRUG offenses." Think for yourself, question authority. I recently buried my dear aunt whom put up no fight to a prescription drug addiction. She was in countless car accidents from passing out at the wheel and was involved in numerous other humiliating situations that involved police reports. However, in spite of all of this she walked, or stumbled away from every scene with no legal stipulations. Eventually, she killed herself by getting so smashed she fell and hit her fragile head too hard. SHE could have benefited from all the rehab and shit that I was forced to endure. That may have saved her life....however, she's dead now and nothing can change that. So tell me, is this system protecting the right people>?
A person whom is only caught in possession of marijuana has no business being in court, nor has no obligation to have to PAY any court. When I got busted, I wasn't even high. I was only going 5 miles per hour too fast. I was putting no one in danger...unlike my doped up aunt, nor the drunk, who's operation of a motor vehicle put us all at risk...

[weesper]

a. reread my post
b. check where it was written
c. understand that I'm on your side
d. apologize for telling me to 'question authority and think for myself'

[chronographer]

"When ya piss all over my black kettle, you musta been high" Anyone ever heard of THE POT calling the kettle black?

this is the whole point of the song, do not stop at the obvious ( to me not even worth considering ) conclusion that the title The Pot means the song refers to marijuana. But at the less in youyr face but still not obvious reference to 'the pot calling the kettle black' i.e. they are both black so point the finger at maynards black kettle when the pot is black too..... um. yeah. hypocrisy.

[Chalingo]

yea, that sounds about right. I too have been criminalized for marijuana and just completed my 3 years of probation due to getting caught with crumbs of weed in my car. I was sentenced by a local, small, redneck Texas judge....while the crime is considered a misdemeanor in Texas, it cost me 3 very long years of mind-fucking. I was about 1/2 convinced they were right, what with all the rehab and bs they put me through. Not that I got the treatment of this Rosenthal, but I do know that they courts are a joke. I even paid 2-grand to a lawyer whom sat in silence as the gavel fell. I later found out that he was "in-bed" with the system and probably got a cut of all my fines and fees as well. Somehow tho, I managed to get through it. All I can say is, "Yes, Smoke, by all means, enlighten yourself. Just be careful, because yes, the Ganja Police are very much real, and looking desperately for some hard working, income generators like myself. I wouldn't wish what happened to me on my worst enemy, so to all you heads out there whom can draw nothing more from this song than its references to weed, (thats only part of it) just BE CAREFUL. Thats how they got me, I was making some good ca$h with this stuff and had goten bold and careless. And I certainly paid for it. You will meet no open minds in the courts, they just see you as ca$h potential. Their favorite thing to do, is to check into your background and see what you do for a living and see how much money you make. Then they levy their fees and fines and shake you down for years at a time through their favorite new income generator : Probation. IF you do get caught, I'd highly (pun intended) reccomend you spend your time in jail. They really won't hold you long for it, and its much better than probation!...sorry if this isn't what we were really working on here, its just something I thought I should share....
That sucks, move up here to canada. You have to get caught with a ton of pot to really get in trouble. They will just take what you have on you, tell you that you are bad boy and send you on your way. Then they go back to the station and get cooked and laugh their asses off.

[Caduceus11]

a. reread my post
b. check where it was written
c. understand that I'm on your side
d. apologize for telling me to 'question authority and think for myself'


a. i have re-read your post
b. i noticed its origin, which doesn't mean you support decriminalization
c. it can be easily interpreted as your idea that a crime was even committed. Yes, a crime by definition, but that's my argument to begin with---it looked like you were thinking that there was an actual offense. Your defense of yourself, has shown me otherwise. I understand now.
d. I'll never apologize for good advice...whether you needed it or not. I do apologize for being so confrontational with you...its my nature...I love debate....intelligent debate that is...

[Caduceus11]

I've often pondered such....maybe someday....thanks for the invite.

[weesper]

It remains to be seen whether condoning soft drugs for personal use would decriminalize its production and distribution; what would however have a bigger impact in terms of allowing people to make informed choices would be to lift the age bar on drinking and smoking in the US. In effect this would provide for everyone to have a first go at this in the relative safety of adolescence without having to worry about driving home, getting up on time for work or a kid in the other room.

No worries, thanx for the advice.

[Caduceus11]

people will drink and smoke whenever they want to regardless of what the law says...

[StereoScopicLenses]

Heh, Rush Limbaugh.

"Who are you to point your fatty finger at me?"


I never thought of that until reading this post. It does make sense that those fatass fingers could be Rush's. Haha. Fat f*cker pops pills and shames the rest of the country. I love it. I think the word America translates to Hypocrite. Or atleast it should.

[Caduceus11]

Who cares if rush pops pills. Don't get sucked into the media's big news! I don't care who's popping pills, smokin' dope, shooting up, getting their mud-packed....its none of my business, and I think others including the papparrazzi-media should follow suite

[3dglver]

Who cares if rush pops pills. Don't get sucked into the media's big news! I don't care who's popping pills, smokin' dope, shooting up, getting their mud-packed....its none of my business, and I think others including the papparrazzi-media should follow suite

You're my hero...

[Caduceus11]

You're my hero...



Thanx.....but maybe you're just being sarcastic....thanx either way tho....

you're MY hero....

[StereoScopicLenses]

Who cares if rush pops pills. Don't get sucked into the media's big news! I don't care who's popping pills, smokin' dope, shooting up, getting their mud-packed....its none of my business, and I think others including the papparrazzi-media should follow suite

yeah i don't care either. BUT my piont is that he DOES.

[Caduceus11]

so>? who cares>? I think its irrelavent....we can join a rush message board for that topic.

[tyxlc]

Idiots, Idiots, Idiots.....and not even Useful ones....

It is called The Pot because that's what calls the Kettle Black.....

How many f*cking times does this need to be explained to people????

So far the only reference to weed seems to be the lyric Ganja Police.....and my interpretation of this lyric is:

"Ganja Police!" (shouted, as if he's narking somebody out. In other words, he's saying "You must have been high on pot when you said / did whatever, you are a f*cking hypocrite....and then he's saying "Ganja Police!" as if he's shouting out to the cops and pointing at the subject of the hypocrisy. You know, like, "Hey! He's over here! The dude, who's high...on drugs. Arrest him!"

And if anybody even says something stupid like "But MJK wouldn't nark somebody out. He's too cool...." I am just going to f*cking lose it......or at leasy shake my head in pity.

do you really think maynard would rat someone out for smoking pot? gosh.

[tyxlc]

just kidding. the best thing about this song is the pun, i think. it is about a pot head calling the kettle head black. yes, it's about a hypocrite. he is a pot head. he talks shit about or to jk. and then he pissed on his pot. i mean kettle. no, no. i mean...

by the way, my impression was that the song was about rush limbaugh as well, though i doubt it based on the specific allusions to marrijane in the song. maybe inspired by...

ps. to the ganja police- he may not be talking to you. what if he says ganja? P-lease! as is suggested as an option on the unofficial lyrics page on this site. makes more sense to me, as if he is saying "give me a fucking break and don't fucking blame the fucking weed and just take responsifuckingbility for your own fucking shit-talking, you fucking pot", but without all the fucking.

[band_888]

It has POT in the title. Maybe they named it "The Pot" because radio and tv might not play a song if it was named POT. Or they would rename it like they did when Stinkfist came out. "The Pot" sounds better than just "Pot", but who knows we can only make assumptions.



The song is titled "The Pot" because it refers to the old saying "The pot called the kettle black" which of course is about Hypocrisy. Ref: Wikepidia

[Sleeper]

I think this song is about the war on drugs. What i get from this song is people make up there mind about something when they dont understand it, make lables, spin public opinion, and then make rules that worssen the problem(eye hole deep in muddy water). Calling it The Pot makes for nifty word play, on a very popular almost harmless drug, and that kettle thing.

