Monday, October 6, 2014

Marijuana Enlightenment

I didn't trust the process when it first appeared, so I opted out and have been avoiding it ever since.  Even when those around me, including my best friend embraced it; I kept my distance.  For over five years I've refused to climb on the bandwagon; but recently the universal law of three caught up to me, and I finally went to get my medical marijuana card.  Within less than two weeks, three different sources encouraged me to get the card, including my new primary care physician at the VA.  Yup, the universe was speaking to me in no uncertain terms; time to change.

It isn't that I thought the whole idea was wrong or anything, just the opposite; I've been a supporter of legalized marijuana for years, but I don't feel like the government has any right to register me as a cannabis user, (considering how well that went for native Americans!)  If I sound like a dinosaur it's because I've been smoking the weed for almost fifty years, and for the majority of that time doing so illegally.  Not only did many of America's founding fathers grow hemp, for a time it citizens were required to grow hemp.  You see, over the years the U.S. government has had a love/hate relationship with hemp; they want to tie up the ships without turning on the troops.
Cannabis has long been hailed as a medicinal healing herb, in fact the Sears catalog of 1853 carried several cannabis based medicines you could order.  In 1937 the Marijuana Tax Act essentially made using the weed legal, if you had the right paperwork.  This continued till 1969 when it was thrown out because it violated the fifth amendment.  During WWII; American farmers received draft deferments for themselves and their sons; if  they grew hemp.   Henry Ford once designed and made a car out of hemp.  It was 30% lighter and 10 times as strong as steel.  It was never produced because of pressure from the competition, who couldn't compete with it.  For very similar reasoning, the AMA has led the charge against legalizing marijuana, despite evidence that hemp cures cancer.  The pharmaceutical industry isn't interested in a cure for cancer because their profits come from selling treatment, not cures.

There is of course the nobility of smoking marijuana despite it being illegal; as a way to push back against the matrix; but let me just tell you how quickly that wears off and it becomes a constant hassle to avoid legal entanglements.  I always figured that I'd get my medical marijuana card at some point...when it became a necessity.  I haven't needed to have my card until recently due to my connection with a local grow op, which caters exclusively to the dispensaries and clubs.  In return for my help with getting the crop harvested, and security; I got my medical marijuana at a nice discount before it ever got to the retail outlet.  After two years of law enforcement harassment; and defending against crop robbers breaking in, my friend gave up and shut down the grow op a few months ago.  Several other local grow ops have closed for the same reasons; the underworld is getting more dangerous all the time.  Another good reason to go legal!

My interview with the pot doctor was as thorough and professional as I expected.  Eighty bucks and 20 minutes later I was walking into a marijuana dispensary for the first time, all nice and legal.  Many of my friends have described various "pot clubs" to me but even that doesn't prepare one for the real thing.  As a rogue marijuana user I would have to be good friends with at least 20 dealers to have anywhere close to the array and variety of products available at even a modest dispensary.  Most will have a printed menu of their offerings for smoking or vaporizing; as well as a mind boggling selection of marijuana edibles.  Some dispensaries have "vapor rooms" where one may sample the wares prior to purchase.  The phrase "Kid in a candy store" comes to mind.  Since growing your own is part of being legal, some dispensaries also offer cuttings, and starter plants, as well as seeds.  One stop shopping.  On the drive home from the day's adventures, with a nice assortment of marijuana products in the car; there was the unmistakable feeling of something being missing...oh yeah, the apprehension of being busted for carrying weed!  It really is a stay out of jail free card!  Upon stopping at my friends place, he discovered that one of the items he'd purchased didn't make it into his bag.  No worries!  Just call the place up with receipt in hand, and the problem is solved.  Try that with your underground drug dealer!  And yes, getting a receipt for my weed is a very strange experience, but one I'll get used to quickly enough.

