It seems clear from Friday’s “Photo Gallery” feature in Hampshire Life that reporter Kevin Gutting’s experience with marijuana amounts to near zero. As someone with familiarity with this substance, I must object, first, to the lack of fact-checking on these items:
NETA was not the only retail outlet to open the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The other was in Leicester.
Limits on purchases continue at NETA; they did not only last the first few days. Most people on those NETA lines wait for a very small amount of marijuana flower. The limit is one-eighth of an ounce. That’s maybe a few joints.
All these gentle people you see waiting are not a zoo, except in your viewpoint. They are a Soft Parade waiting patiently for some sanctuary, however private, from a world that allows no easy relief for them except this. Where is your compassion? Please consider that the people you think of as sad, soup-line bums might have challenges that would cause others to use alcohol or addictive prescription drugs. People who resort to those substances to take the edge off are damaged by comparison. I hope your personal choice is something positive like yoga. Remember this is a plant, not a chemical mix. Hey, besides all that heaviness, there is such a thing as cutting loose on a Friday night!
As for Paul Simon, your report prompted me to research “Bookends.” It seems he did his best writing with a little hashish. Maybe you should try the line across the street and see what it’s all about. More facts: You will need to make a reservation first for that preorder line opposite the Gazette. Or just show up unannounced for the east side walk-in line, from Pleasant Street, for the longer wait. (P.S. NETA does not offer hashish, but I have it on good report that their flower is pretty good.)
Either way, the line is not the zoo you think. You might hear some good stories. And you might take that edge off. I’ll even go with you. At least allow that the parade will contribute to Northampton’s tax coffers, due to the 3 percent tax they are paying. The commonwealth will also do quite well on taxes. You are blessed, man. Don’t be a bummer no more, OK? And keep up the good photography.
Chris Bowen
Southampton
[Editor’s note: Staff writer and photographer Kevin Gutting responds to the reader below.]
Hi Chris,
You have misinterpreted and rewritten the core of my text: “sad, soup-line bums” is your phrase, not mine.
When I wrote that the waiting line at NETA made me think of the photographs of 1930s soup lines, I characterized both of those lines, not the people in them, as “sad.” The cause, or “need” if you will, for these lines is what is sad — it is certainly not a judgment of the people in them. As I stated, the people are just looking for relief, however small.
One line of people seeks relief from the Great Depression, the other seeks relief from the legacy of marijuana prohibition, which, ironically, also dates to the 1930s.
Sorry that I came off like a compassionless bummer. I sincerely apologize for the misguided pairing of my photo with the title “It’s all happening at the zoo,” an oblique and unnecessary reference to the last track on “Bookends,” in which animals “turn on frequently.”
Your “Soft Parade” is the perfect title. By the way, I, like the hamsters, have turned on frequently, and though I closed that chapter long ago, I do not begrudge those hardy souls across the street and wish them all the best!