[Sleeper]

It remains to be seen whether condoning soft drugs for personal use would decriminalize its production and distribution; what would however have a bigger impact in terms of allowing people to make informed choices would be to lift the age bar on drinking and smoking in the US. In effect this would provide for everyone to have a first go at this in the relative safety of adolescence without having to worry about driving home, getting up on time for work or a kid in the other room.

No worries, thanx for the advice.

Um it already has been seen, the reversal of the prohibition act proved that. When alcohol whas made legal again, Gang related, and public related crime involving the sale of said product, diassapeared. You make somehting illegal when its popular then you create a blackmarket, and blackmarkets involve violent crimes.

[weesper]

I checked the dictionary and yes it still says condoning is not the same as 'made legal again'.... Soft drugs will, within our lifetime, never be 'made legal' because of international jurisdictional constraints; by the same token the prohibition act is an absolutely worthless analogy.

As an alternative to legalization, the dutch sytem of condoning soft drug trade for personal use shows that in fact yes it does stimulate criminal activity. As such it remains to be seen whether a wider implication of this system could in fact reduce criminal activity (although I doubt it).

[ApostlesCreed]

Anyway the whole point of which drug is worse is a moot one.

Alcohol is legal and it causes MAJOR problems in our society.
Tobacco is legal and it causes MAJOR health problems and burdens the health system (but with all the revenue from tax FUCK 'EM, the smoker pays his dues and his healthcare).
Pot is illegal (in the U.S, ha, ha....in Aussie it is decriminalised...woo hoo!). Anyway, it has the potential to create MAJOR problems in society. Like schizophrenia, health problems, paranoid, fucked up, unmotivated, individuals who can't remember what they were talking about.....where was I? Ha, I remember now (only just).

Etc, etc....short term memory is just appalling.

The government will decide what is okay for you and what drugs aren't. It's their job to control us, make us conform, keep us down, etc. Most of all the government likes it's citizens to have plenty of debt so they keep turning up for work every day. They also like them to have alcohol and tobacco and gasoline (or fuel or whatever) so they can drive to work and drive places where they can consume and spend money.

If they keep you buried in enough debt and give you enough toys and consumer goods then you will spend your most productive (taxable) years NOT asking questions and NOT causing trouble. And hopefully you will also produce offspring who will also consume and will one day replace you and provide tax revenue. Which will make you somewhat redundant (because you have been replaced by a newer, younger, model), and at this point you better hope you have enough money to survive until you die, because if you don't the government won't FUCKING help you!!

Which is all very heavy, anti political type stuff. I'd love to talk more, but I have to work and help pay off my debts. And there's an even bigger TV that I need to buy, to watch people die, from a good, safe distance.....

Wow, I am awesome.

Ha ha!! I love that... can I use it to make up flyers and hand out at work?

[chonus]

Pot is illegal (in the U.S, ha, ha....in Aussie it is decriminalised...woo hoo!). Anyway, it has the potential to create MAJOR problems in society. Like schizophrenia, health problems, paranoid, fucked up, unmotivated, individuals who can't remember what they were talking about.....where was I? Ha, I remember now (only just).

Etc, etc....short term memory is just appalling.



Wow, I am awesome.


No you're not, doucheman.

Let me get this right. Marijuana causes schizophrenia?

[molehill]

Studies show that marijuana increases the incidence of schizophrenia in those already predisposed or holding the condition. It does not, or has not been shown, to cause it.

[weesper]

Studies show that marijuana increases the incidence of schizophrenia in those already predisposed or holding the condition. It does not, or has not been shown, to cause it.


WE have a beautiful study population/environment around these areas and yes in long-term prospective studies it has been shown to be a causative factor. Schizophrenia is an inborn developmental disorder but marijuana lowers the threshold for those at risk to develop the condition and therefore it does count as a causative factor.; because schizophrenia is multifactorial there's no easy way of saying whether you've got the predisposition. I'll post references later, havent got the time now

[ragextool]

*ganja police, you must have been out ur minnnndddddd!!!!!!*

*kangarroo be STONED, he's as guilty as the government*


and your telling me this song isnt about marijuana, i believe this song is in reference to the ganja and the pot calling the kettle black.

i was thinking it was ask for so long.. thank you.... i'm surprised no one has mentioned indigo .. though i'm only on page two right now.. anyone hear of indigo children?... i think that may be part of the reason for the choice of the indigo adjective .. i like the got me playing tool constantly!

[ragextool]

ummmm..beg to differ, Maynard is a recovered alcoholic/addict...but I bet ur right about the band not being pro-drug use. There are many songs that I believe are about certain steps w/i the program of AA/NA, u just got to know the program to catch it. : )


where does this informatin that he is a recovering alcoholic addict come from?

[Rosenbarger13]

Idiots, Idiots, Idiots.....and not even Useful ones....

It is called The Pot because that's what calls the Kettle Black.....

How many f*cking times does this need to be explained to people????

So far the only reference to weed seems to be the lyric Ganja Police.....and my interpretation of this lyric is:

"Ganja Police!" (shouted, as if he's narking somebody out. In other words, he's saying "You must have been high on pot when you said / did whatever, you are a f*cking hypocrite....and then he's saying "Ganja Police!" as if he's shouting out to the cops and pointing at the subject of the hypocrisy. You know, like, "Hey! He's over here! The dude, who's high...on drugs. Arrest him!"

And if anybody even says something stupid like "But MJK wouldn't nark somebody out. He's too cool...." I am just going to f*cking lose it......or at leasy shake my head in pity.



Well all the anger aside, I believe he has a point with the tone of that particular lyric...

it sounds almost as if he is speaking with the person and, calling for the police, and then back to the person.

"Ganja!?"
"POLICE!"
"you must have been out your mind"

It would make sence, but I don't know..

[figgy2967]

How can MJK be a recovering alcoholic if he's a big wine connoisseur? He grows his own Shiraz/Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes...... over 2000 bottles of wine in his cellar..

And I still don't hear Ganja Police...

Very typical of Maynard, I believe this song has multiple meanings. I don't think its main purpose or intent or whatever you want to call it, is about pot. Pot calling the Kettle Black.. but there are refernces like "you must have been high"... Very like maynard to have double meanings in all of his songs

Pot is for highschoolers. stick to booze or at least hard drugs :)

[Aunt Acid]

Ganja? PLEASE!!

Pot is for highschoolers. stick to booze or at least hard drugs :)

Booze is for closet conservatives, and people who like 9-5, 70 degree thermostat order. Have fun turning in to your father.

[Rosenbarger13]

Yep. Drinking is officially not cool anymore. If you get drunk off your ass, you are a sad excuse for a person. Weed is the new social drug. Drunk people are just depressing.

[BlanketEffect]

"Kangaroo be stoned - he's guilty as the government"

Reference to the judicial system being just as much to blame for the fucked up situation the drug war has Americans in as the legislative branch? Seems logical/obvious given the rest of the song.

[BlanketEffect]

Yep. Drinking is officially not cool anymore. If you get drunk off your ass, you are a sad excuse for a person. Weed is the new social drug. Drunk people are just depressing.

Good. Get drunk if you want to have an 'ignorant' trip. Smoke pot if you want to have a creative trip. I know these are generalizations but fuck it. It's my post, I'll generalize if I want to.

[Rosenbarger13]

You know, while we're on the whole drug encouragment binge, if you REALLY want to get creative, you could do acid...


but as for the judical system comment, I very much agree. Even if that's not what he means, it is very true. If drugs were legal, people would have a much harder time getting a hold of them. Which I find to be causticly hilarious.

[BlanketEffect]

Did acid a few times, never many blotters and good stuf only once. It was good... not like Ayahuasca, but it was certainly entertaining. I found it very recreational, whereas with DMT I tend to not want to move or talk much.

[figgy2967]

Ganja? PLEASE!!



Booze is for closet conservatives, and people who like 9-5, 70 degree thermostat order. Have fun turning in to your father.

