There's a fellow Valkyrie rider out there in Texas. He writes books, blogs, and has some interesting stories to tell. His name's Daniel Meyer, You should check out his Site for large amounts of entertainment. The following is his.....

Disturbing

Regardless of how you or I feel about the drug war, the thing that is not debatable is that the drugs are out there. With the current price, regulations, and taxes on cigarettes, the handmade kind of the five-leaved variety are actually competetive in price.

Interesting, that. Scary too, considering the sheer effort, Constitutional dilution, and cash that’s gone into eradicating the stuff.

Anyway, that particular five-leaved plant is a weed, hence its nickname. I doubt it will ever even be controlled, much less eradicated.

My purpose in this post is really not to debate that. The stuff is out there. In quantity. That’s a fact.

For those that imbibe in that particular vice, there is something you should know about motorcyclists.

We know, you see, if you are smoking it in your car. Even at 80mph on the freeway, we can smell it. Even from the so-called “smokeless” pipes. Yes, even with the window up.

Yes, we can smell cigarettes, cigars, pot, strong cologne, or even if a driver hasn’t showered in a few days. And yes, we can identify the particular car that’s the source of the odor.

I’ve nothing against alcohol, but I’ve got something against those who drive while using it (we can smell that too). I suspect my attitude on weed is the same.

It’s disturbing to know I have to share the road with drivers that are impaired. Hell, enough of the unimpaired and somewhat alert drivers try to kill me on a daily basis to make my commute interesting to say the least, the impaired ones are an added and unpredictable hazard I just plain don’t need.

So it’s disturbing to me that in any typical commute I can identify at least 4 or 5 cars whose drivers are smoking weed. I know many of the users of this particular vice think that they are not impaired. That’s a trait of the drug, just like alcohol. It’s an argument I’ve heard before.

I have to share the road with them. I get to see them drive. Impaired, yes. They are. Just like the drinkers.

I’m not naive…not at all…but it still disturbs me to identify these cars and know that they are operated by somebody that’s impaired, but is adamently confident that they are not.

All that above was said to point out how particularly disturbing to me this morning’s commute was.

Five drivers smoking weed. Five cars positively tracked, identified, and ultimately given a wide berth. It’s actually not an unusually high number of them, so why particularly disturbing?

Out of the five…three of them were police cars. One of those was an ATF car (the US’s version of the Gestapo).

Who do you call when the inmates are running the asylum?

Y’all be careful out there.