Ireland to Legalize? + Granny Got Stoned

Like many early attempts, I really expect this bill to fail. But it IS a first step toward legalization! Maybe next time it will pass?

Irish Lawmaker Files Bill To Legalize Marijuana Possession For Adults, Draws Early Criticism From Top Government Official
Irish Lawmaker Files Bill To Legalize Marijuana Possession For Adults, Draws Early Criticism From Top Government Official


An Irish lawmaker has filed a bill to legalize marijuana possession nationwide for adults 18 and older—but a top government official has already raised concerns about the reform proposal.

People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny introduced the long-anticipated legislation on Thursday. It would legalize possession of up to seven grams of cannabis and 2.5 grams of marijuana resin for personal adult use.

The bill is currently before the Dáil Éireann, the lower chamber of Ireland’s legislature. It’s not clear if lawmakers from competing parties will work to advance it, but the the sponsor said that he expects the body to have a “wider debate” on cannabis reform “next year.” (snipped)

Thinking about Ireland and possible legalization got me thinking about something I did years ago. I got really stoned on a St Patrick's Day and the song "Wearing of the Green" came on the radio, and my stoned brain twisted it into this-

Toking of the Green

(With apologies to Dion Boucicault, but somehow I think he would understand!)


Oh my friends, dear, and did you hear
The news that's going round,
Cannabis is forbid by law
To grow on any ground.
420 Day no more we'll keep
The plant it can't be seen
For there's a bloody law agin'
The toking of the green.

I met with Rapper Tandy
And he took me by the hand
And he said "How's our home land?
And how does she stand?"
She's the most distressful country
That ever you have seen,
They're jailing men and women there
For toking of the green.

Then since the laws we must endure
Are by racism fed
Sure all tokers will n'er forget
All the blood that that has been shed.
You may take the pot seed from your joint
And cast it on the sod,
But 'twill take root and flourish still
For its blessed by God.

When the law can stop the blades of grass
From growing as they grow,
And when the buds in summer time
Their trichomes dare not show,
Then I will change the leaf
That I toke unseen,
But till that day I'll stick for aye
To toking of the green.

But if at last our sweet herb should
Be torn from our land's heart,
We all with shame and sorrow
From the dear old sod will part.
I've heard a whisper of a country
called Cali-for-ni-ay,
Where tokers can light one up
In the light of freedom's day.

My friends, how can you bear this,
These laws by the prohib's hand?
Must we ask a mother's welcome
From that strange, but happy, land?
Where the cruel cross of prohibition
Never shall be seen
And where in peace we'll live and die
Toking all that green.


Granny