User Comments, Suggestions, or Complaints | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Advertising
Page rendered in 1.7844 seconds
82 querie(s) executed
Baseball Primer Newsblog
— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Jacksonville Suns Employee Caught Smoking Marijuana on the Job
Zerba the Geeked.
Police say a juvenile told an off duty officer he saw a man smoking marijuana in the stadium during Saturday’s game. It turnded out to be Ray Zerba, Assistant General Manager of Personnel for the team.
...For nearly a year, Ray had the job of his dreams, and in a moment, it was taken away. “One of the best jobs I could ever imagine having and I’ve just kind of thrown it all away, and now I have to pick up the pieces,” said Zerba.
His life fell to pieces while working that dream job, when he was caught doing something he says he’d normally leave at home.
“I’ve been addicted to marijuana my whole life pretty much,” said Zerba.
Repoz
Posted: August 14, 2007 at 02:03 AM | 872 comment(s)
Related News: General, Minor Leagues, LA Dodgers
Related News: General, Minor Leagues, LA Dodgers
My Bookmarks
You must be logged in to view your Bookmarks.
Hot Topics
Newsblog: Sam Hutcheson's Top 11 Sabrenerd Baseball Dork's* Basements
(13 - 5:27pm, Feb 09)
Last: Gamingboy
(13 - 5:27pm, Feb 09)
Last: Gamingboy
Newsblog: MLB: Mays' life and legend transcend statistics
(70 - 5:27pm, Feb 09)
Last: what the hell, just use your initials or something
(70 - 5:27pm, Feb 09)
Last: what the hell, just use your initials or something
Newsblog: Orioles sign P Will Ohman to minor league deal
(2 - 5:25pm, Feb 09)
Last: Esmailyn Gonzalez Sr.
(2 - 5:25pm, Feb 09)
Last: Esmailyn Gonzalez Sr.
Newsblog: Mets' Citi Field to become more homer-friendly next season; center-field wall gets chopped to 8 feet
(21 - 5:20pm, Feb 09)
Last: Swedish Chef
(21 - 5:20pm, Feb 09)
Last: Swedish Chef
Newsblog: Hardball Talk: Gleeman: Lenny Dykstra is back with some more can't miss investment advice
(89 - 5:18pm, Feb 09)
Last: RayDiPerna
(89 - 5:18pm, Feb 09)
Last: RayDiPerna
Newsblog: Rosenthal: Looking back on race, Red Sox
(36 - 5:13pm, Feb 09)
Last: gef the talking mongoose
(36 - 5:13pm, Feb 09)
Last: gef the talking mongoose
Newsblog: Tango: Evaluating the 2009 forecasts - Chone/ZiPS + Fantistics win
(14 - 5:12pm, Feb 09)
Last: Ron Johnson
(14 - 5:12pm, Feb 09)
Last: Ron Johnson
About Baseball Think Factory | Write for Us | Copyright © 1996-2008 Baseball Think Factory
User Comments, Suggestions, or Complaints | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Advertising
User Comments, Suggestions, or Complaints | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Advertising
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
What kind of kid in today's society does this?
Zerba decided not to give in to blackmail, and paid the price. Should have just given that kid the remainder of the stash.
Kids, if the issue is ratting someone out for smoking pot, just say no.
btw, You can be psychologically dependent on pot, but you can't really be addicted because there are no physical symptoms of withdrawal when you quit.
Well actually he did but didn't bother mentioning it. Not that big a deal and you gotta focus on the big things. If you want to consume drugs at a ballpark, you're supposed to make it booze like everyone else.
On a more serious note, I have no real problems with a person recreationally using pot, but I have very limited sympathy for someone who got fired because he did it on the job.
I'm pretty much pro-legalization of marijuana and pro-firing people for being dumba$$es.
D.A.R.E.
It says he was smoking pot in the bleachers. Isn't it illegal to smoke cigarettes in the bleachers most places now?
Kids, don't do drugs. They will #### you up!
Yeah. I believe it's verboten in Florida. So, not only was this guy doing this on the job, he was probably violating some other rule, too.
I mean, I only do so when I'm telecommuting ;-)
STFU. No one is addicted to pot, you're just too damn weak and irresponsible to control yourself.
And doing it at work is just stupid. God, what a disgrace.
1) Marijuana should be legal, for, at the very least, competent adults to use.
2) It's not addictive, regardless of what this idiot says.
3) He should fired just as a guy who gets drunk on the job would be.
4) That narc kid makes me sick.