Umm.. Well I'm not in the closet about being conservative but ok.... and I DO work a "9-5".... Is there something wrong with that? but fuck 70 degree thermostat. And i'm nothing like my dad, apart from the fact that we're both booze hounds lol

[figgy2967]

Yep. Drinking is officially not cool anymore. If you get drunk off your ass, you are a sad excuse for a person. Weed is the new social drug. Drunk people are just depressing.

I don't know what type of people you hang around with and I'm surprised your a tool Fan... "Weed is the new social drug"???? lol do you crave other people's acceptance? Must be in high school

[figgy2967]

You know, while we're on the whole drug encouragment binge, if you REALLY want to get creative, you could do acid...


but as for the judical system comment, I very much agree. Even if that's not what he means, it is very true. If drugs were legal, people would have a much harder time getting a hold of them. Which I find to be causticly hilarious.


Ever heard of Amsterdam? Ever been there? I have, and its not hard to get drugs. Also, Amsterdam’s economy is so fucked up because they have to pay for millions of people that go into rehab each year, not to mention it doesn't produce enough "suits" to run any business’s or the government for that matter, so most of its income in from tourism... not enough to pay for all the methadone clinic. I sure as shit don't want that to happen to my country.

Yeah DMT was a bad experience, but I've done acid plenty. :)

[weesper]

Also, Amsterdam’s economy is so fucked up because they have to pay for millions of people that go into rehab each year

right 'millions' of people... (there's less than one million of us living here)

Fact: it costs on average 6% less to have a heroin addict on a free heroin distribution program than it would in not treating them ie the extra cost is made in all the crime that you're treating, not the drug addiction itself. Fact: rates for HIV and hepatitis transmission here are lower due to combined heroin/methadone programs Fact: the number of people entering rehab programs has been decreasing for years but mostly this has been due to a shift towards cocaine addictions for which there's no methadone supplement at this point, this is a global trend.

No need getting into the checks and balances on a fucked up economy relating to the US' astronomical gross national deficit

[figgy2967]

right 'millions' of people... (there's less than one million of us living here)

Fact: it costs on average 6% less to have a heroin addict on a free heroin distribution program than it would in not treating them ie the extra cost is made in all the crime that you're treating, not the drug addiction itself. Fact: rates for HIV and hepatitis transmission here are lower due to combined heroin/methadone programs Fact: the number of people entering rehab programs has been decreasing for years but mostly this has been due to a shift towards cocaine addictions for which there's no methadone supplement at this point, this is a global trend.

No need getting into the checks and balances on a fucked up economy relating to the US' astronomical gross national deficit

Less then one million huh?
FACT! from the CIA world Factbook: "Population: 16,491,461 (July 2006 est.) "
Here's the link if you don't believe me.... See, I can prove what I say is fact. I don't buy what you say unless you can show me a legitimate site that proves it.
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nl.html
How can you not even know your own countries population?!?!?

Your HIV rate is about 1/3 of ours, true but I highly doubt the fact that its because of a combined heroin/methadone program..... I believe it would have more to do with unsafe sex. But neither of us can prove it, so this is both off topic and pointless

The United States' economic deficit is due to the fact that we export such a large majority of our manufacturing to third world countries and because we have such a large military budget. Out debt is 8.8 trillion USD, but we also have a GDP of over 12 trillion USD. So our deficit really isn't that big of a deal.
Not to mention that your Kingdom has a higher unemployment rate (maybe due to the rampant drug use)

My point being, and standing proven, is that the legalization of drugs is a BAD idea, because it fucks up your economy in more ways then 1.

[M.Luther]

now they think AIDS is more commonly transmitted from needles then sex.

[weesper]

Okay I'll cite my references

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=15933353&query_hl=24&itool=pubmed_docsum

This a link to the cost analysis of heroin/methadone program vs a methadone only program and the link where the 6% figure comes from (combined heroin/methadone exist only in the Netherlands and Switzerland most other countries that run rehab programs run methadone programs which is way more expensive cuz your treating neither the addiction nor the crime involved)

You're idea on the US' national deficit is flawed as you confuse cause and effect. The national deficit is actually less because of the military budget as it creates an enormous economic potential. In fact, its skyhigh because a lot of the manufacturing you claim as 'exported' occurs in China where the majority of the US' import comes from where there is an enormous gap in trade balance which creates the national deficit. I doubt whether you'd find this on a CIA website but reading a foreign newspaper would help.

As the former poster has already pointed out most new cases of HIV in the Western world are due to drug use not diminished safe sex practices; clean needle programs reduce this transmission rate.

and finally a link to the number of people living in Amsterdam, less than a million ( 742,951 as of 2005 to be exact) I didnt think you'd be speaking of the whole of the netherlands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam

I'd like to see where you get your employment figures from.

And lastly yes, legalization is a BAD idea. Both hard and soft drugs; I've given my reasons for soft drugs in this thread, on this same page as a matter of fact. However, dealing with it also requires a solution born out of pragmatism not idealism and condoning personal use to allow people to find out for themselves its really plain boring most of the time and combined heroin/methadone programs are part of that solution. I do think the crime rate has gone down exactly because of this approach (and it turns out to be cheaper as well, which started this whole argument I think).

[figgy2967]

I got the employment data from the same website:
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/nl.html
(then click on the list to find the US to compare them, you'll see the Netherlands has a greater unemployment percentage)

As for the heroine/methadone programs being cheaper doesn't change the fact that comparatively, there are still more of them in the Netherlands then there are in the US percentage wise. Hence, the government still having to spend more money on the programs despite the minimal cost difference. Treating the Crime? Didn’t understand what you meant by that.

And in response to the needles issue, the US does have a clean needle program:
http://hab.hrsa.gov/tools/primarycareguide/PCGchap13.htm
They give out clean needles to heroine addicts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in almost every major city in America. This is what leads me to believe that it is more commonly spread via unsafe sex, since the problem of unsafe needles is becoming void. And if you read M.Luthers post carefully he said "now they THINK AIDS is more commonly transmitted from needles then sex" implying that HIV is transmitted via sex rather then needles. Not sure if that’s what he meant, but that’s what it says.

And yeah, I talking about the Netherlands as a whole, sorry for clarifying.
Your right about the economic deficit. That’s what I was getting at when I was saying that they export their manufacturing to other countries, meaning that we buy the finished product and end up loosing out. But the fact remains that we our external deficit is smaller then our GDP, and as far as the military operations go... as you said yourself.. its just a potential

[apc_kid]

Everyone knows this song is about Tupac, duh. lol

http://thaspot.thuglifearmy.com/blogs/drah_cenedive/archive/2006/05/02/4066.aspx

[weesper]

Let's all do the math together (taking heroin as an example)

Netherlands: inhabitants/currents users = 16 299 000 / 32 000 = 1 in 509

http://www.jellinek.nl/drugsvoorlichting/matrix-text.php?m=drugsvoorlichting&t=136&r=1&s=9 (trust me this is authoritative)

US: inhabitants/current users = 299 102 661 / 600 000 = 1 in 498

http://www.ncjrs.gov/htm/chapter2.htm

Yeah you win (or lose by 11 addicts); point is there's not much of a difference in these numbers, I bet doing the UK vs canada you'd get about the same rate.

By treating crime I meant treating street crime related to drug seeking behaviour.

What this does prove is that a lot of the people coming over to A'dam get the wrong idea about all the coffeeshops that appear to be everywhere you look in the city center. I get so sick of going to gigs where every other night you get served up this speech how we are so liberal etc when the band is just too friggin stoned too play a decent show; all those coffeeshops you've seen are by and large servicing tourists.

[figgy2967]

Everyone knows this song is about Tupac, duh. lol

http://thaspot.thuglifearmy.com/blogs/drah_cenedive/archive/2006/05/02/4066.aspx


I've read that before.. Guy's a fucking wack job. Its probably someone like Ali G just fucking around seeing if he can get a reaction out of people for shits a giggles.... the guy CAN'T be serious!

[philipg]

its about how america is a great big melting pot and how saddam waves his finger at it....
yeah nevermind that sucks.

