Why Cannabis is still Illegal
“It’s a weird thing you do… when you make nature illegal.” –Joe Rogan
Cannabis Sativa, or as it is more commonly known, Marijuana. This is a subject that I’ve wanted to weigh in on for a while now. On the surface, it may appear to be a trivial issue, but the deeper you dig, the more the more it becomes apparent that the roots on this plant run deeper than we ever would have imagined…
I began exploring the bigger picture behind Cannabis a few months ago, already convinced from my own experience that
A) it is not a dangerous substance to have publicly available, and
B) that it is a naturally occurring part of nature- therefore, making it illegal intrinsically struck me as one of the crazier things our government has ever done (and boy is that ever saying something).
Debate around this issue generally centers on concepts like “the gateway” to other drugs, or the growing THC content of hybrid strains. Let me save you some suspense- marijuana laws are not, and have never been based on any kind of scientific data regarding physical or mental health.
In this article, I outline some of the lesser-know capacities of the Cannabis plant, and expose the financial interest which they threaten- for in case you haven’t noticed, this [socioeconomic control] is what is always comes back to. Cannabis laws were based on special (read: financial) interest when they were made, and stay in place for the same reason.
First things first, however, we should be clear on terminology. The word Hemp refers to strains of the Cannabis plant with THC concentrations which are so low that smoking it would have no noticeable effect. This is approximately 90% of the over 2000 known varieties of the plant in existence [4]. Marijuana, on the other hand, refers to that other 10%- that have higher concentrations of THC, and have noticeable psychotropic effects when ingested through various methods.
Okay, let’s get down to it:
1. Manufacturing Materials: Marijuana was made illegal on August 2nd, 1937 through the Marijuana Tax Act. Prominent supporters of the bill included William Randolph Hearst a newspaper tycoon who also had large investments in the timber industry, various cotton industrialists, and Dupont Chemical Company, which held the patent for nylon [3]. In all three cases, anyone who looks back on this issue can see the strong financial interest to make hemp fibers illegal, not because of any concern for public well-being, but for their own earnings sheets.
Today, cities and roads around the world are covered in concrete, houses are constructed with gypsum drywall, and all manner of commercial products are made with petroleum plastics. What do these materials all have in common?
1) They all contain considerable quantities of toxic chemicals and don’t biodegrade well
2) A more ecologically harmonious alternative exists for all of them… using hemp [1].
Imagine if old buildings could be demolished and sent to a composting facility. Imagine if you could simply toss a plastic bag into your backyard compost bin… these concepts can and will come to fruition when we begin to harness the power of this amazing plant.
2. Bio-Fuels: The unsuitability of petroleum-based fuel has gotten no shortage of attention. What people are far less aware of, however, is the diversity of viable solutions available to us. Every internal combustion engine currently in existence is already capable of running on a bio-diesel or ethanol fuel. Deriving these products from soy and corn, as has been most widely publicized, is not, in fact, our best option. Those more common methods rely on GMO agriculture, and petrochemicals (derived from fossil fuels) for production.
Fortunately there are much better alternatives for agricultural crops to create biofuels. Options include algae, certain strains of fungus, and, you guessed it, HEMP [2].
Between fuels and plastics, hemp has the potential to effectively rid us of our dependency on petroleum. Imagine that.
3. Medicine: With the growth of medical marijuana as a non-pharmaceutical alternative to treatment for many chronic pain conditions, people are beginning to question the non-holistic approach of big pharmacy. Thousands are now turning to naturally occurring THC rather than semi-synthetic opiates which are phenomenally more impairing of physiological and cognitive function. Greater still is the potential impact of Cannabidiol (CBD), a compound found in the leaves of the cannabis plant. It is one of the most powerful alkalizing, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancerous compounds known to man. Watch this phenomenal excerpt on Raw Cannabis from the documentary, American Drug War II
4. Awakening: This final point is largely based on theory and personal experience, rather than scientific data, however I feel it is as relevant a concept to this conversation as any so far mentioned. I am of great belief that as a species, humanity is extremely programmed. From the time we are born, we are indoctrinated by other “programmed people,” to support our government, economic system, educational paradigm, big corporations, and, in the most general sense, a state of subordination.