Have you ever been to a Jacksonville Suns game... on weed??
Seriously though, if this guy is claiming to be addicted to pot and that being the assistant personnel director for a minor league baseball team is his dream job, then he probably isn't so much of a visionary/hero in the first place.
Isn't that what the show pretty much is? Not that I don't still get a chuckle from it.
Smoking weed in the stands while at work: also stupid
Have you ever been to a Jacksonville Suns game... on weed??
And to think that the guy who introduced that comedy motif is now one of the most respected men on television. If that isn't a sign of progress in our society, I don't know what is.
I can't disagree. The first four episodes were better than what's come since. I doubt this show has serious staying power. (Although the video sequence for "It's Business Time" was pretty damn funny.)
Watched it for the first time the other day (sober, which was probably a mistake) and I thought it would fit much better in the adult swim schedule, as a fifteen minute show. I don't think they've got enough to fill 22 minutes, but they could make a strong 10-12 minute show.
I think there's a solid foundation. Season 2 will be interesting. From what I've read, they wrote plots around the songs they already had written which is why they seem forced sometimes. It'll be interesting when they start writing songs and plotlines more organically.
Really. Is that why more than a quarter of a million people a year in America check into drug rehab for marijuana addiction?
Granted, pot is substantially less addictive than many other more powerful drugs, but this idea that it isn't at all addictive for anyone is nothing but B.S. put out by the pro-legalization lobby.
As someone with a family member who's gone through this, I can tell you that there's nothing funny about it.
Flight of the Conchords would be perfect as a series of those little shorts.
It would also be an incentive for leaving HBO on at the end of a movie and watching a few commercials for their original stuff. Perhaps after a few shorts they would have a special that showed a few of them (or offer them On Demand to encourage people to purchase that package).
if by "pro-legalization lobby" you mean "doctors" and "scientists" and "people who make a profession out of understanding how the human body operates", than you're dead on.
No, that's probably largely employer and/or parental requirements that lead to that. I could check into rehab for heroin addiction, but it doesn't mean I'm addicted to heroin.
What people are saying is that it isn't physically addictive, like heroin or cigarettes or alcohol or coffee (to varying degrees).
Psychologically addictive, like gambling? Sure.
Bull. The official position of the American Medical Association and the Institute of Medicine is that marijuana should remain a controlled substance, they are opposed a blanket ban of prescriptions for medical purposes.
And the beneficial compounds of cannabis such as THC can be obtained in legal FDA approved prescription drugs such as Marinol, without any of the negative effects of doing something as stupid as inhaling smoke and other toxins from a plant.
My understanding was that they were only doing a 12 episode series.
That would be ok, too. It would be like the Louis CK show then. Man, was that Louis CK show filthy. What a great show!
Just curious, but you noted that 250,000 people check into rehab for pot. What are the numbers for heroin? Cocaine? Um ... ALCOHOL??
Aleskel's statement didn't go to those points. It went to whether marijuana was physically addictive.
That's sort of my thinking - I'm all for research into the palliative properties of THC, but the pro-medicinal marijuana's insistence on allowing smokable marijuana is a bit puzzling. It's a bit like saying that morphine has medicinal purposes, so we should allow people with pain problems to smoke opium.
Does this mean his show is done? That stinks.
Non-sequitur.
edit: 45 & 46 beat me to the punch.
Plus, by limiting it to the first four episodes, you've apparently forgotten arguably two of the funniest exchanges in the show so far:
From Episode 5:
Murray: Planet Jemaine has supernovaed. There's apparently nothing left but a gaseous cloud and the beginnings of a black hole.
Jemaine: When did this happen?
Murray: About 4 million years ago.
From Episode 7:
Dave: You know, the English, the oppressors. You guys are pretty much the most hated race in the whole country.
Jemaine: What about black people?
Dave: They don't like you either.
Yep. It's toast.
The Conchords mini-tour was funny in the last episode. Murray is a comic goldmine.
The bit in the most recent episodes about the $8 can of mixed nuts from the mini-bar and how it led to the television getting thrown out the window was pretty funny.
If you're talking about shows like "12 Oz. Mouse", I agree. There are still a couple of pretty funny shows on there ("The Venture Brothers" and "Frisky Dingo" are pretty good). It seems like they've focused a lot of attention on bringing in new anime lately, which I guess is nice if you like anime.
Stay away from the drugs kids. They will #### you up!
"It's a classic rock and roll move".
"I was happier with the mixed nuts caper".
I also liked "Per diem means for the day. You should have called it per weekum".