[Mr. Electric Ocean]

Maybe its an argument about how pot is neither good nor bad but used incorrectly... as in we are not ready to experience the affects of these miracles becasue we are a piece of shit society that cant tell right from wrong or when to stop. How can it be enlightening when you really gain nothing from it but a good time. The affects should be used to get somewhere and reach a higher conscience instead of calm enjoyment.

Has anyone else ever thought that we really need to work out other stuff before we do something that pushes ourselves to another vision?

Dont skip steps to enlightenment.

[jdstrube]

It has POT in the title. Maybe they named it "The Pot" because radio and tv might not play a song if it was named POT. Or they would rename it like they did when Stinkfist came out. "The Pot" sounds better than just "Pot", but who knows we can only make assumptions.

"The Pot" is short for "The Pot calling the kettle black"

I'm sorry guys, but I don't believe this song has anything to do with marijuana. The only reference that could possibly be made to pot is when he says, "you must've been high"

[BlanketEffect]

And, if he is saying "ganja police" at the end, (which I've not heard a better suggestion for) then I'd say it certainly is at least referencing marijuana for a metaphor in the song.

[bottom_feeder99]

Yeah!

[BlanketEffect]

Okay, so maybe pot is way more of a metaphor here than a theme.

The actual line is "Ganja? Please! You must have been out've your mind."

So he's saying (and alluding to it throughout the song) that no, being high couldn't even excuse your behavior, you must have been fucking nuts. Ganja? Please. You're using being high as your excuse? Being high couldn't have produced your level of hypocrisy. You must be insane.

Or... something... *shrugs* fuck it, probably wrong. Maybe it tells you to smoke crack if you play it backwards...

[iAMtheMA!]

i liked that, blanket. spot on (so far, heh). i'm still not sure about these lyrics, though, but that's a good interpretation of "ganja? please...".

[one_reflection]

Okay, so maybe pot is way more of a metaphor here than a theme.

The actual line is "Ganja? Please! You must have been out've your mind."

So he's saying (and alluding to it throughout the song) that no, being high couldn't even excuse your behavior, you must have been fucking nuts. Ganja? Please. You're using being high as your excuse? Being high couldn't have produced your level of hypocrisy. You must be insane.

Or... something... *shrugs* fuck it, probably wrong. Maybe it tells you to smoke crack if you play it backwards...

I still think "Ganja..please you must have been outta your mind" is as though he is saying.. "Ganja? Please..you all must be crazy to think this song is about marijuana!" I imagine Maynard would have thought endless amounts of people would immediately jump to the marijuana conclusion so added this at the end to set everyone straight.

Just my idea

[mjkajdcjc]

This isn't about pot. It's about the old saying "pot calling the kettle black." It's convenient to just assume that it's only about marijuana, but Tool is a band that is surely deeper than just writing about pot. Think about "Stinkfist" and "Schism."

[bgparanoid]

hah stating the obvious is easy, its even easier when someone already MENTIONED THAT.. maybe, oh i dont know, like a 100 or so tdn members. kthxbye.

[one_reflection]

hah stating the obvious is easy, its even easier when someone already MENTIONED THAT.. maybe, oh i dont know, like a 100 or so tdn members. kthxbye.

Who are you referring to? And regardless there is no need to be rude about it.

kthnx?

[bgparanoid]

certainly not you. i dont know you. in fact, i dont know anybody from the internet. anyways, i'm paranoid and so are you. lets be friends to the end? a little, internet romance? hmm... time to blaze.

[base metal]

i hear ya

[Inner_Eulogy]

This isn't about pot. It's about the old saying "pot calling the kettle black." It's convenient to just assume that it's only about marijuana, but Tool is a band that is surely deeper than just writing about pot. Think about "Stinkfist" and "Schism."

Exactly....the marijuana reference in this song is STRICTLY metaphorical. I've been screaming this since this stupid thread (which HAD to have been created by pot heads) was created saying it is about pot (marijuana).

[BlanketEffect]

Well, I think the thing here is that it is about a lot of things, drug use being but one. It's a very broad metaphor but the drug imagery and puns aren't coincidental.

[Inner_Eulogy]

Well, I think the thing here is that it is about a lot of things, drug use being but one. It's a very broad metaphor but the drug imagery and puns aren't coincidental.

I understand that...I'm talking about the kids sitting here saying it's about smoking weed and getting high and this and that.

[Pairabowlz]

I agree this song has something to do with reefer, but I don't think it's solely about the plant. I agree that it is a satire of the concept of a "melting pot" where acceptance was once a reality. Now it's conformity or outcasting. Definitely a lot of stabs at hypocrites/liars as well. I also read a statement that man's natural ability to say one thing and do another and agree with that, unfortunate as it may be. But realizing all these things is the first step to rehabilitation, no? ;)

Peace

[Black]

Of all the songs Tool has made, these lyrics have to be the most readily apparent and easily discernable. Just read them as they are. The "pot" in question is NOT the drug, but rather it is a clear reference to the old adage of "the pot calling the kettle black". As in hypocrisy:

"When you pissed all over my black kettle you musta been high"

In other words, when you (the pot) called me (the kettle) black, you must have not been thinking clealry. This is another song about hypocrisy. It's really simple and clearly evident that SOMEONE pissed Maynard off really badly with something they said about him or the band, and he took it as someone "in glass houses throwing stones", which is yet another cliche'd reference in the song.

He refers directly to a "fucking hypocrite" later in the song. It's clear that someone said something that was way over the line, and Maynard returned the favor with this song--which BTW, is a brilliant piece of writing, IMO.

All the references to someone being high are just his reaction to how utterly stupid the attack must have seemed to him at the time. Anyone who said something that inflamitory must have either been high or out of their mind.

Imagine the bullshit these guys probably have to put up with from people saying whatever they want to about them --true or not. And imagine just getting fed up with the stupidity of the press and critics and so-called fans that don't appreciate anything and talk shit about you. It has to wear on them. It would certainly wear on me. My take is that this song is just an expression of that shit they put up with. Part of the price they pay for their position. The pot called the kettle black, and the kettle got a little revenge.

B

[BlanketEffect]

Yeah, so the kangaroo reference, meaning a sham of a trial proceeding, means nothing in the context of hypocrites.

To me, that's the line that ties it most (at least that aspect of the song) to drug use, specifically marijuana. Not the use so much as the legality, and that the courtroom proceedings are really just for show and that you're going to prison to serve your mandatory minimum sentence.

[Black]

Yeah, so the kangaroo reference, meaning a sham of a trial proceeding, means nothing in the context of hypocrites.

To me, that's the line that ties it most (at least that aspect of the song) to drug use, specifically marijuana. Not the use so much as the legality, and that the courtroom proceedings are really just for show and that you're going to prison to serve your mandatory minimum sentence.

I can agree with you that these lines referncing a kangaroo court (a court that has no authority or is corrupt) and slamming lawyers might be about the drug case earlier mentioned. It's hard to say, but that theory is as likely as any other. It seems clear that Maynard is not happy with lawyers or the courts, and I am fully with him on that.

But those lines only make up a small part of the lyrics. My point is that the main theme of the song is clearly that someone (the pot) said something highly offensive to or about Maynard (the kettle), and that he perceived it as the height of hypocrisy. The title is a reference to this, and not to the drug kind of pot. That's all I am saying.

Black

[BlanketEffect]

I think the point of the song is hypocrisy in general. Maybe there are a few specifics touched on "practically raised the dead" and "rob the grave to snow the cradle" and so on... but there are some specific imageries used that to me are no coincidence. The song is about many hypocrites, some of which are metaphorically named in specific.

[Sibs]

Uh, i just read a couple, well, more like 10 posts, but people were confused-ish about the name The Pot. i'm 80% sure that it refers to "The pot calling the kettle black." which comes in the song as "When you pissed all over my black kettle... You musta been, HIGH!" which means the law accusing the public to stop smoking pot, when in fact they smoke it too. that's also why i think it says "Fuckin' Hipocryte.