The conventional western upbringing discourages present moment aesthetic experience, and mandates the incessant use of left-brained thinking mind. There is nothing wrong with utilizing your analytical capacity; the problem is simply how much of our “thinking content” is instilled in us through education and media. I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but the vast majority of human thought and conversation is profoundly unoriginal.
Pharmaceuticals and the “legal drugs,” also support this dynamic. All pain-killers, stimulants, anti-depressants, alcohol, tobacco, nicotine- these are all anesthetic drugs- they make you less connected to your sensory experiences. Marijuana, on the other hand, along with drugs like MDMA, psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, and DMT- is an aesthetic drug- it enhances sensory perceptions, pulling you into the present moment, rather than cutting you off from it. Now I have never used any powerful hallucinogens myself, but include them here because the logical implications would be incomplete if I did not note that they fell in the same category. I do not recommend their use, consult your doctor, bla bla bla…
But getting back to the point, when people have experiences with these drugs, they tend to “step out” of their left-brain thinking and into that aesthetic experience. What I believe is also happening is that they are stepping out of the “programmed,” area of their mind. Many people who have used psylocybin, LSD or DMT talk about a phenomenon called an “ego death.” Whether it happens all at once (such as in these more extreme cases) or gradually, this concept of “de-programming,” is, I believe, very much connected to the enhanced aesthetic experience that these drugs create. Am I saying that getting high is essential for your spiritual evolution? No. But can it be a facilitator for that process? I believe it can.
Conclusion: Discussion over whether or not Marijuana should be legal predominantly centers around its effects on human health. This is not the real issue. No one has ever died from smoking weed- not even lung cancer has ever been linked to it. The cannabis plant is illegal because it is one of the single greatest threats to the financial establishment of our world, most directly the industries of pharmaceuticals and fossil fuel. What’s more, THC can, I believe, play a facilitating role in the deprogramming and awakening of those who bring attention to that experience.
What could be more threatening to financial establishment than that?
Sources
1. http://www.collective-evolution.com/2012/04/01/5-ways-hemp-will-change-our-world/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuel
3. http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/
Hi Noah!
I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while now, but this is my first comment.
I have yet to meet someone like you in real life LOL, we have quite in common even though we don’t really know each other.
Anyway, I don’t know where to start so… I’m going to say it straight: drugs are BAD. For as simplistic as it sounds, I can tell you from first-hand experience they actually damage the organism beyond repair. And when I say “drugs”, I’m talking about every substance with addictive qualities, from booze, to cigarettes and drugs, to sugar… even sex (this one is clearly different than the others, though).
I studied medicine for three years, and I learned A LOT of things; seriously, you just can’t imagine the amount of shocking, revealing, valuable information you get to learn.
It’s objective information, they don’t tell you anything remotely associated with morals. However, by observing, studying and analizing that objective information, there are certain things that can be implied (like abortion is the death of a human being, whether people want to see it how it really is or not).
Anyway, that’s where I got that there’s no such a thing like ‘bland’ drugs or anything, and it’s not a matter of legalizing them or not. It’s about having people realize that any addictive substance is not good for either their health, their mind… or even their ‘spiritual sides’, and that their lifes are much better without them (easy task, you see).
Now diving into the ‘awakening’ topic, you’ll NEVER achieve true awakening through drugs. What you get instead, is a delusion, a distorted image of what awakening is.
Awakening is not ‘an experience’, is not a ‘practice’, is not a ‘feeling’… it’s an absolute (positive) change in your perception of reality, that lasts forever and that you experience all the time, without the ‘aid’ of anything in the middle.
You should look for some Jiddu Krishnamurti videoconferences in youtube, he explains the whole awakening phenomenon really well.
P.S.: Excuse me if my English sounds a little… stiff. It’s not my native language. I’ve got a degree in English Language, but it’s been like 4 years since I don’t properly write or practice anything LOL.
Thanks for the comment, I think I should clarify a couple things though:
1) What is your definition of drug? If it’s anything containing a psychoactive compound that affects brain chemistry, then you’re going to have to condemn green tea (caffeine), chocolate (theobromine), turkey (l-tryptophan becomes 5-HTP), dairy (casein becomes BCM7), you see where I’m going with this… lot’s of food contains psychoactive compounds. So basically if you want to say “drugs are bad,” I think you’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater on that one, which is what this article is inviting people to consider.