The really hilarious side to all this, is even though the mainstream is embracing legalized marijuana, they still want to change all the street lingo to more antiseptic & politically correct terms.  Some folks get downright puffy about using only approved terminology within the establishment of a "club."  You ought not call it Marijuana any longer, the correct term is now Cannabis; likewise weed, bud, & dope is magically transformed to medicine!  It isn't a "pot club" but rather a cannabis collective, or dispensary, and you aren't buying from a dealer but rather donating to a provider/vendor.  Hash is now properly referred to as concentrated cannabis in polite society and when you take your medicine you aren't stoned, baked or fried; your medicated & relaxed.  Don't be requesting Dank, Chronic or Phatt when what you really mean is High Grade Medicine, and remember employees are now volunteers and instead of a manager, the place has a spokesperson.  If you can keep all that straight you should be fine. 

Now that more states are legalizing marijuana, and dispensaries are popping up everywhere, those businesses must be competitive to stay in business; and because of this the dispensaries are becoming better and better every month.  I will admit to laughing a bit when the news came out of Colorado recently about folks having trouble with the marijuana edibles; the chocolates, cookies & brownies.  Some users thought they'd been slipped something like LSD, while others reported they thought they were dying!  Somebody should have told those folks what they were getting into and to go easy at first with any of the edibles, because when eaten marijuana is like five times more potent than if smoked.  Some of us have known this for a while now; and it certainly wouldn't be funny if an unsuspecting child ate an entire medicated candy bar, so, show some responsibility and keep all edible marijuana products away from children of all ages!

I must say that Friday's trip to the pot club made Sunday's 49er game more enjoyable to watch.  Not only were they up against the very quarterback they just traded away, but ya just gotta appreciate a running back named Gore going up against a defensive center named Kilgore.  Then there's the running back named Carrier and the fact that the shadow of the NFL Spider-Cam looks just like a giant ass insect buzzing the players!  Reminds me of something someone once said about fighting in the Vietnam war: "When flying men kill elephants for sport people are just naturally going want to get stoned."  Like many people of my generation, I began smoking marijuana because it seemed a sane response to an increasingly insane world.  Half a century later I am still smoking it for all the same reasons, as well as a few new ones.  Not only does marijuana help me cope with nightmares & memories from Vietnam; it also relieves some symptoms of other health issues folks my age generally have.

Cannabis contains over 80 active compounds known as cannabinoids; the two most important are the THC, and CBD types.  THC is the main psychoactive euphoric ingredient in cannabis.  Medical effects include relief of pain, depression and nausea.  The CBD cannabinoid compound by itself lacks the noticeable effect of "getting high" yet is very good for treating inflammation, muscle spasms, insomnia and anxiety, as well as a wide range of other illnesses.  We are learning important things about marijuana that weren't known even ten years ago, which perhaps is why it has been called the miracle plant.

The legalization of marijuana is possibly the most progressive and enlightened thing modern society has attempted, and is long overdue, if not too late.  Getting the card and going legal is by no means an indication I believe the current social system & government will survive; but rather an indication I want access to the very best pot products available until everything goes mad max on us.  Now all I have to do is get the VA to pay for all my new medicine.

© 2014 full re-post with permission only




In Memory of Mike Mazza
"Gone Where the Wind Don't Blow so Strange"




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13 comments:

  1. Damn Chautauqua, how can you stand living there. People overdosing on pot, piles of dead bodies laying around decomposing, speeding down the highways at 35 mph, going off their meds. It must be scary as hell, (Grin). Unfortunately for me, I live in a state where you can lose your job if they don't like your pee. You should be careful with that stuff though. I know this one guy, well OK, it was me, that mixed THC, headphones, and Hemi-Sync before bedtime. I woke up in the morning with the whacked out realization that the human race was being farmed, we were the crop. The worst part is that the realizations continue to happen without any help, and that was 25 years ago. I picked up the book, Thinking and Destiny, that you mentioned. I'm only about 300 pages into it but I can relate to what he has to say. He says it a lot of ways and repeats it often, maybe that is what we need. I'm looking forward to your next post. Remember that old saying, A friend with weed is a friend indeed. Stay warm.
    PeaceMaker

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    Replies
    1. Peacemaker~
      Lately I've begun to wonder if it isn't too late for hemi-sync & all the other things we do to remain sane.