[BlanketEffect]

*chuckles*

[Inner_Eulogy]

I think the point of the song is hypocrisy in general. Maybe there are a few specifics touched on "practically raised the dead" and "rob the grave to snow the cradle" and so on... but there are some specific imageries used that to me are no coincidence. The song is about many hypocrites, some of which are metaphorically named in specific.

I would have to agree. I could be wrong but, I really think this is more in general than just one guy that pissed Maynard off by being a hypocrite..the general idea I get is government, and if anything to me more so influenced by the "bush" administration and the "war on drugs" or "war in Iraq".

[BlanketEffect]

Yeah, and I always get an imagery of Rush Limbaugh when he says 'fatty fingers'... heh, so great.

[Inner_Eulogy]

Yeah, and I always get an imagery of Rush Limbaugh when he says 'fatty fingers'... heh, so great.

And to reiterate, the line "practically raised the dead" I think favors the Iraq war and the lies behind it. In other words, ever heard the phrase rattle the grave or whatever it is...saying in other words "what you did was so absurd that even the dead almost got up to say something about it"...that may not be the greatest form of analogy but I can't remember the actual figure of speech either right now. And the "rob the grave to snow tha cradle" seems to me to mimic the saying "you robbed Peter to pay Paul"

[BlanketEffect]

It was discussed on a previous thread, a long time ago, about the "Rob the grave" line.

I think the idea then was that the 'grave' was the absentee votes or otherwise illegitimate votes used during the 2000 presidential election.

The 'cradle' refers to the presidency itself and the 'grave' refers to the illegitimte votes. Kind of like voting scandals when ballots are counted and somehow there are votes from people who are dead. 'Snowing' something I believe was described to mean to 'pad the outcome'. So to "rob the grave to snow the cradle," would mean, 'using illegitimate votes/practices to guarantee ascension to the presidency.'

[Inner_Eulogy]

It was discussed on a previous thread, a long time ago, about the "Rob the grave" line.

I think the idea then was that the 'grave' was the absentee votes or otherwise illegitimate votes used during the 2000 presidential election.

The 'cradle' refers to the presidency itself and the 'grave' refers to the illegitimte votes. Kind of like voting scandals when ballots are counted and somehow there are votes from people who are dead. 'Snowing' something I believe was described to mean to 'pad the outcome'. So to "rob the grave to snow the cradle," would mean, 'using illegitimate votes/practices to guarantee ascension to the presidency.'

Well thank you for the explanation. I had not previously seen the other thread but that sure seems to make a lot of sense to me. I stand corrected.

[BlanketEffect]

Well, it's a subjective interpretation... I don't know that you can be corrected. Heh.

[Inner_Eulogy]

Well, it's a subjective interpretation... I don't know that you can be corrected. Heh.

I'm aware of that but, by saying I stand correct means I do believe that theory has much more merit than my own...in other words I jumped off my own bandwagon and joined that one. We could be wrong but I would surely bet that is the accurate explanation.

[BlanketEffect]

We could be wrong but I would surely bet that is the accurate explanation.

Word.

[jlpeezworld]

It's amazing how much it would break your hearts if Maynard actually wrote a straight-forward song about cannibis that didn't have some deep labyrinth of meaning. Not every idea or point needs to be cloaked in smoke & mirrors. Sometimes...in order to get people's attention, you have to hit them over the head with a sledghammer.

"Ganja? Pl-ease!" Is stating if you truly hate cannibis and bought into the years of educational suppression and deception by the "powers that be"...then you must be totally out of your mind and under the influence of something more "evil" than marijuana. Cozened indigo...

But I could be wrong...

[BlanketEffect]

Well, for starters, the 'cozened' thign is totally contrived. He in no fucking way actually SAYS that in the song. Only the printed lyrics. He sings 'chosen' although of course 'cozened' works well as a substitute, both phonetically (almost) and literally.

"Ganja? Please!" I think refers to him saying "Oh, you did this stupid shit because you were high? Right. You must be fucking stupid. Pot doesn't make you a hypocrite, let alone this level of stupid. Ganja? Please. You must have been out of your mind."

[jlpeezworld]

"Well, for starters, the 'cozened' thign is totally contrived. He in no fucking way actually SAYS that in the song. Only the printed lyrics."


I have to ask...are you particularly close to the band or Mr. Keenan himself? You seem to perceive that you have tangible or concrete evidence to support this.

Arguing about the "meaning" of songs is one thing...to claim you know with such certainty what the artist is singing vs. writing is only valid if you have that inside information.

I'll believe you if you can back it up. A small part of me hopes you can.

[BlanketEffect]

Nah, not in any practical sense. Does anyone actually *hear* 'cozened', however? I mean, before you read the 'official' lyrics, was there anyone out there that heard a "k" sound in front of that word? I've listened intently for it and I can never hear anything but a distinct "ch" sound.

Anyone?

[skratch]

I don't think this song is about pot. It's about hypocrisy. The pot that he refers to comes from the saying, "the pot calling the kettle black". And when he says, "you must have been high", I think he offers that as an explanation for such blatantly hypocritical judgement. He's incredulous. As if the only explanation for the other person's behavior is that they were high.

[BlanketEffect]

I don't think this song is about pot. It's about hypocrisy. The pot that he refers to comes from the saying, "the pot calling the kettle black". And when he says, "you must have been high", I think he offers that as an explanation for such blatantly hypocritical judgement. He's incredulous. As if the only explanation for the other person's behavior is that they were high.

Right, but there are several kind of concrete examples he uses to paint that picture of hypocrisy. 'Rob the grave' part about Bush (perhaps), 'fatty fingers' (Rush Limbaugh perhaps?) , 'kangaroo done hung the jury' (drug war reference, perhaps)

I think the song is made up of many examples of hypocrisy from the real world and they're just cleverly written to imply no one specifically, but they are specific examples. The government's/judicial system's stand on the drug war, or more specifically, pot, is one of those examples.

[Alyssa]

It's kind of funny how some people (in earlier pages) were actually wondering if a song called 'The Pot' had something to do with pot! Like, hello I think it's pretty obviously related to marijuana somehow! As for the 'melting pot' ideas, well, I suppose that's a logical conclusion too. But come on, the melting pot isn't so bad, is it? Isn't everyone supposed to be united and accepted? I thought that's what America was all about. Then again I'm Canadian and we've got a sweet cultural mosaic goin' on here, so... =P

In my opinion, 'The Pot' is basically saying how stupidly drugs can make you act. It's pretty obvious. I think they're also referring to other drugs, like cocaine, etc, but are just using dope as an example. After all, who would want a song called 'The Crack'? Oh wait, that'd be pretty sweet, actually.

On another note, in a little while I'll be attempting to sing The Pot with some friends of mine who've learned how to play it. I'm pretty stoked to find out if it sounds good with a girl or if it turns out to be lame.

Probably lame.

-Alyssa

[Inner_Eulogy]

It's kind of funny how some people (in earlier pages) were actually wondering if a song called 'The Pot' had something to do with pot! Like, hello I think it's pretty obviously related to marijuana somehow! As for the 'melting pot' ideas, well, I suppose that's a logical conclusion too. But come on, the melting pot isn't so bad, is it? Isn't everyone supposed to be united and accepted? I thought that's what America was all about. Then again I'm Canadian and we've got a sweet cultural mosaic goin' on here, so... =P

In my opinion, 'The Pot' is basically saying how stupidly drugs can make you act. It's pretty obvious. I think they're also referring to other drugs, like cocaine, etc, but are just using dope as an example. After all, who would want a song called 'The Crack'? Oh wait, that'd be pretty sweet, actually.

On another note, in a little while I'll be attempting to sing The Pot with some friends of mine who've learned how to play it. I'm pretty stoked to find out if it sounds good with a girl or if it turns out to be lame.

Probably lame.

-Alyssa

It was already stated in an interview (I can't remember which band member) that it was in reference to the phrase "the pot calling the kettle black"...

