If you’re as old as I am you may remember the Pogo, comic strip in the newspaper on Sundays. I have fond memories of my dad reading me the “funnies” on Sunday, and when I got older I kept up the tradition on my own. There’s a quote that came from our Okeefenokee friend, and it pops into my mind often:
“We have met the enemy and he is us.”
– Pogo
Nearly every day I take the opportunity to speak with someone about cannabis as medicine. More often than not it’s someone who is disabled to some extent by their maladies. They usually have a long list of medications they are taking and often these folks want to stop using prescription drugs or to at least cut back on the medications they are taking. Nearly everyone says this. Some of them have considered looking into the possibility of using medical marijuana, but a spouse, family member or friend has told them they are nuts, it’s not real medicine, it’s for potheads, or other negative response derived from the long list of marijuana myths people have stored up in their heads about medical cannabis or just marijuana in general.
Some people I speak with are so depressed about their health issues, that I have to choke back the tears when they tell me their story. I want to shout at them, “It’s your life! Try something that has been proven for thousands of years!” but I can’t verbally assault people, so instead I just calmly tell them not to listen to what other people say about medical marijuana because most people are not very informed on the topic. You can’t believe the relief on their face. It’s painfully obvious they haven’t heard anyone else close to them say those words. They always want to hear more, but I usually just meet these folks in passing in the pool locker room, or in a waiting room, or at the grocery store. This chapter is for them.
WARNING! You may be your first obstacle!
We can be our own first, and worst, obstacle. At least I was, and I’m sure I’m not alone. Like many people in my baby boomer age group, my cannabis experience began in the late 1960s as a wild and crazy kid. Well, maybe not so wild and crazy, but I was doing what everyone else was doing in the 60s and 70s. I was smoking weed, and lot’s of it. This lasted for many years but both the fascination and practicality eventually waned and like many other people, I ended up slowly walking away from recreational marijuana use. After years of only sporadic social use I finally moved on to totally abstaining sometime in the late 90’s.
Also like many people, I had been convinced over time that deep down inside I must be a bad person/parent if I smoke pot. Why did I think like that? Conditioning is the nice way to say it, but brainwashing may be more like it. My guilt didn’t come from growing up in a partially Jewish neighborhood, it came from myths perpetrated by our U.S. Government and perpetuated by our “modern” society. I’m ashamed to say I fell right in line and let it happen to me without even realizing it.
In hindsight I can see that the government knew better than to start an anti-marijuana campaign. The were made aware of the need for medical marijuana by the American Medical Association, but ignored it. They knew there were no facts to back up the anti-marijuana claims, so they were not only wrong, but willfully wrong and they continue to perpetuate the myths they created to this day. I shouldn’t go off on a rant on the government just yet. I’ll save that for another chapter because there is so much to say on this topic. Please pardon me if I end up ranting again before that. It happens sometimes. Next up, my story.