However, if you want to forget the concept of psycho-activity, and say that a drug is anything that begets addictive behavior… then we’re working with something very different from the conventional definition of drugs. You will have to include (as you point out) sugar and sex, but also shopping, gambling, WORKING, exercising, and dieting. These have all been shown to illicit highly addictive compulsions in some people. Obviously, however, you don’t want to condemn any of these things completely… for none of them are inherently addictive. And that’s the real key here. NO substance or stimulus is inherently addictive. Not heroin, not crystal meth, nothing. There is no intrinsic indicator for you to say something is a “drug,” or is not a “drug.” Therefore, the statement, “Drugs are BAD,” has very little relevance to me.
And on a slightly unrelated note, the “anti-drug,” TV campaigns, put on my Partnership for a Drug-Free America, are funded by Alcohol and Tobacco companies, indicating to me that they are propaganda campaigns more than anything.
2) I will agree with you 100% that addiction is a highly detrimental state. However, I disagree that “drugs,” are what needs to be avoided outright to prevent that condition. In fact, LSD has been empirically demonstrated using double-blind studies to have a positive impact in overcoming alcohol addiction. Here’s a brief article about it:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2111687/LSD-alcohol-Trials-59-problem-drinkers-improve-single-dose-hallucinogen.html
3) I’m not saying that drugs are the “answer,” definitely not. I’m a fan of Krishnamurti as well, and agree that any real spiritual growth is lasting, and not conditional upon what substance you are metabolizing. I’m merely offering that there are a few compounds out there, which could help facilitate that process.
Any of that sound plausible?
LOL, I didn’t have much time when I wrote my first comment, thus I did it in a hasty fashion, overlooking details… that’s why it’s so chaotic and unespecific.
But now that I have time I’m gonna try to explain myself in depth:
“What is your definition of drug? If it’s anything containing a psychoactive compound that affects brain chemistry”
VERY good question.
MY ‘definition’ of “drug” is a bit special: I would say, a drug is anything that can trigger an addictive behavior… that leads to “destructive results”.
Those “destructive results” can be either ‘organism-damaging’ or ‘psychologically-damaging’.
However you’re mixing things here that shouldn’t be together.
Food that contains caffeine, for example, might not be good for health, yet people rarely get addicted to things like coffee or green tea LOL.
Coffee, chocolate, dairy, fatty foods… would be “unhealthy” food. Of course, some are MUCH more unhealthy than others, but we can sum it up and say, those are some of the foods to avoid (if you wanna lead a healthy life).
On another other side, activities like shopping, gambling, working… those fit in my definition of a drug, ’cause they can become addictive and, in this case, they can also have ‘psychologically-damaging’ effects (when you’re addcited to them).
People addicted to dieting might become anorexic or bulimic, for example.
Nevertheless with proper help you can overcome those kinds of addictions, after all, they’re just activities. People with high anxiety levels sometimes turn to a certain activity that helps them cope with that anxiety.
However, anxiety is usually the consequence of something else… so, until you don’t find and fix that “something else” that is triggering the anxiety, It will not only not go away, but probably grow.
An activity like exercising doesn’t solve any problem but disguises the consequences, generating a vicious circle where the more anxiety you have, the more you have to exercise in order to relax… but there’s a point where you can’t relax anymore, beacause all this time you weren’t reducing your anxiety: you were just disguising it and it grew to a point where you cannot control it anymore and it’ll start impacting in your life (and health) in a VERY negative way.
In third place, you said:
“Obviously, however, you don’t want to condemn any of these things completely… for none of them are inherently addictive. And that’s the real key here. NO substance or stimulus is inherently addictive. Not heroin, not crystal meth, nothing.”
Yes, they actually are.
I mean, of course! you’re not “born” with an addiction to heroin (for example), neither you’re gonna get addicted to it if you just try it once or twice… but all the aforementioned are VERY powerful, dangerous drugs, that feature a powerful “hook” that once it ‘hooks’ you… you might not be able to free yourself from it.
Maybe just the third time you try a certain drug, you’re already developing an addiction to it.