[Alyssa]

Oh, well obviously I havent heard that interview. And I've never actually heard anyone say "The pot" calling the kettle black, I didn't realize it was part of the saying. If it's meant to be about this phrase, why does he say "ganga? p-lease!"? Maybe he's using dope as an example of how hypocritical people can be? I don't know, drugs are dumb. As for this topic, I think pretty much every opinion on the matter has been expressed, maybe it's time to lock it?

[Inner_Eulogy]

And I've never actually heard anyone say "The pot" calling the kettle black, I didn't realize it was part of the saying.


Well you're Canadian....need I say more?

Anyways, I may stand somewhat correct as he does say Ganja please, but I still think he's speaking more metaphorically and just using it as a reference for being hypocritical as has been said. The thing that I'm diagreeing with is the people sitting there and saying "yeah dude, this songs about smoking pot and getting high" the fucking idiots, ya' know.

[BlanketEffect]

I don't know, drugs are dumb.

No. People are dumb. Drugs are tools.

[paravariations]

I read an interview a while ago with Adam Jones, in which he said that The Pot had nothing to do with drugs. It was something about the pot chasing the kettle.
He did say, however, that Rosetta Stoned had to do with drugs, and the effect they can have an a person.

[Inner_Eulogy]

I read an interview a while ago with Adam Jones, in which he said that The Pot had nothing to do with drugs. It was something about the pot chasing the kettle.
He did say, however, that Rosetta Stoned had to do with drugs, and the effect they can have an a person.

Pots don't CHASE kettles, they call them black, get it right. And Rosetta Stoned isn't about drugs, it's about eating peaches (sense the sarcasm due to the pure genius of above statement).

[eataduck]

I also think of the millions of folks popping legally prescribed mood altering drugs everyday

Hey thats me :D

[Inner_Eulogy]

I also think of the millions of folks popping legally prescribed mood altering drugs everyday

Hey thats me :D

Now there's something to be proud of.

[jevons]

ok, well, i think Maynard knows the kiddies are calling it the pot again, so i'd say you're right. (sarcasm test fllight 1-A)
This whole album has anti-drug references (FUCKING HEAR ME OUT): pull your head on out your hippy haze and give a listen, track I, vicariiiiiiiiiiious; you must have been high, das pot, (these are Judith's words), Rosetta Stoned: the whole fucking song.

These references are notifying people the time has come to quit ''enlightening'' ourselves with substances and do it ourselves, alone.

The pot is first person Judith, i'd bet my scotch on it.

[Inner_Eulogy]

ok, well, i think Maynard knows the kiddies are calling it the pot again, so i'd say you're right. (sarcasm test fllight 1-A)
This whole album has anti-drug references (FUCKING HEAR ME OUT): pull your head on out your hippy haze and give a listen, track I, vicariiiiiiiiiiious; you must have been high, das pot, (these are Judith's words), Rosetta Stoned: the whole fucking song.

These references are notifying people the time has come to quit ''enlightening'' ourselves with substances and do it ourselves, alone.

The pot is first person Judith, i'd bet my scotch on it.

LMAO...no kiddin. All the kids sitting there like, yeah man, let's trip balls and listen to Tool because it's cool. Or let's smoke pot while listening to The Pot..hehehe. All the while Tool's scoffing at you retards for going about life and experimenting the way that you are with no frame of reference. It's simply getting high to do so, nothing better to do. I'm not saying they or I myself for that matter are completely against drugs, hell I've had my days but, I also used my head about it. It wasn't getting fucked up just to do it. That's exactly what Rosetta Stoned is about, the guy fucking completely overdoes it and then he forgets the most important fundamental thing he could have. I think it's a little cryptic in basically saying, lay the fuck off the drugs kids, do something more production with your time, and if you do stop to experiment, don't OVER do it and at least make it a learning experience. The guy in Rosetta Stoned just got so fucked up he lost track of what he could've gained from the experience. Which is what I think Maynard's talking about when he mentions the message of hope for those who choose to hear it or a warning for those who do not. In the song it was the secret of life but in reality, it's DON'T forget to be responsible about what you are doing or you'll bypass everything that was important about this experience in the first place.

[paravariations]

Pots don't CHASE kettles, they call them black, get it right. And Rosetta Stoned isn't about drugs, it's about eating peaches (sense the sarcasm due to the pure genius of above statement).
Yeah that was kinda stupid of me. Especially since now I realize that (correct versions of) what I said had already been posted in the thread. My bad.

[author of bible]

LMAO...no kiddin. All the kids sitting there like, yeah man, let's trip balls and listen to Tool because it's cool. Or let's smoke pot while listening to The Pot..hehehe. All the while Tool's scoffing at you retards for going about life and experimenting the way that you are with no frame of reference. It's simply getting high to do so, nothing better to do. I'm not saying they or I myself for that matter are completely against drugs, hell I've had my days but, I also used my head about it. It wasn't getting fucked up just to do it. That's exactly what Rosetta Stoned is about, the guy fucking completely overdoes it and then he forgets the most important fundamental thing he could have. I think it's a little cryptic in basically saying, lay the fuck off the drugs kids, do something more production with your time, and if you do stop to experiment, don't OVER do it and at least make it a learning experience. The guy in Rosetta Stoned just got so fucked up he lost track of what he could've gained from the experience. Which is what I think Maynard's talking about when he mentions the message of hope for those who choose to hear it or a warning for those who do not. In the song it was the secret of life but in reality, it's DON'T forget to be responsible about what you are doing or you'll bypass everything that was important about this experience in the first place.

agreed..

[daddywags]

I think this whole debate about drugs kinda makes me think of the quote

Res non per se at per usum, bona aut mala est (Nothing of itself is good or evil, only the manner of it's use makes it so)

[poudge]

Well you're Canadian....need I say more?

.



racism????????

[Inner_Eulogy]

racism????????

Not exactly, just stereotypical I suppose. But Canada's got some of the most beautiful women, I'll give ya' that.

[ASnakeForEveryEden]

these theories are entertaining .. i say YES to anything u've got to throw in there.

[ASnakeForEveryEden]

As for this topic, I think pretty much every opinion on the matter has been expressed, maybe it's time to lock it?

hey now, don't make assumptions about the limited opinions there could possibly be on weed and "the pot." there may be profound opinions waiting to be shared. i have one. but i'd much rather aimlessly post replies on side-topics.

[broughtskin]

LMAO...no kiddin. All the kids sitting there like, yeah man, let's trip balls and listen to Tool because it's cool. Or let's smoke pot while listening to The Pot..hehehe. All the while Tool's scoffing at you retards for going about life and experimenting the way that you are with no frame of reference. It's simply getting high to do so, nothing better to do. I'm not saying they or I myself for that matter are completely against drugs, hell I've had my days but, I also used my head about it. It wasn't getting fucked up just to do it. That's exactly what Rosetta Stoned is about, the guy fucking completely overdoes it and then he forgets the most important fundamental thing he could have. I think it's a little cryptic in basically saying, lay the fuck off the drugs kids, do something more production with your time, and if you do stop to experiment, don't OVER do it and at least make it a learning experience. The guy in Rosetta Stoned just got so fucked up he lost track of what he could've gained from the experience. Which is what I think Maynard's talking about when he mentions the message of hope for those who choose to hear it or a warning for those who do not. In the song it was the secret of life but in reality, it's DON'T forget to be responsible about what you are doing or you'll bypass everything that was important about this experience in the first place.

totally agree, i think drugs are a good experience, acid is such an eye opener (literally...) and definitely a learning experience, but reality is best, you dont want to lose touch with it completely or youve got nothing

[tryptosaur]

In a couple more decades I'll be running for office and I'll get your pot legalized along with DMT, mushrooms, and LSD.
What an awesome world it could be.

[parables in the world]

then you'll have to watch out for the stupid people who just do it to do it.

[Inner_Eulogy]

then you'll have to watch out for the stupid people who just do it to do it.

FO SHO'!!

[ZoSoCreedy]

To me the song is about American hypocrisy in all its forms. One of the most glaring hypocrisies in America is our drug laws. It's OK to smoke cigarettes, OK to drink alcohol (one of the most destructive drugs in humanity if not THE most), but not OK to smoke marijuana.

