Drug Laws Apparently Do Not Exist at Reggae Shows

Feeling "irie" in public is apparently OK as long as you're accompanied by a group of Jamaicans.

I had the honor of seeing reggae legends Toots and the Maytals play at The Roxy recently. Now, I've been to plenty of outdoor reggae concerts, so I know the score. I'm hip. I'm down. I know what happens when a bunch of reggae fans are outside and looking to have a good time: A certain narcotic tends to get consumed. It's expected and that's alright with me.

But this show was at The Roxy, which is an indoor rock club that holds about 300 hundred people. You might think not even the most brazen of blazers would dare roll up a woolie in a public place the size of your parents' living room. But low and behold, the green fog was so thick that I got a contact high from the inordinate amount of marijuanas being smoked in there.

This was especially confusing because for being such a tiny club, the Roxy was crawling with security; a brigade of 350 pound dudes with chips on their shoulders and balls for brains. They weren't really the kind of guys whose authority you challenge. Plus you can't even smoke cigarettes indoors in LA, so its not like you can pretend the smoke coming out of your face isn't a controlled substance.

But there we were. Dancing, drinking, and inhaling the sweet aroma of the devil's herb like we were in a college dorm room on April 20th at 4:20pm. At first, everyone was making eye contact with everyone else, almost to ask, "which one of us is a nark?" But it turned out it was none of us, and we all spent the evening like I imagine this country spent the 60's. We were high, the band was high, The Roxy sold an unbelievable amount of cheese pretzels.

So I guess as far as the law in concerned, reggae concerts are like international waters where no court can convict you of a crime. Next time I'm at a reggae show I'm going to try something really illegal just to see what happens... like starting a cockfight.