27 February 2012
We hear a lot about marijuana in the news these days. It comes to us in three separate issues, one being the legalization of it and the other it’s authorized use as a prescribed drug. There are efforts underway in many local and state governments to discuss and possibly adopt new laws for both of those issues. The third issue comes to us through media reporting of criminal activity and law enforcement’s pursuit and apprehension of those criminals. We even get news on how the marijuana “problem” originates in places like Mexico, where drug lords rule the day.
Is making marijuana a legal and controlled substance in the best interest of our country? I think that understanding marijuana as we know it today, the answer is no. It is not. But if you want to look at some of the history of marijuana and compare it to the history of tobacco and alcohol use then you can readily presume that when humans first began walking on this earth, the first things they set out to do was eat, drink, mate and get high. And maybe not even in that order!!! We find the evidence of beer, wine and spirits being made as far back as the dawn of time. The same holds true for weed! The earliest known discovery of its use dates back to the 3rd millennium BC in what is now Romania. We even have evidence that Shakespeare himself liked to fire it up!!!! The Bard had a bong! Just kidding on that but evidence was found in his old home that old Bill liked to get his buzz on. Everyone knows we’ve been growing hemp since before we were a country. Of course, that was when we used it primarily as textile and agricultural product, developing it into rope, fabric and fertilizers. It has many uses! But smoking it to get stoned? I think that should be left up to the individual as a personal choice. I think that we should be free to use it without fear of persecution by society and the law and exposing ourselves to the dangers of exploitation and violence from the criminal elements, regardless of where they came from. I do not believe that marijuana grown locally and naturally is any more harmful or addicting than tobacco and alcohol. If you are an addictive type personality, you will probably have problems with it and shouldn’t use it. I think tobacco is far more harmful to a person than marijuana is. Tobacco has little use beyond smoking and is more hazardous to the soil it’s grown in than marijuana. However, today people are cultivating new, stronger, hybrids and strains that carry much more THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), the chemical producing the “high”, than a normal naturally occurring plant. On this I am not in favor of. I think it should be natural. It definitely should be legal, regulated like alcohol and tobacco, and taxed.
Medical marijuana is a hotbed topic these days too. I am not so in favor of this issue. I do not believe that any doctor would prescribe smoking anything as a sound remedy. I don’t dispute that marijuana possesses some medicinal qualities and if it indeed does, it needs to be seriously studied and developed into a sensible medicinal application. By that I mean, make a pill out of it. Put it in elixir form or at worse as a vaporizer treatment which seems to be a popular method. At any rate, if we are going to say that marijuana is good medicine then it is deserving of further, serious study and used in a responsible fashion as other medicines. I think these “legalized” stores we have now in some states where Doctor Feelgood comes out and gives you a bag of weed after you give him a prescription is bull. It’s not serious medicine and they have just found a way to take advantage of the system. Honestly? If I lived in a state where that was allowed and I used their services, it would not be for medicinal purposes. And that I think exposes the hypocrisy of the medical marijuana movement, at least for me. I doubt if I am the only one that feels that way.
Have a Blessed Day Ya’ll!
Related Links:
Wikipedia article on Cannabis:
Official website for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws:
Today’s “Did Ya Know?” Its National Marijuana Awareness month!!! Today is National Kahlua Day! Time to open up your brand of that awesome coffee flavored liqueur and let the good times roll or as is the theme for this month, roll your own good times!!! I don’t know if coffee liqueur is really good for cottonmouth though!!!
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