Cut the shit Mr. President. End the War on Drugs NOW, sir

As our country's founding papers declare in no uncertain terms, Mr. President, We the People of these United States have the right to do what we feel is best for ourselves, as long as we harm no one else. Such liberties are not negotiable [Free Means Free].


The war on drugs is a brutal, cruel and economically devastating military operation supported by a nearly eighty-year propaganda campaign that would make Mad Men weep [Lights Camera Cannabis!]. In the mix; a diabolical scheme to hold back mainstream research on a green suite of psychoactive plants [Schedule 1] and a stunningly successful campaign to keep cannabis and hemp out of business [The Cannabis Trades].


In America our epidemic overuse of alcohol and pills is a direct result of our limited choices.


To be sure, societies have been celebrating safely (and not) with alcohol and other drugs since the dawn of civilization. Hathor, for example, was (is) the Egyptian goddess of love and many other things, including joy, music, dance, beauty, culture and drunkenness. While using alcohol to excess clearly isn't new, legal, social and religious restrictions on choices didn't begin in earnest until the rise of the Romans a mere two thousand years ago.


In ancient times people understood plant medicines and inebriates as gifts of nature. They also knew at a cultural level what plants to avoid. In the Americas they used psychoactive mushrooms, peyote and ayahuasca, particularly for religious and shamanic purposes. Scandinavians seem to have favored the curiously Santa-colored amanita muscaria mushrooms, which just as curiously can make shrooming reindeer dance, prance and leap.


Cannabis sativa was an early choice for medicine in China and in India, and arrived (along with hemp) in Egypt by way of ancient trade routes [Seshat's Secret] The ancient Egyptians, who knew how to party, also adored their fabled Nile blue lotus and the mandrake--both of which figure prominently in their erotic art and love poetry [see Sacred Sexuality in Ancient Egypt by Ruth Schumann-Antelme and Stephane Rossini].


In the 'modern' world the prescribed choice for addiction is typically sobriety, except of course for the pills taken for depression and related ailments. My mom, a delightful giving woman brimming with creative talent, struggled for decades to maintain her sanity in a tragic, heart-breaking last-century existence defined by restrictive drug choices. In the late 70s my attempt to switch her to cannabis failed because a well-born eastern Yankee such as herself could not--dared not-- step that far out of line [Baking with Mom].


In cannabis country we don't buy into that crap anymore. As adults in America we are free to make our own choices and explore our own remedies. As parents in America we have the right to make mature and rational decisions in the best interests of our children. And naturally we are free to make our own cannabis medicine, share those remedies with others, and tell the truth to our kids [Shona's Secret].


End this terrible war, Mr. President. If you don't your successor will surely have to.

Prohibition has no place in a free country, Mr. President. End it, sir.

Cannabis prohibition, like alcohol prohibition before it, is being dismantled state by state, by the will of the people. Americans who think that’s a bad thing either have a vested interest in the way things are, or they haven’t done the research. Because behind the smoked party drug image so brilliantly propagandized for nearly a century lays a most convenient truth, an amazing secret hidden for generations.

Cannabis is a non-toxic, not physically addictive ancient medicinal flower that is (when used properly, of course) totally safe, even for children and pets. As tincture and oil, cannabis is proving effective for some of the most common ailments of these frenzied times; alcohol and pill abuse, insomnia, stress, migraines, depression, fibromyalgia, MS, ADHD, PMS, PTSD, late-night barking…

Naysayers search US patent 6,630,507; Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants, filed back in 2003 by none other than Health and Human Services, the same agency that continues to insist that marijuana is bad, all bad. And these are the people We the People are taking orders from? Wake up Americans! Read the declaration the founding fathers risked their lives to compose. It says we have the right as free people to decide what’s best for our bodies, our families and our lives.

The inevitability of re-legalization has many fearing the worst; that reefer madness will rip through neighborhoods, claim the sanity of our children and spike healthcare costs. Hand-wringers need only look to capacity-crowd cannafests for proof of weed’s safety in numbers across a wide demographic.

Since their rise in the sixties marijuana freedom gatherings have always attracted families and people of all ages, all races, and all political and religious persuasions. They mass together—sometimes in the rain—to learn, share, and get stoned a lot, because that’s the point.  As a long-term population study, cannabis-only festivals provide clear evidence that the norm really is a positive vibe of peace, love and understanding.

The exciting news for Middle Americans struggling to make ends meet is that cannabis freedom comes with its own enterprise frontier—one that provides jobs and opportunities at every step in the delivery chain. Demand for secure, safe and legal indoor grow ops, for example, is creating a lucrative new specialty field for plumbers, electricians, carpenters, air control experts and security system technicians. As the frontier expands there’ll be good jobs for professionals in finance, accounting, administration, marketing, production, and education.

Washington, of course, denies such a frontier even exists, while at the same time using every agency in the fold to disrupt, discredit and hold back the cannabis trades; medical, recreational and hemp, that farm-country marvel with a bright future in plastics, building materials, food products, paper, textiles, energy and fine lubricants. Despite economic sanctions such as harsh tax rules and a banking embargo, the budding cannabis industry is doing well, and generating solid revenues in states that restore those liberties.

When the Epilepsy Foundation declared last year that access to cannabis should not be determined by one’s zip code they spoke for all patients and families caring for patients. The right to choose and responsibly use the full bounty of nature’s gifts is, in Christian terms, a God-given, human right (Genesis 1:29). Americans gave up that right in service to the industrial revolution, and very soon they’re going to wake up and want it back.

Prohibition has no place in a free country, Mr. President. End it, sir. If you don’t, your successor will surely have to.

Life in the cannabis trades

My contribution to the revolution is teaching folks how to make a reduction tincture I've used for years--first for big screen movies and later to drastically reduce my use of the pain pills that were killing me. 

The most addictive aspect of cannabis is once you start learning and sharing the truth, and seeing lives saved and lives restored...you can't stop.

Since I have no interest in living the life of a black marketeer, I am funding this addiction by building a festival product development company called Cannabis Rising; Most Excellent Goods/Made for the Revolution.  Our first offering is the print Cannabis Rising by artist Douglas Lakota.  Our second item is the Candana; a bandana screened with leaf scans of notable strains.

Building a cannabis biz in the Northeast is tough.  Angel investors (the ones who btw enjoy cannabis) either squirm and look around to make sure no one is listening, or titter like schoolgirls at the idea that they would ever invest in a 'marijuana' enterprise.  Alliances are easy to establish but very difficult to sustain because frankly there are more than a few all-talk stoners in this emerging industry.

In Southern New Hampshire, a state still ruled by prohibitionists, professional services can be difficult to nail down as well.  One woman, a cannabis fan I've know for years and an Illustrator/Photoshop master, declined my offer to enhance CR images/files at $20/hr, saying she was 'uncomfortable with the whole out-on-a-limb cannabis thing, and I don't want to align myself with that..."

The day before a screen printer I just started working with sent a pdf proof for the Candanas/series #1 with a file name pot-leaf bandanas. I felt compelled to reply:

Cannabis Rising is about using specific words and images to help counter nearly 80 years of anti-cannabis propaganda.  While we love and use pet names for this herb, at work we agree to stick with cannabis.

Just another day in the cannabis trades...