Opinion: Legal marijuana at last — 52 years after smoking his first joint

To the editor: I smoked my first joint in 1965, on the night I went to a theater in Orange County shortly after the release of the film “The Pawnbroker.” (“For marijuana users, it’s high times as California makes recreational use legal,” Jan. 2)

I remember sitting in my friend’s car out in the street, sucking up marijuana smoke for the first time in my life before we went inside. It gave me an easy, relaxed high — absolutely nothing like I thought it was going to be.

“Hell, there is nothing wrong with this stuff,” I told myself. “I am sure it will get legalized in a year or two.”

This week, I sat in my living room in Inglewood and smoked the first legal bowl of weed I have ever consumed in my house. It only took 52 years.

J.R. Ball, Inglewood

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