Weed The People
When I was a senior in high school during the late 1980s, in a small Central California city not too far from where @DevinCow might presumably reside, marijuana was plentiful. So plentiful, in fact, that just about everybody in my core group of friends had at least tried it.
One 30-something neighbor kept a bag of bud in his garage freezer, right behind the half-gallon brick of mint chip ice cream. A carpool mom down the street escorted us kids to weekend soccer games in a giant Ford Econoline van conversion that occasionally reeked of weed and Nag Champa. My bestie expertly rolled joints in the middle of a public park with little more than a few dried out nugs, a pack of zig-zags, and a well-worn dollar bill. Yes, the green rush was in full effect, and almost a decade before my home state would first legalize the plant for medical patients.
But, to be honest, I wasn’t much of a fan of cannabis back then. One or two hits of who-knows-what strain it was, and I’d be feeling pretty good. But three or more and I was quickly ushered into a dark state of paranoia and social anxiety. I started to avoid the intense internalized pressure of an adolescent puff-puff-pass session, and was soon relegated to the ranks of the nerds and geeks. My bestie still came around, as we’d been tight since seventh grade, but my weekend adventures became more limited and painfully ordinary.
Sure, there were the random unsupervised parties at some schoolmate’s house whose folks had gone out of town and left him or her to keep an eye on things for the duration. But my taste for strange alcoholic concoctions in ubiquitous red Solo cups wasn’t any more developed in those days than my body’s tolerance for THC. Maybe I just needed to tattoo a big “L” on my forehead and embrace my lot in life.
Oh, the petty problems of a white, middle class, suburban dork! Little did I know then how much marijuana had been, and would continue to be, a lightning rod in the court of public opinion. We were all aware that it was illegal, of course, but none of us seemed even vaguely concerned that we’d be in too much trouble if we were caught. After all, so many of the adult role models among us had been teenagers themselves in a generation swept up in the political turmoil, violence, and global threats of the 1960s.
People turned to weed as a way of self-medicating their deep-seated angst (and for a lot of less ominous and more fun reasons too). Yet conservative leadership devised a way to demonize this natural remedy as a scourge on any civil society and, in passing sinister laws with ridiculous criminal penalties, kept millions of predominantly already disadvantaged minorities from realizing their full promise and potential as U.S. citizens. It was, in retrospect, sadly not much different from today’s America.
While it’s fair to say that in 2019 we enjoy a much more relaxed attitude toward pot, given the now epic majority of states that allow its medicinal or fully recreational use, there’s still a ton of misinformation out there. I’m no longer surprised by the legions of social media lemmings who wax poetic about all sorts of crazy, rationally disprovable crap; and I try to limit my exposure to as little of it as possible. But in a world where electronic screens now dominate much of our waking moments, seeds of manipulation are much easier to sow and take root than perhaps ever before in modern society. The largest and most detrimental of these being the ones that traffic fear.
Nowadays I’m all aboard the terpenoid train, and I’m happy to tell just about anybody who’s willing to hear me out. Having had the good fortune to live in a legal state during the past several years, and with access to an outstanding and seemingly endless number of options for experiencing and experimenting with the efficacy of this healing herb, I can’t and won’t ever go back to the dark ages.
The truth about cannabis is that it’s somewhat of a miracle cure, at least in the sense that it’s been used medicinally by humankind for centuries to achieve overwhelmingly positive outcomes. No, it’s probably not for everyone. But now that Canada, Israel, and other forward-thinking nations are conducting extensive and scientifically valid research on the endocannabinoid system, as well as the specific reactive compounds in weed’s many varieties, we’re not long until there’s some comprehensive, legitimized data to prove what many of us 100 percent know to be accurate.
What we users also recognize is that we’re all growing indubitably disenchanted with government forces, on either extreme of the increasingly polarized bureaucratic spectrum, that are working to undermine the full acceptance of cannabis and its exponential potential to help people live happier, more productive, and less worrisome lives.
I’ll spare everyone my pontification on subjects like the ways alcohol, tobacco, opioids, and other legal drugs have destroyed some of our friends and families; how we live in a democracy heavily tilted toward keeping its most disenfranchised citizens forever down and out; or an exposé on the pathetic and wholly terrifying chapter of our country’s history we’re currently watching unfold by the hour on our networked devices.
Instead, from the dweeb who once couldn’t fully appreciate the power of pot, I’ll simply say to anyone who might judge me… absolutely nothing. You’re not worth compromising my zen and faith that the lion’s share of us in this world will get it right. Cannabis can help move society in a much more sustainable, and dare I say phenomenally pleasant direction. That green wave is already in motion. But we can’t stop fighting for change. It’s up to all who agree, to educate others and help eradicate any remaining stigma toward cannabis.
We must resist complacency, apathy, or taking the recent and remarkable progress for granted. History obviously can and does repeat. Let’s commit to be on the side of it that made the planet better for both our own and future generations. Because we never backed down and never stopped advocating for every adult citizen’s right to safe, affordable, and robust access to weed.
Peace.
