Arnon Grunberg
Words Without Borders

Corruption Is Just a State of Mind

From time to time, the inevitable question is asked, "Where are you from?"
My answer is usually limited to the name of the city where I was born and where I grew up. What else is there in the Netherlands? What follows is a short and not always entertaining conversation about drugs, prostitution and libertarians.
So I wasn’t too surprised to read in Saturday’s New York Times an article by John Tierney with the headline “Lighting up in Amsterdam.” (For some reason, the headline on the web-edition of the paper was changed to “The Czar’s Reefer Madness.”)
The first paragraph features a certain Arjan Roskam, winner of the award-winning marijuana blend “Arjan’s Haze.” Although I don’t smoke--it's not because I'm against it, I just don’t like it--I do hope to create, with the help of some friends, an award-winning marijuana blend, “Arnon’s knuckle sandwich,” before my fortieth birthday.
Mr. Tierney’s central thesis is not very new and neither is it shocking. Smoking pot is no worse and no more dangerous than drinking booze. While reading Mr. Tierney’s column, I was reminded of comments by Oliver Stone, who observed that in Vietnam, soldiers who smoked pot happened to be less cruel than soldiers who used alcohol to calm down.
There will be a supply as long as there is a demand. And isn’t there a rule of war from some Chinese warrior that you should not engage in wars that cannot be won? The counterargument goes like this: should we legalize contract-killers, because there will always be demand and so the supply is not going to fade away? To legalize contract-killing goes one step too far, maybe, but let the contract-killer pay taxes, and don’t make his expenses tax-deductible.
In the meantime, I hope that some pot-smoking readers can send me suggestions for “Arnon’s knuckle sandwich.” I’m on my way to corrupt a whole generation, but as we can see every day, corruption is just a state of mind.


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