According to cannabis advocacy journal Marijuana Moment, liberals are six times more likely to smoke weed than conservatives.

There’s no surprise in that one. 

 When your life constructs are grounded in fantasies, you need a little something extra to help you cope with relentless brushes with reality.

 That might also explain why Asheville is a haven for an equally relentless drug culture.

 We like our substances in Asheville. Be it beer, fentanyl, meth, shrooms, street weed, or soy-based tofu, here you can find your favorite reality dodge with little or no effort.

 It’s recently gotten even easier.

 Did you know you can purchase marijuana over the counter here in Asheville and a whole lot of similar places in North Carolina?

 They don’t call it marijuana, but that is precisely what it is.

 Through bio-engineering and creative manipulation of the legal system, the “get high on life minus the hassles of reality” crowd has found a way around the law.

 Those who formerly had to tip-toe around to buy their dope, now simply walk into an air-conditioned retail venue and make their purchase from shelves full of sophisticatedly packaged “CBD” products that look like marijuana, smoke like marijuana, and get you high like marijuana.

 Though some would argue the traditional (if you can call bio-engineered super-weed traditional) marijuana will get you a better high, most consumers suggest there is very little difference.

 Our state’s store-bought marijuana does cost more than street weed, but not because the state is regulating/taxing it like they do in places like California and Colorado. The only revenue North Carolina is getting from “sneaky weed” is the same as they get when you or I make a purchase at Wally World.

 This intentionally overlooked back-door phenomena tracks to the skill to generate and obtain legal approval for a CBD product with no intoxicant capacity before it is hocus-pocused into something that can get you high.

 In most stores “sneaky weed” is labeled as a Delta 8 or Delta 9 product. 

 For enthusiasts, take heart that “new and improved” Delta 10 will soon be available in a store near you. 

 In my psychology practice, patients tell me they no longer bother with street weed or bugging their Colorado cousin for some gummies.

 Though it costs a little more than what their old high school buddy delivered out of his 20-year-old Crown Vic, the high is pretty much the same and the fancy packaging certainly beats a grungy baggie.

 One will note that our law enforcement agencies and local, state and federal bureaucrats/elected officials have been silent on our unofficial legalization of retail marijuana products in North Carolina. 

 When it comes to our ballooning drug culture, it is apparent we have surrendered to a governance model of struggling to clean-up messes versus responsibly preventing same.

 Any mom in America can tell you how that’s going to turn out.

 It’s always fun to watch the reaction from the pro-weed crowd whenever someone suggests this stuff is a slow slide to bad things.

 It’s not that it doesn’t work – it’s that it does work – and really, really well.

 Anything that helps you get mindless and step over the hurdles of life is guaranteed to be very attractive.

 In terms of how our world works, that’s like taking a bunch of pain-killers just before you lay down in front of a highway steam roller.

 Sorry to share this to Asheville’s drug enthusiasts, but life is hard.

 Trying to dodge your hard with weed or other intoxicants may give you a temporary pass, but the realities of life will just stack up and beat the crap out of you later.

 You may be able to buy sneaky weed in Asheville and temporarily sneak around reality. 

 While you’re doing that, reality is just as sneakily smiling and preparing to cop your buzz....