Marijuana: Grow it, use it, give it away—just don't sell it

                                                     images courtesy cannabisbook.com

There was a time when cannabis was used happily and without negative side effects in countless medications including sleeping drops for children.

But then the madness struck…

The racism and xenophobia at the root of the initial laws criminalizing cannabis are fairly well known. Reefer Madness and similar campaigns kept recreational use out of the mainstream, effectively restricting its use to sub-groups such as artists, poets, musicians and their radical ilk.

There was a resurgence of popularity, back in the late sixties and very early seventies, when cannabis consumption was enjoyed in the context of counter-culture proclivities, and “sharing the bounty” rather than commercialism, was the rule of the day. Weed flowed freely amongst the partakers with a generous ease, much in the same way that a joint is still passed round in a circle.

A traveler would pick up some hash or grass in Mexico, Nepal, Morocco or Afghanistan, bring it back, and give it to friends and acquaintances. Yes, some folks sold it, but they were few and far between, and the price was so low it was at best a friendly cottage industry.

The point was never to "get high" in the sense of stupor, but rather to share the joys of expanded consciousness. Music sounded, food tasted, dance moved, sex felt —Better — Richer — Fuller —Higher!

So how did we get here from there?

Because this display of rampant anti-consumerism was such an anathema to the powers the be, ever greater restrictions were imposed, or re-imposed. An actual war was declared against this expansion on consciousness, in particular when it led to a serious resistance to governmental agendas such as invasions of sovereign countries accompanied by questionable claims of national security (read Vietnam here).

Logic, science, debate, and humanity were sacrificed upon the altar of the establishment. Preservation of the “status quo” as defined by those who held the guns and wrote the laws, dictated evermore draconian methods to squelch its use, and criminalize the users.

And so we arrive at today when you can murder, rape, steal, disfigure, assault or abuse another person and keep your student loan, but if you smoke a joint and get caught, its no further education for you unless you can come up with every red cent on your own, up front, or put your education on hold for two years or more (or indefinitely, depending on circumstances.)

What, my friends, is wrong with that picture?

The tragic violence on our borders with Mexico seems to have finally gotten national attention, even when the ongoing incarceration of 10% of the African-American male population, primarily for drug offenses, didn't. Be that as it may, it seems like we are finally questioning our societal tactics around the issue of drugs, and the institutionalization of those tactics in our criminal justice system (note the great leadership of Senator Jim Webb around this subject).

That cannabis is even classified as a drug, rather than an herb, is a subject for another article.

So, what is the answer?

Those that would have marijuana legalized face opposition (even in their own ranks – though for different reasons) from others who see this tactic as leading to an agri-biz takeover of weed, complete with ad campaigns and a huge increase in use. Lawmakers shudder at the regulatory implications, and law enforcement at the imagined difficulty of figuring out who is a legitimate manufacturer and seller and who isn't.

Clearly, increased penalties, stiffer fines, and social ostracism, has not worked. Strategies, such as taxation, licensing fees, etc. have been proposed, with promises of increased funds in community coffers as a result of money collected, as well as substantial savings in law enforcement and incarceration costs.

Time for a new approach:

Decriminalisation, such as the recent Massachusettes experiment,  attempts to lessen the repercussions of simple possession, but somehow, the following simple solution: to ban sales for purposes of recreation or sacrament, while legalizing consumption and production, has not received a long or even medium-length shrift. However, if we take a step back from the present day cannabis conundrum, to look at its history, we find many clues as to why this tactic, divorcing cannabis from a particular kind of sales – and this one tactic alone – would address most, if not all of our government's stated concerns.

The Three Languages of Weed

To understand how this would work, we must make a distinction between marijuana, cannabis and hemp. Though, in fact they all refer to the essentially the same thing, each word carries its own baggage and frame of reference.

HEMP

Hemp, innocent plant of fiber and foodstuff, which became unexpectedly caught in an extended culture-war crossfire, should be legal, and go into commercial production immediately. Though, as cannabis sativa, it shares the name and genome of marijuana, it is severely challenged in the THC department. As such, it cannot supply the pleasant side effect that weed, darling of the creative set, delivers. However, as a source of protein, essential oils, resin, plastics, fuel, fiber, paper and building material, hemp could and should reclaim its status as a far-ranging and viable economic engine (a position it indeed held, prior to 1937). Instead, we are forced to import it from Canada, at inflated prices.

CANNABIS

                                                      image courtesy of hemp info

Cannabis, as medicine, has its own place in the scheme of things, and though it could be argued that medicine should also be divorced from commercial considerations, doing research, developing effective strains and treatment protocols does take funding of some form or another. We have barely scratched the surface when it comes to the huge potential that cannabinoid-based medicine promises in the realms of oncology, psychology, neuroscience, bacteriology, and the list goes on.

MARIJUANA

                 Poster-magnet image courtesy Allposters.com

Marijuana, is a different animal. It goes by many names: weed, grass, muggles, mj. It has its own culture, language, and style. It is here that cannabis occupies a sphere where sacrament and recreation, in its most essential terms, intersect. I have no problems declaring that commercializing cannabis has no place in this context. It is here in this realm, for this purpose, that cannabis should, very simply, never, ever be sold — only used, shared or given away (with age restrictions enforced).

How would this work, exactly?

Approaching the problem in this manner will instantly undercut a large underground industry, and though this, no doubt, would affect many lovely folks who merely raise and/or sell small amounts to support their kids, or put themselves through college, that unwanted consequence must be embraced in order to end the rampant involvement of organized crime, with its concomitant funding of violent activities.

Such an approach would be easy to police. With all sales banned, yet the product remaining easily available, the profit motive is entirely eliminated. Gangs would no longer recruit school children to sell weed to their peers with the promise of some extra cash. Profits and working capital for groups like the Taliban and the Mexico drug cartels would instantly shrink.

We can see the problems that arise when profit is coupled with pleasurable substances: Alcohol companies with their enticing ad campaigns snaring new recruits; tobacco interests targeting the young in order to replace that portion of their customer-base that have peskily died off.

It is a rather sad commentary on our commercially-driven consumer society, that this simple solution has never been seriously considered. For precedence we have to refer to a way of life where items were produced and shared for the simple love of it, in small, close-knit agrarian or hunter-gatherer societies: the kind of societies we humans lived in for tens of thousands of years. Flower Children of the sixties were reaching back for that, and it so horrified commercial interests, that those long-haired, tie-dyed youngsters have been vilified ever since.

As it turns out, those "counter-culture" attempts to live the simpler life in the midst of present day distractions offer the rest of us methods for survival during our current societal meltdown and planetary degradation: recycling, renewable energy, organic farming, craft, personal responsibility, communal or cooperative living. These were the solutions the Hippies came up with, and, remember, true Hippies always shared their stash.

Peace.

image courtesy of Shellgames