The Matter of Marajuana — -Okay NOW what do I do?
NEWS April 2017--the Feds have just admitted that pot is able to kill cancer cells and be of other health benefits!
Other than jettisoning a funny little plant, and a funny little pipe in the drawer in the basement bedroom, the first time I REALLY encountered a true and honest interface with the matter of marijuana was when I visited my son at college and asked him why he was in such a nasty mood. He said, “Mom, I’m trying to stop smoking pot…okay?” He said it with a frustrated tone of voice and a sort of sneery face.
Since then the stories have come out that, “…sure, everyone does it. Even the trusted parents of neighborhood buddies have their little stash. Do they care if the kids smoke it? Not that much.” (they are sooo relaxed, y’know.)
I’ve steered around it, just seeing it as an optional thing that I could choose not go in for or feel cheerful about. The kids that “got high” when I was young and rebellious were “worse” than those, like me, who snuck alcohol to “have a good time.” They were the ones living on the wrong side of the railroad tracks.
But more recently, I saw a marked improvement in the father in law of a friend who had serious cancer and who was getting relief from cookies and other forms of the weed. My friend would go to visit and say that everyone had a wonderful time, and her father in law felt good for a little while.
There’s a difference between being reasonably cautious and being a prude. I am not a prude, even if I have been so accused.
I just watch and see. I am one of those who say “no.” I’ve paid some dues with alcohol and now say no to that, just as I now say no to coffee!! It helps me feel better when I abstain from those ordinary social drinks, and I don’t give the stink eye to those who say yes. If people are sloppy and pathological and disgusting about it, I don’t stick around, even if it’s just repulsive gluttony of food.
But now I am a cancer survivor. And also a person who suffers from anti-immune difficulties. And also a person who is a little or a lot ADHD!
And they are saying (as one of my dear ones has already suggested) that I should get a bong. Or at least a cookie.
You know, if that Vietnam Veteran in Hoodsport whose life is totally miserable because of flashbacks , who is frightened of social interaction, afraid he will snap and be harmful, and who is suicidal a lot of the time — if he could be helped by eating Marijuana Cookies to lead a more serene life — and quit thinking about jumping off bridges, I would cook those cookies for him and deliver them gladly.
He might refuse, being frightened of getting hooked on it — his having already struggled with other substances. And I would pat him on the back for that.
But still. What if this natural weed could do away with the concoctions people take these days to stave off Cancer, or stay on an even keel? How about Prozac, for instance? Or Lithium? And how about Chemotherapy? Radiation? What if we could stop taking those meds?
Make no mistake about it: BIG PHARM IS JUSTIFIED IN BEING WORRIED ABOUT THE BOTTOM LINE, AND WILL FIGHT A WAR to keep pot off the market. A lot of stocks would take a tumble. Greedy mega-business seems to say so what if people suffer because they can’t pay the thousands of dollars pharmaceuticals cost! Let ’em suffer; let ’em die. We’re over-populated with these sickies, they seem to say.
So are we going to have a pity party for Big Pharm? Not really — certainly not I.
Who knows? We might be able to save disenfranchised sick people serious medical health-related costs if we could wean ourselves off certain patented medicines in favor of a natural substance that anyone can grow out of dirt and water and light. Sure it will be abused! So is Paregoric! So was Laudanum!
Just waiting to see.
©SGHolland 2017