I like how the few times you see them perform, it's always Jemaine singing that awful "Rock the Party Song". Also, the conversation about penguins a couple of episodes ago made me laugh. Peen-guins. It's stupid, but it's funny how they say that to me. (No, I don't smoke pot while I watch it. In fact, I rarely smoke anymore. Maybe once a year at a party. I feel kind of sorry for my friends pushing 40 who still need to toke up everyday. Why can't they just get their high posting on internet message boards like civilized people?)
"Brett"
"Britt?"
"Brett"
"Britt?"
"... Britt"
"ooooh, Britt!"
I thought that was hilarious. Sort of an Inspector Clouseau accent joke.
Oh, and I absolutely loved Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. Now that its done, I won't have any reason to watch Adult Swim, except for the odd Futurama and Family Guy rerun.
By the way, was that Kate Pierson in the cameo as the club operator who slammed the door in their face?
There was a similar one in the third episode when Jemaine got mugged, and no one knew where he was:
Murray: He may be dead.
Dave: He maybe did what?
Murray: No, he may be dead.
Dave: Yeah, I know, he maybe did what?
Murray: No, he may be dead.
Dave: Yeah, maybe he did, maybe he didn't. What did he maybe do?
Bret: No, he may be dead.
Dave: Are you guys fvckin' with me?
The jokes about Australia never get old, either. I loved how the episode with the racist fruit stand owner ended up with the band discovering the power of "the bird" and uniting with the fruit stand owner with their hatred of Australians.
It is a bit like that, but when medical marijuana legalization occurred, there was no way to get the THC equivalent of morphine (and as far as I know, there still isn't). So selling it in its relatively unprocessed state was the only option, and the easiest thing to do with that is to smoke it. By the way, I'm not naive about the primary role that supporters of broad legalization had in getting medical marijuana legalized, nor am I naive about the fact that medical marijuana distributors turned, to some extent, into recreational marijuana sales operations, but this is a different case.
Years ago, shortly after the California legalization occurred, I got a call from an MD who ran a (I assume) legitimate medical marijuana distributor. He said he thought there was mold on their pot, and he brought some in, and sure enough, I found a number of potentially toxic fungi. He asked if the toxins would make it into the patient, and I could only say I had no idea. It made me wonder what one would find growing on the pot people buy for recreational use.
There's got to be a better way. Aren't we doing our damndest to eliminate tobacco from society? Isn't inhaling the smoke of anything a generally bad idea? No wonder the AMA doesn't want to endorse this.
Brownies? I'm all for a gummy bear shaped marijuana conduit as well.
Only things like PCP.
Aren't we doing our damndest to eliminate tobacco from society?
tobacco is much worse for you than pot.
Huh? Marinol (dronabinol) was approved for chemotherapy patients all the way back in 1985, and for AIDS suffers in 1992.
Sure, but a better way wasn't going to happen. California passed medical marijuana in 1996, and it still hasn't as far as I know. In the meanwhile, people were dying painful deaths. Preventing a terminal AIDS or cancer patient from using what I am sure is an effective therapy because smoking might harm them seems very misguided.
Are you sure about this? What sorts of studies have been done about cannabis and lung cancer/emphysema?
its not entirely clear whether cannabis is "safer" than tobacco. Cannabis smoke contains more tar, but even the most devoted potheads don't inhale as much smoke as an average cigarette smoker. So in that sense, cannabis is somewhat safer, just because you don't smoke it as much (i.e., you don't need to smoke as much to get the desired effect as you would with tobacco and nicotine).
How do you rebel against the iconoclast? By joining the establishment.
*Marijuana's illegal, kids. Maybe it shouldn't be, but it is.
*Marijuana's addictive, kids. Maybe not as much as other drugs (or booze, or rooting for the Red Sox), but it is.
*Realizing the first two points doesn't make you the guy pounding the desk and screaming "TEACH YOUR CHILDREN!!" in Reefer Madness.
*Lay off the kid. He reported a guy who was breaking the law; isn't that what a good citizen is supposed to do? (Yes, I know, spitting on the sidewalk, blah blah blah.) When somebody finks on somebody committing a crime, it doesn't mean we're one step away from living in Oceania and/or Amerikkka.
*Kristen Schaal is awfully cute. So there.
"F### You, dad. I want MORE taxes! And jail time for potheads and prostitutes! And BIG MFin' government! You don't own me!"
*Marijuana's illegal, kids. Maybe it shouldn't be, but it is.