The song is about hypocrisy, and marijuana is contained within that big hypocritical melting "pot" that is our nation.

The funny thing is, so many people are brainwashed into thinking that drugs are nothing but destructive to humanity. Even people on this forum... I would've thought TOOL fans would be more open minded.

I'm not saying that drugs are good, I'm just saying that they're not evil either.
People are the ones who are good or evil, not inanimate objects or substances.

If you think drugs are nothing but destructive to society, throw out all your music albums, because most of the people who made that wonderful music you all love so much.... rrreeeal f*ckin high on drugs. (isn't this a quote in a TOOL album?)

;)

Now I'm not saying thats ALL this song is about, but in my opinion it is definitely ONE of the hypocrisies MJK is talking about.


I can't agree more, not all musicians do drugs, but the matter is that weed is not as destructive or dangerous as alcohol. Mary jane even helps prevent/ease cancer. That is a trully good thing. The only problem with Marijuana is that the manufacter is a sceame that they use to add extra chemicals, pixy-dust and other additives make it a dangerous and possibly addictive drug. If grown by ones self and properly used without additives it is simply harmless and nonaddictive.

[mistershow]

It's about marijuana... It's about the ridiculousness of marijuana laws, and in some ways hypocrisy. In the end it's clearly heard that Maynard sings "Ganja police you must have been out your mind."

This is probably my favorite song on the entire album...and I don't smoke weed. So it could be and it couldnt' be. And it can probably be discussed until the end of time.

[Ghostwriter]

I think the song is more or less just about a general form of hypocrisy...

[parables in the world]

Have you seen "In Pot We Trust"....This is about Hypocrisy about the Gov't Still arresting people when in the 70's they let people smoke it for health problems, and also one patient had glaucoma they were growing 4 plants and got arrested when the gov't was conducting research on wheter it helps....It Does help many things.

ALso in the the interview with Adam..he does say it's not about drugs...well marijuana ain't a drug it's a plant that happened to grow and if you catch it on fire it will produce effects to your mind..

[miketh74]

I think the song is more or less just about a general form of hypocrisy...

Agreed Ghostwriter....

When I first listened to The Pot, I thought it had something to do with the melting pot of America (which, of course, it does) and how we piss all over it due to the obvious hypocracies. TOOL is just using weed to get the message across....because there again.....ANOTHER HYPOCRACY!! And probably one of the biggest in all of time. The play on words in the song are a dead giveaway. I would rather have someone rrrrrrreal fuckin' high on hemp drive me home than someone with Johnny Walker or Jose Cuervo between his/her legs....even if it takes a little longer to get there!!

:)

[Inner_Eulogy]

I can't believe people are still going on about whether the song is about weed or not. I figured by now people would come to their senses. I agree with Ghostwriter and Miketh74.

[miketh74]

I can't believe people are still going on about whether the song is about weed or not. I figured by now people would come to their senses. I agree with Ghostwriter and Miketh74.

No kiddin'......I'm surprised this thread has gone 6 pages!!! Took me forever to catch up with it.

Everyone all together now....

"It's all about H Y P O C R A C Y"

[Inner_Eulogy]

No kiddin'......I'm surprised this thread has gone 6 pages!!! Took me forever to catch up with it.

Everyone all together now....

"It's all about H Y P O C R A C Y"

<cough, clears throat and whispers> It's H Y P O C R I S Y

[miketh74]

<cough, clears throat and whispers> It's H Y P O C R I S Y

I'm spelling hypocracy wrong, aren't I?

[Inner_Eulogy]

I'm spelling hypocracy wrong, aren't I?

yup

[Mr. Roquentin]

Hokay, so could some of you please put the bong down for a minute or two? If maynard wanted to tell all of his wonderful fans how shitty the U.S. drug laws are, or to tell us all that weed is okay sometimes, or that its enlightening or whatever other two bit responses you have come up with...if he really wanted to say these thing im pretty sure he would just come out and say it. If 10 000 days is truly the last album than im pretty sure he would have a message a little more important. I think you guys need to look past the name of the song...not that it is unimportant, but becasue you are getting too hung up on it. Look past it and try to come up with something a little more origonal than weed. Honestly, i dont see this world lasting too much longer, and if i had the ares that maynard does...id talk about something a little more influencial than weed. But hey, if you guys want to be all red eyed and giggly, or transe induced and intellectual...whatever, i gues thats just a few less idiots to try and save. See you on the other side, hopefully there might just be one...

[Inner_Eulogy]

Hokay, so could some of you please put the bong down for a minute or two? If maynard wanted to tell all of his wonderful fans how shitty the U.S. drug laws are, or to tell us all that weed is okay sometimes, or that its enlightening or whatever other two bit responses you have come up with...if he really wanted to say these thing im pretty sure he would just come out and say it. If 10 000 days is truly the last album than im pretty sure he would have a message a little more important. I think you guys need to look past the name of the song...not that it is unimportant, but becasue you are getting too hung up on it. Look past it and try to come up with something a little more origonal than weed. Honestly, i dont see this world lasting too much longer, and if i had the ares that maynard does...id talk about something a little more influencial than weed. But hey, if you guys want to be all red eyed and giggly, or transe induced and intellectual...whatever, i gues thats just a few less idiots to try and save. See you on the other side, hopefully there might just be one...

Apparently this guy hasn't read any of the most recent posts. Most of us agree with you here bud. It was a select few "potheads" or however you choose to coin the term that decided it was about weed.

[miketh74]

Apparently this guy hasn't read any of the most recent posts. Most of us agree with you here bud. It was a select few "potheads" or however you choose to coin the term that decided it was about weed.

I'll second that. :)

[TheDude420]

It IS about weed man. The black kettle is the resin caked bowl of his glass piece that some dude pissed on in an effort to clean it, this was obviously a high man who perpetrated this heinous act. Elementary my dear Watson 502

[Inner_Eulogy]

It IS about weed man. The black kettle is the resin caked bowl of his glass piece that some dude pissed on in an effort to clean it, this was obviously a high man who perpetrated this heinous act. Elementary my dear Watson 502

Yeah, keep sprinkling that dust into your pipe

[○dissonance○]

It IS about weed man. The black kettle is the resin caked bowl of his glass piece that some dude pissed on in an effort to clean it, this was obviously a high man who perpetrated this heinous act. Elementary my dear Watson 502

Please tell me you're joking.

[TheDude420]

Please tell me you're joking.

Wha.. nah man im real serious. Its pretty obvious that, along those lines, thats what its about. Then at the end he says "Ganja puh-lease you must..." he is pleading with the dude not to do it, but the guy pisses on it anyway. It works a lil bit try it.

[Rolo]

When it's "pretty obvious", it probably isn't what it's about. That's mostly the case around Tool's lyrics.

[Inner_Eulogy]

Wha.. nah man im real serious. Its pretty obvious that, along those lines, thats what its about. Then at the end he says "Ganja puh-lease you must..." he is pleading with the dude not to do it, but the guy pisses on it anyway. It works a lil bit try it.

Actually, I take that back, keep the dust out of your pipe...it's fucking with your head

[TheDude420]

I dont do drugs man. Ive tried it before and it works pretty well so i cant help but think that this song has something to do with this. Maynard, or any other member of the band for that matter may not have know about this trick and when the dude tried it they were all so amazed/pissed off that they wrote a song about it.

[count66]

Me and my brother was discussing this song the other day and we both concluded that this song has to be about someone getting busted on a marijuana charge.

Let me break the song up for y’all to explain our theory.

Who are you to wave your finger?
You must have been outta your head
Eye hole deep in muddy waters
You practically raised the dead

Now, this first segment is directed to the lawyer who is prosecuting the person the song is about. “Who are you to wave your finger?” is because the lawyer is a abuser just as much as the one on trial. I will explain this further below.
“You practically raised the dead” might be relating to the fact that the prosecutor is getting very worked up about the fact that someone dares to smoke marijuana. Screaming his head off and pointing his fatty fingers at the person on trial.

