During this time, Americans typically are with family. Eat lots of food. Forgive old offenses. Make new offenses ;-) And give thanks.
This year, being free of anything remotely close to tradition, I've decided to give public thanks to my great love, Cannabis Sativa (of which, hemp is a variety). This love letter is long overdue. Let's start it with this blurb from my LinkedIn profile:
I believe the unleashed cannabis plant is the single quickest way to do the greatest amount of good in the world... in our under-nourished bodies... in our indoctrinated minds... in our eroding, contaminated, demineralized soil... in our engorged, racist, privatized prisons... in our dominant power structures... in you... and in me.
Cannabis is my partner plant because it BENEFITS and BLESSES my body, mind and spirit more than any other consumed substance, second only to water.
America's war on drugs kept me, for many years, from declaring my own personal war on depression and endocannabinoid deficiency. So many lives have been destroyed by ridiculous, immoral criminal charges. I was afraid to integrate this plant into my life to the degree I was being guided to integrate it.
The holocaust was legal. So was slavery.
Legal things aren't always right.
And illegal things aren't always wrong.
The thing I love the most about cannabis is its gift of SELF-REVELATION. Marley said this plant "reveals yourself, to yourself." That has been my ongoing experience. Self-revelation is the foundation for everything else in our life. Self-revelation is our bedrock, and it's why oppressors don't want us stumbling into it. Because when we know who (a self-owned being) and what (an innately free and sovereign being) we are, docility drops. Brainless obedience, buh-bye.
Tyrannical governments that get its lifeblood from our slumber, will do everything to keep us asleep. To keep us stressed, distracted and unrevealed to our own self. Dragging and lagging. Being dutiful to a corrupt and parasitic machine, while forsaking our own health and happiness.
It's obscene that anyone is forced to choose between suffering and criminality, but that is still the unwanted position many find themselves in. It is not a choice. It is a barbaric instrument of inhumane control over one's body and mind. And despite the DOCUMENTED GOOD cannabis sativa offers on multiple levels (biologically, emotionally, ecologically and industrially), many still believe we need protection from this botanical ally and catalyst.
Trump nominated an Attorney General -- Jeff Sessions -- whose only beef with the KKK is that they smoke pot.
Cognitive liberty is not a matter of policy, but of principle.
So what do we do when those who govern are unprincipled? What is our recourse when so many are still greatly influenced by factually wrong and deceptive propaganda from the 30's? Stigma and gross misunderstandings from that era continue today:
ANSWER 1: "One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)
ANSWER 2: "Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt." (Mahatma Ghandi)
Hang on, this is supposed to be a letter of thanks, not a rant of wrongs... so let me get to danking!
I am thankful that Cannabis Sativa:
normalized my weight
lifted my depression to a manageable state
helped me peel away false layers of a manufactured self
helped me renounce mental slavery, statism and authoritarianism
helps me maintain homeostasis
helps me in all creative pursuits
relieves me of severe menstrual pain caused by fibroid tumors
freed me of my former shame about loving it so much
frees me of other shames, too
introduced me to sadhus, which helped affirm my own spiritual intentions, use and personal practice, which I've been slowly developing as www.sativayoga.com
creates special, resonant communities
lessens inflammatory and arthritic pain
stimulates lost appetite for those undergoing chemotherapy
restores lost sleep from insomina
relieves felt eye pressure for folks with glaucoma
helps mend broken bones 30% faster
kills cancer cells while protecting healthy ones. The link here is directly to the National Cancer Institute, which is "the federal government's principal agency for cancer research and training." This begs the question, if the fed govt's principal agency for cancer research has confirmed laboratory findings where cancer cells were killed by cannabis, HOW CAN THEY CONTINUE TO CLASSIFY CANNABIS AS A SCHEDULE 1 SUBSTANCE, WITH NO MEDICAL USE?! Furthermore, why does the US Department of Health and Human Services hold Patent #6630507 on cannabis plant compounds, again, if there is no medical use? And if there IS proven medical use, how is it remaining classified as Schedule 1? For your reference, according to the DEA's website:
Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Some examples of Schedule I drugs are: heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana (cannabis), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy), methaqualone, and peyote
The government is at odds with itself, and too many lives are caught in its crazy cross-hairs. Despite its obstruction, cannabis' positive impact is still greater than my ability to comprehensively list here, but this is a decent sampling of how broadly it helps human lives.
I am thankful that hemp:
inspired Jack Herer to write The Emperor Wears No Clothes, which opened my eyes to the governmental and corporate greed responsible for the demonization of this wonderworking plant
phytoremediates toxic metals and radiation in soil, even as bad as Chernobyl
grows well in a variety of climates and soils
is naturally resistant to pests (no pesticides!)
grows tightly-spaced, blocking unwanted weeds (no herbicides!)
offers four times the yield of a slow-growing forest (no deforestation!)
hemp protein provides all of the amino acids our bodies can metabolize
building materials made of hemp are fire-resistant
hemp is the premier renewable source of food, fiber and fuel, and has been for thousands of years