*Marijuana's addictive, kids. Maybe not as much as other drugs (or booze, or rooting for the Red Sox), but it is.
*Realizing the first two points doesn't make you the guy pounding the desk and screaming "TEACH YOUR CHILDREN!!" in Reefer Madness.
*Lay off the kid. He reported a guy who was breaking the law; isn't that what a good citizen is supposed to do? (Yes, I know, spitting on the sidewalk, blah blah blah.) When somebody finks on somebody committing a crime, it doesn't mean we're one step away from living in Oceania and/or Amerikkka.
*Kristen Schaal is awfully cute. So there.
whoa. buzzkill.
No drug is "addictive" if by "addictive" one means the most extreme "once you start, it is impossible to stop." Many drugs are "addictive" if by "addictive" one means the loosest "once you start, you may want to continue." Politicians and the drug treatment-industrial complex regularly exploit confusion over where one is on the spectrum to make absurd statements and promote their agenda.
No, that kid is a total piece of ####. No one gets hurt by some dumbass smoking a joint on the sidewalk, even if it is illegal. Was the guy stupid, did he deserve to lose his job? Probably. But that kid took part in ruining that guy's life. Why, I have no idea. Maybe he's a self righteous little prick who thinks he's making the world a better place. Doesn't excuse him for making things so hard for another human being who's committing a victimless crime. He should have his lunch money taken from him for as long as he's in grade school for being such a tool.
I don't think "good citizens" ruin other people's lives for no reason, no.
Here is a loaded topic. What is the difference?
From Buddha, then Christ, to the Black Panthers, and now Aaron Watada, people have been trying to figure this out for a long time.
While it's too early to tell, maybe that kid helped turn the dude's life around. Why, in a couple of years, maybe he'll have straightened out and took over Dave Littlefield's job.
That's definitely a philosophical question, one that starts with the difference between morals and ethics. For instance, a law cannot be deemed immoral based on personal morality because it leaves the door open for cults, mercy killings, and otherwise culturally unacceptable behaviors. That very concept of cultural acceptance begs a difficult question of relativity, one which is divisive enough that it probably shouldn't form the basis of legality, or even an ethical standard. There has to be some bright line between them, which means that we have to identify some materially significant difference not between an illegitimate and a legitimate law, but between the actions taken in response to the law (such as the disobedience). If the resistance entails some sort of material deprivation toward anyone at all, the quantifiable negative impact outweighs the ambiguous personal gain associated with a single act of disobedience. In other words, if the crime is demonstrably victimless, the morality of it has very little weight.
from wikipediaorg, which is of course 100% correct:
It takes over one hour for Marinol to reach full effect, compared to minutes for smoked or vaporized cannabis. Some patients accustomed to inhaling just enough cannabis smoke to manage symptoms have complained of too-intense intoxication via Marinol's predetermined dosages. This powerful psychoactive effect, however, has led to recreational use of Marinol. Many have said that Marinol produces a more acute psychedelic effect than cannabis and it has been speculated that this disparity can be explained by the moderating effect of the many non-THC cannibinoids present in cannabis.
I'm not usually religious, but in this case I'll give God his due. He created a better version of marijuana than we have. We should just tip our cap and let it ride.
Some taking Marinol to manage nausea have stated that often the Marinol capsule is expelled before it can take effect.
If the resistance entails some sort of material deprivation toward anyone at all, the quantifiable negative impact outweighs the ambiguous personal gain associated with a single act of disobedience. In other words, if the crime is demonstrably victimless, the morality of it has very little weight.
So are you a utilitarian or not?
"I DECLINE to be slave to precedents or practice I cannot understand or defend on a moral basis." (YI, 21-7-1921, p228)
I think the boy and Ray Zerba practiced the opposite; the boy submitted to a law he couldn't have fully understood and Zerba was a slave (as he saw it, an addict) to a morally bankrupt practice.
So you aren't a "good citizen"?
Think this guy was going to drive home later? Under the influence? Of course, DMN doesn't think driving under the influence should be illegal - only actually injuring while under the influence should be (or property).
When you come up with an appropriate "breathalyzer" or equivalent, then you can have your legalized pot.
I would like the government to state this, then watch all the hippie scientists race in a modern day Manhattan Project.
Do you assume the same of all the people at a ballpark drinking beer?
What do you mean by "equivalent"? I think you could easily come up with a series of "recite the alphabet backwards"-type tests for pot use. If you're referring only to some sort of electronic device, does that mean that you think alcohol should have been illegal before the breathalyzer was invented?
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main