I'm a cop who just came up with a cool throwaway. Let's get this out of the way. I never tried weed until I retired, and even then it was in a recreational state. I am pro-legalization.

You can't be a regular smoker and LEO under any circumstances for the foreseeable future, even if you're in a non-prohibition state. It sucks, but it's reality. Your friend's only option is to quit and be honest about it.

Don't try to lie on the polygraph. While it's true that they're not 100% and not admissible in criminal cases. It's an investigative tool used to find holes and inconsistencies in stories. The advice to not start your career with a lie is spot-on. Cops aren't bred in special government farms. We came from a cross-section of society so many of us enjoyed cannabis before our careers. Like many others, we accepted the fact that we had to give it up or wait until after our career to enjoy again. You have to accept that your blazing days are over except for an occasional vacation with plenty of time to pee out the green.

As for the comments about being hypocritical, "tax collectors," "natural enemies" and such, if legalization is going to happen, this shit has to be left behind. It's time to knock off the negative rhetoric against law enforcement and move forward. Please don't flame me with links to cops fucking up. That's a microscopic number that's blown up with social media. The reality is that cops have better shit to do and we know it. The VAST majority of ents who get in trouble are being incredibly stupid, smoking in their car, being blatant, etc. When the blue-hair, WASP voting public can't tell the difference between a medical user and a heroin addict when both are bitching about tyrannical police.

The ent world would cry themselves to sleep if the knew how much weed was crumbled up and discarded on the side of the road because the original owner got popped for driving drunk (alcohol) and the cop didn't want to have to do extra paperwork for a lousy joint. Weed may be the center of your world, but not the cop's.

Cops aren't the ones to be convinced that weed isn't as dangerous as booze. We know it. We wish that every violent asshole in town would torch up some bud and put on a movie, because we won't be at his house arresting him for smacking his wife after a case of beer. The voting public needs to be convinced. The people who have never seen weed in their lives and believe all the Reefer Madness Hype need to know. Cops can't say anything about it because it's a career-ender. You're immediately suspected of being in collusion with a criminal element, and all it takes is an enemy to see you puffing a cigar in a pub and you're pissing in a cup. It's not right, but that's the way it is.

There's a post about an old man who loves to smoke a bone and walk his dog in the forest because it makes him feel young. That's what people need to see, not vids of jackbooted thugs shooting dogs. There are FAR more old stoners chilling in the sticks than cops shooting dogs, and that's what voters need to see.

We are not "natural enemies." Please make this go away.

Now, if you've already copied a link to your clipboard that's all about dog shooting, corruption, violence or whatever, keep it to yourself. Find something positive and roll with it. There is WAY more good than bad in reality, I promise.

So, with that, please puff your next bowl in honor of my thoughts because they are the words of many cops who can't speak about it. And fuck you because I can't smoke now.