Rick Steves Speaks Candidly on Pot Topic

[PFlynn]

USA - Like many of you, I'm a big fan of PBS travel guru Rick Steves, the bespectacled and fresh-faced Eurotraveler. I'm becoming an even bigger fan.
We always bring the Seattle-based Steves' useful guides with us to Europe. My wife and I share his shopping-averse, thrifty, get-to-know-the locals travel philosophy.

Only rarely do you hear low-key, straight-arrow Steves, who spends a lot of time here at KQED-TV raising pledge money, say something provocative. Last year when asked what he thought about cruises, Steves replied memorably: "That's not travel. That's hedonism."

But Steves' infrequent outspokenness didn't prepare me for what I heard on the radio up in Seattle recently. Steves was the guest of his pal, local talk-show host Dave Ross (Ross's commentaries are heard here on KCBS).

Great, I thought. I'm going to learn more about European travel.

That didn't happen.

Instead, to my surprise, Steves spent the whole hour intelligently (and, I might add, persuasively) arguing against our country's marijuana laws. It was a side of Steves I hadn't known about or expected. I also had no idea Steves was a board member of NORML. Needless to say, PBS, mindful of its new Republican watchdogs, is sensitive to all this, something Steves conceded. So you have to do quite a bit of searching on Steves' Web site to find his outspoken views on the environment, the legalization of marijuana, etc.

Here's a good place to start: Rick Steves Europe: The Sweet Internationalism of Rick Steves

(In fact, PBS is so nervous about the religious right these days that next Tuesday night's "American Experience" documentary airing on Channel 9 about daring poet Walt Whitman, a gay man, shows a straight couple hugging and kissing in the grass, and a suggestion of even more. But a gay couple is briefly shown and only hugs. No kissing.)

"The more I travel around Europe," Steves told Ross, "the more I realize how outdated and foolish our laws criminalizing marijuana are in this country. Prohibition didn't work, and neither does this." Given all the news about medical marijuana in California these days, Steves is speaking out at a good time. He's one of the very few public figures daring to do so.

A couple of nights later, I caught Steves again, this time on Seattle NPR affiliate KUOW-FM. Steves was addressing University of Washington students, and he was even more outspoken. Watch out for that right-wing backlash, Rick.

"Marijuana hasn't been legalized in Europe," he said. "That's a misconception. It's tolerated. There are government clinics to help marijuana users."

"Right now, in the U.S.," Steves told the supportive college audience, "About the only people who dare speak against our outdated laws are old hippies like Willie Nelson and Woody Harrelson. Nobody in public life is even talking about it. People need to start speaking out.

"I've gone on talk shows and spoken about this. Only when the mic's turned off do politicians and media personalities tell me thanks for talking about legalization."

"Marijuana," he told the UW students, "only becomes a gateway drug when you make it illegal."

Steves has posted even stronger opinions on his web site. One of them:

"To sell its deceitful war on marijuana, our government employs the big-lie technique. When it comes to the drug war's take on marijuana, the propaganda erodes the credibility of the government, of schools and of parents. We've got a White House that spends millions of dollars advertising in the Super Bowl trying to convince people that marijuana causes teen pregnancies. And its ads are surrounded by beer ads! Now, what's causing those pregnancies?"

Keep on travelling _ and speaking out, Rick. Someone needs to.



Source: Oakland Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2008 Media News Group, Inc.
Contact: triblet@angnewspapers.com
Website: Oakland Tribune - Home - Inside Bay Area

[FreakNature]

If you go to the link for his website in the article there are some interesting comments about marijuana use (in particular, his).

[Boss]

I am asking permission from the source to repost this story, it is excellent.

[BroJo]

I never thought I'd use "cool" and "Rick Steves" in the same sentence. His show was entertaining, but not exactly "cool." But ... COOL!

I'm laughing to myself picturing clean-cut Rick Steves doing bong hits.