      Maybe it's time to adjust our definition of normal, & just embrace the madness and try to stake out our own little corner of it. Like a chain of Fukushima/Ebola/BP Oil rehab centers where folks get treated for all 3 at once with massive doses of THC and bacon.

      Stay warm? fuck that man...I'm staying stoned...er, I mean medicated! :0

      Delete
  2. Cannabis (and hemp oil) are indeed God's plant, and it will be our ticket back to the Garden as the song goes. Not only has it been God's grace for centuries, but now - for Fukushima, BP (as you say), DNA repair to counteract GMO's, etc. etc. There's even more miracle in that majestic little plant than we can even imagine, I do suspect.

    Soooooo, all this rampant legalization of the formerly forbidden and 'swat-teamed' plant by the world's most criminal organization, USG, makes one wonder what the REAL deal is. What is the REAL reason for the legalization after a century of the exact opposite?

    Trillion dollar profits are so yesterday for these lunatics. They want more than that now, much much more. So, is it to be used to get all the slaves so stoned that they cannot see the final course of brick being laid on their prison wall? Even those pesky awake folks? And/or, for USG to patent it, in cahoots with Monsanto, forever genetically modifying-destroying this once majestic plant for all time? And/or even more sinister visions from the demons-in-charge?

    Inquiring minds certainly will want to inquire . . . .

    ReplyDelete
  3. CGF~
    See how you are?? I just start feeling not quite so depressed and here you come with a 5 course food for thought feast. I suspect the real reason is even far more sinister than even we can imagine. these ghouls actually feed off the fear they generate. They don't want us too stoned to see that final brick...they want to drive up the fear of it so we're all hysterical when we see it coming.

    It has been known for some time that they intend to thin the herd substantially; it has been the death of a thousand cuts so far...but now they have opened up the floodgates for the final slaughter; we are seeing the start of it with Fukushima left to fume unabated, and now with the Ebola thing.

    There will be a reckoning....

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  4. Relax C, take a toke:) And save some for me, if you don't mind. If I have learned anything in this journey so far, it's that I don't know a thing. Every time I try to figure the insanity out, it just gets more insane. And then, well then you try to figure out why so many STILL don't see anything! Notta, zip, zilch!!!! And then the REAL madness, the true insanity begins!!

    Maybe we are a reality TV show for a species from another galaxy? Or maybe we're all in our own little matrix of faux-reality like Michael Douglas in "The Game" . Or "The Twilight Zone". Or "They Live" - yeah, that one's really starting to appear like our reality today!! But who knows, and at this point, does it even matter?!

    I know what I want - Shambhala. But before I get there, before we get there, perhaps we should all light up and enjoy the final act. I would imagine it will be the greatest show ever seen by anyone....

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    Replies
    1. CGF~
      Like I said, embrace the madness...vaporizer going all night long!

      Delete
    2. Hello .....my friends, from one doobie brother or sister to another.....this is one long strange trip and take comfort that we were never born and we will never die....onelove

      Delete
    3. Terrance~
      Indeed, like Bill Hicks reminded us, "It's Just a Ride"

      Blessings all around. Not a single human being excluded!

      Delete
  5. Never got into that "reefer madness." Can't seem to learn to inhale; am a shallow breather anyway, except in certain situations:P I just booze to cruise.

    Remember, the weaker, sicker, broker and more frightened we are, the easier we can be controlled.

    Take your feet off the pedals and enjoy the ride. Strange winds are coming.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. J~
      You have no idea what you are depriving yourself of.

      Delete
  6. Well Hemi-sync took me back a million years in time in a nano second to some weirdo dying planet and alien race....I wasn't even smoking anything!! I put Hemi-Sync away after that and reached for the pipe when I stopped being overwhelmed by that Hemi-Sync experience! Thinking of getting it out again after all these years......as being loosh...stay cool...we can starve them out then! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well, here in the apparent great uk, we are so far behind you in regard to this it's an embarrassment. Love the blog, and understand totally where you're coming from.

    And yep, it is all just a ride as someone said above me.

    ReplyDelete