Written While High…

High? Yeah, we haven’t done this since the late 70s, when we used to drive to Corfu to visit a Hippie farm and get weed.

But in honor of the med mar thing and with the hope that it would improve our writing, we’re doing it.

We’ve been warned by the saner members of our group that this will only make our digression-loaded prose even more so, but we’re pressing on, going to where other political bloggers fear to go.

Actually, we’re quite sure that other political bloggers are there well ahead of us. Does anyone have any doubt about that?

The point of post? We have additional info on how the decision was made. But first – you must, dear reader, reflect on the phrase: “Get high.”

To “get high” implies that you need and want to be elevated from one (presumably lower) emotional and mental state to another. Right?

Well, we’re not low exactly, but we do have a desire to somehow be lifted. And why do we feel the need to be elevated?  The answer lies in the nature of the new information we have acquired. It’s truly disappointing.  It further erodes our confidence in the Cuomo administration, in governance and the way things are in Albany.

Here’s the substance of it: Apparently, there was a bizarre, mid-course turnaround in the way Cuomo handled the med mar matter.

When he first articulated the criteria for selection of winners, Cuomo cited experience, patient focus, local support, security and financial backing as determining factors.

When Cuomo did this, he was in his Al Haig phase. Remember? He engineered the med mar legislation with the provision that he and he alone would decide the winners. And when asked about that exercise of power and authority, he said: “I did it because I can!”

So here’s the weird part, at some point thereafter, rather than pick the winners and actually be  “Mr. I Am The Government,” Cuomo got weak-kneed and squeamish and girly.

That’s when he kicked the whole thing over to the DOH, otherwise known as the D’OH! (See previous post.)

And the DOH bureaucrats created a scoring system that put a 58 percent weight on “manufacturing and quality assurance.”

This really, really skewed the scoring.  Experience, local support, security and financial backing were worth only a 4 percent weight each.

Now we don’t know when this – the handoff to the DOH – occurred, but it appears to have happened right around the time the bids were being submitted.

And here’s the disappointing thing: It sure looks like some people in town may have got a heads up that the change was going to be made and this may have allowed them to adjust their bids accordingly.

That’s how Bolton St. John could have not one but two winners in the final five.

Yeah, that’s right. Ed Draves was on Liz B’s show last night and he blurted that out. We love Liz, but the fact that she didn’t jump on that tidbit also disappointed us.

So Ed Draves and Giorgio DeRosa had two winners. Their clients knew enough to focus on “manufacturing and quality assurance” and those clients scored high and won the lucrative contracts.

And what are people supposed to say to that?

Maybe it’s: “Well, isn’t that great for Ed and Georgio! They really deserve it because they are such swell guys and such diligent, conscientious and effective lobbyists!”

Now this is where we’re hoping the marijuana we inhaled will have a mellowing effect on us. We’ll pause here and try to be cool … be cool… chill…

Oh, fuck it. This is bullshit. These two guys and Al D’Amato got a heads up. They were tipped off. Isn’t that obvious and isn’t that outrageous?

What other explanation could there be? You’re saying Ed, Georgio and Al are just really up on cannabis manufacturing? They know their strains? They’ve studied extraction methods?

We might be high, but we still know reality. We still know right and wrong, and this is wrong