What’s more, ALL of those drugs cause severe, irreparable damage to both your organism and your mind. They literally KILL different kinds of cells (***I can expain this later if you want me to), leaving your health (and your sanity) nosediving ’till they hit rock-bottom, and then you become a “useless” yet “dangerous” person, with a life “ruined” beyond repair. Note the quotes, because I’m exaggerating a little bit obviously, even though it CAN get to that tragic point.
Then you said:
“LSD has been empirically demonstrated using double-blind studies to have a positive impact in overcoming alcohol addiction.”
I don’t wanna sound rude, but it’s quite foolish of you to believe such “studies”.
It’s like… curing aids with cancer LOL. Just try to imagine for a second that somehow, you can actually cure people with aids by inducing a cancer in them… yeah! even if it’s possible, it doesn’t sound like a good idea, does it?
This is pretty much the same case. The “natural way”, that is, facing problems (specially an alcohol addiction) straight to their face with no fear and strong commitment is the only way to overcome them.
“the “anti-drug,” TV campaigns, put on my Partnership for a Drug-Free America, are funded by Alcohol and Tobacco companies, indicating to me that they are propaganda campaigns more than anything.”
Sure, they support “anti-drug” campaigns because they have personal interests eventually.
) in this world, sadly, always do things to fulfill their personal, selfish (and often dark) ends. I’d dare to say that… like 80%? of the worldwide population only care about their ‘agendas’, and many are determined to do anything within their reach to get what they want. Put all the blame on capitalism. It’s the “worldwide religion” that has indoctrinated people to see everything (even themselves) as “objects” that can be “owned” by paying a certain “cost”, determined by their “worth”.
Noah, “everyone” (note the quotes
(back on topic)
This topic in particular (the legalization of drugs) is a double-edged sword, ’cause legalization can end drug trafficking, yet it can >help further promote “hedonism” and other wrong values>>>>which could help facilitate that process.”
There’s no ‘compund’ that can facilitate such an important, existence-defining event.
If anything, having a “crazy” life, full of “struggles” might help a little.
But actually, I can tell you from my experience, “awakening” and “illumination” are things that pretty much just “come” to you; they just happen. It’s like, pushing a button you don’t really know where is located. (***and again, I can explan myself a little bit more about this if you’re interested).
Well, that’s it. I hope you enjoy the reading
.
P.S.: I hope grammar is O.K., I didn’t check it more than once LOL.
All of that sounds highly plausible.
There’s an error after the “(back on topic)”. Part of the text somehow got erased.
Here’s the complete paragraph:
(back on topic)
This topic in particular (the legalization of drugs) is a double-edged sword, ’cause legalization can end drug trafficking, yet it can >help further promote “hedonism” and other wrong values< (***again, I can talk about this a little bit more if you want).
In my country they're debating the legalization of cannabis… just a few weeks ago, a gang of teenagers got high with pot and stabbed to death a random pedestrian .
Sure, people don't die from smoking weed but… some you'd wish do.
The last quote got lost too (before the last paragraph).
Here it is:
“I’m not saying that drugs are the “answer,” definitely not. I’m a fan of Krishnamurti as well, and agree that any real spiritual growth is lasting, and not conditional upon what substance you are metabolizing. I’m merely offering that there are a few compounds out there, >>>>>which could help facilitate that process.”
Sorry for this multiple-message mess LOL. You should add an ‘edit’ button somewhere.
Well, thanks for all the effort you’ve put into this, and sorry for the delayed response. There are honestly too many points in there for me to do any kind of adequate response to all that within one comment though. Which may be just as well- for the time being, at least, you seem to have your mind pretty well made up about all this, and I don’t really want to debate you.
I have just a few brief things things that I think might be worth sharing after reading all that:
1) I don’t think you have a very good objective definition of the word “drug.” Most people in the bio-psychological fields agree that it’s a pretty ambiguous term, even when explicitly defined, making statements like “drugs are bad,” unhelpful if not misleading.
2) Substances like heroin and meth are inherently damaging to the human system. They are not inherently addictive. I stand behind my initial point, and would invite you to dive a little deeper into considering what “addiction,” is.
3) The analogy of LSD to cancer is not remotely insightful. Again, I don’t want to beat you over the head about it, just encourage you to learn a little more about addiction, and perhaps look those studies up for yourself.
All the best with your continued research as well as conscious awakening.