Rob the grave to snow the cradle
Then burn the evidence down
Soapbox house of cards and glass so
Don't go tossin' your stones around

The “Soapbox house of cards and glass…” bit is there to underline the hypocrisy of letting a coke-snorting lawyer convict a ganja-abuser. “Rob the grave to snow the cradle” is coke-slang followed by “Then burn the evidence down” can refer to the act of burning coke to smoke, or shoot up.

You must have been high

The line above is fairly self-explanatory, the convict probably argues that the lawyer might even had been high when he was giving his statement to the jury.

Foot in mouth and head up ass
So whatcha talkin' 'bout?
Difficult to dance 'round this one
'til you pull it out. boy,

Again, this part is there to say that the prosecutor is full of shit, basically.

You must have been so high
Look above under “You must have been high”.
Steal, borrow, refer, save your shady inference
Kangaroo done hung the jury with the innocent

Actually as English isn’t my main language I’m not quite sure what he means by the above, except of course that “reefer” is slang for marijuana. Although the spelling is off I am sure this is what he is talking about.

Now you're weeping shades of cozened indigo
(Musta) got lemon juice up in your eye
When you pissed all over my black kettle.

The lawyer is apparently worked up enough to shed some tears over the case. Although the one on trial seems to think it’s an act caused by pouring lemon juice in his eyes.
“When you pissed all over my black kettle” might be referring to the fact that the lawyer (or rather, the prosecutor) is crying when he is talking about the heinous act of smoking pot. The word “kettle” in the last sentence can refer to a teapot, and then the jump isn’t that far to “pot”. Black pot, or hashish, or ganja. It’s all the same.

Who are you to wave your finger?
So full of it
Eye balls deep in muddy waters
Fuckin' hypocrite

Here he’s simply saying that the prosecutor is delusional and a hypocrite. “It’s okay to snort/smoke coke/meth and at the same time put people smoking ganja behind bars”.

Liar, lawyer, mirror, show me. What's the difference?
Kangaroo done hung the guilty with the innocent.

“Liar, lawyer, mirror show me. What’s the difference?” is again pointing out the absurdity of the situation.

Ganja? P-lease!
You must have been out your mind

And here he’s just saying, “Really, your busting me for this?!”.
He basically thinks that he’s being put to jail by a prosecutor that is no better than him-self. In fact , he’s much worse.

Anyway, that’s my take on it. Oh and of course, I am sure that even is this could be right, there are a lot more to this song beyond the obvious.

[Kody27]

Me and my brother was discussing this song the other day and we both concluded that this song has to be about someone getting busted on a marijuana charge.

Let me break the song up for y’all to explain our theory.

Who are you to wave your finger?
You must have been outta your head
Eye hole deep in muddy waters
You practically raised the dead

Now, this first segment is directed to the lawyer who is prosecuting the person the song is about. “Who are you to wave your finger?” is because the lawyer is a abuser just as much as the one on trial. I will explain this further below.
“You practically raised the dead” might be relating to the fact that the prosecutor is getting very worked up about the fact that someone dares to smoke marijuana. Screaming his head off and pointing his fatty fingers at the person on trial.

Rob the grave to snow the cradle
Then burn the evidence down
Soapbox house of cards and glass so
Don't go tossin' your stones around

The “Soapbox house of cards and glass…” bit is there to underline the hypocrisy of letting a coke-snorting lawyer convict a ganja-abuser. “Rob the grave to snow the cradle” is coke-slang followed by “Then burn the evidence down” can refer to the act of burning coke to smoke, or shoot up.

You must have been high

The line above is fairly self-explanatory, the convict probably argues that the lawyer might even had been high when he was giving his statement to the jury.

Foot in mouth and head up ass
So whatcha talkin' 'bout?
Difficult to dance 'round this one
'til you pull it out. boy,

Again, this part is there to say that the prosecutor is full of shit, basically.

You must have been so high
Look above under “You must have been high”.
Steal, borrow, refer, save your shady inference
Kangaroo done hung the jury with the innocent

Actually as English isn’t my main language I’m not quite sure what he means by the above, except of course that “reefer” is slang for marijuana. Although the spelling is off I am sure this is what he is talking about.

Now you're weeping shades of cozened indigo
(Musta) got lemon juice up in your eye
When you pissed all over my black kettle.

The lawyer is apparently worked up enough to shed some tears over the case. Although the one on trial seems to think it’s an act caused by pouring lemon juice in his eyes.
“When you pissed all over my black kettle” might be referring to the fact that the lawyer (or rather, the prosecutor) is crying when he is talking about the heinous act of smoking pot. The word “kettle” in the last sentence can refer to a teapot, and then the jump isn’t that far to “pot”. Black pot, or hashish, or ganja. It’s all the same.

Who are you to wave your finger?
So full of it
Eye balls deep in muddy waters
Fuckin' hypocrite

Here he’s simply saying that the prosecutor is delusional and a hypocrite. “It’s okay to snort/smoke coke/meth and at the same time put people smoking ganja behind bars”.

Liar, lawyer, mirror, show me. What's the difference?
Kangaroo done hung the guilty with the innocent.

“Liar, lawyer, mirror show me. What’s the difference?” is again pointing out the absurdity of the situation.

Ganja? P-lease!
You must have been out your mind

And here he’s just saying, “Really, your busting me for this?!”.
He basically thinks that he’s being put to jail by a prosecutor that is no better than him-self. In fact , he’s much worse.

Anyway, that’s my take on it. Oh and of course, I am sure that even is this could be right, there are a lot more to this song beyond the obvious.

This guy and iAMtheMA need to get a room together.

[Rolo]

This guy and iAMtheMA need to get a padded room together.
Fixed

[Kody27]

excellent....smithers.

[Rolo]

Thank you, sir.

[Inner_Eulogy]

Fixed

Haha

[○dissonance○]

LOL

[penguin3989]

To me the song is about American hypocrisy in all its forms. One of the most glaring hypocrisies in America is our drug laws. It's OK to smoke cigarettes, OK to drink alcohol (one of the most destructive drugs in humanity if not THE most), but not OK to smoke marijuana.

The song is about hypocrisy, and marijuana is contained within that big hypocritical melting "pot" that is our nation.

The funny thing is, so many people are brainwashed into thinking that drugs are nothing but destructive to humanity. Even people on this forum... I would've thought TOOL fans would be more open minded.

I'm not saying that drugs are good, I'm just saying that they're not evil either.
People are the ones who are good or evil, not inanimate objects or substances.

If you think drugs are nothing but destructive to society, throw out all your music albums, because most of the people who made that wonderful music you all love so much.... rrreeeal f*ckin high on drugs. (isn't this a quote in a TOOL album?)

;)

Now I'm not saying thats ALL this song is about, but in my opinion it is definitely ONE of the hypocrisies MJK is talking about.

Thats quote from third eye that you threw in their is from a Bill Hicks standup routine. Maynard was a big fan of Bill Hicks.

[Rolo]

Thats quote from third eye that you threw in their is from a Bill Hicks standup routine. Maynard was a big fan of Bill Hicks.

Wow, who would've thunk that! Breaking news!!!!!! :(

[Tool_Is_Sick]

Easy now Rolo, the gentlemen above you...we call n00bs.

But then again, he does deserve a " :( "

The penguins sucks by the way.

[Rolo]

Penguins (http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=mt7HvT5jq5E)

[Tool_Is_Sick]

LOL

[gonzo]

it is perhaps a clever play on words
the pot calls the kettle black
a president calls a dictator crazy and armed
the others are a threat...
and we were all high to believe it, we had to have been...
anesthetized, at least
as in, i'd rather be stoned than shot or clubbed...
and what the song really advocates underneath it all is being aware of hypocrisy
in our selves and others...
christ that sounds preachy...shit, i've become the man...
then i'll post this, and immediately want to change my words around...
this is a work in progress and i have no libretto...
res ipsa liquoteur