Parenting and Cannabis

If people would simply stop lying about cannabis, so much would be resolved. A parent using cannabis for recreation is no different than a parent who has a beer after work. Well, at least cannabis is healthy..not so sure about the beer. But then I'm biased..I've never liked the taste of beer. And I don't drink anymore, so there's that. It's not a hard and fast rule, but I feel better when I don't drink alcohol.

Anyway, I read that in Colorado, our legalization Mecca, a bill was introduced which, if passed, will potentially complicate everyone's lives there. It seems that some lawmakers think that if a parent uses a controlled substance (which unless I missed something, cannabis is just that), medically or otherwise, it's time to take the kids away. SB 178, a gem of a bill, defines a "drug endangered child" and imposes criminal penalties on the child's parents if manufacturing or possessing controlled substances. Cannabis is a federally controlled substance, even though it's legal in Colorado. Although the bill's author seems to suggest that this doesn't apply to cannabis, no one really believes that.

I agree that kids shouldn't be around certain drugs. You know, like heroin, cocaine, meth and drugs like those. But cannabis is not a drug. It's a plant. Yes it has psychoactive properties. It also has medicinal properties. Typically we don't see the level of spousal abuse amongst those who use cannabis that we do with those who use alcohol. Plus, there's the added benefit of no addiction. And we have cannabinoid receptors all over the place that are just waiting to connect with the various compounds found in cannabis. It's what keeps us healthy. It's so funny that since I became a patient four years ago, my health has returned, so much so that I walk eight miles every morning. Right..cannabis is a bad thing..

It seems to me that every time something positive happens with respect to cannabis, some lawmaker finds a ridiculous way to circumvent it. If cannabis is legal in Colorado, then you can't take away kids from parents who use it. You can't make it impossible for parents who are also patients to use cannabis medicinally to deal with their health issues. They shouldn't have to fear losing their kids while getting well. No other patients have to deal with these kinds of things. Cannabis patients should be no different. If SB 178 doesn't apply to anyone using cannabis, then revise the bill to include that specific language. Otherwise, Coloradoans who use cannabis are at risk. Surely there are other laws on the books that define what "drug endangered" children are along with penalties for those who disregard them. Why does it need redefinition?

Last summer, the Oregon legislature legalized dispensaries. We voted them down, but they sprung up anyway, and the legislature decided to do something positive for all of us by legalizing them. And then, just before the application process began in March, they decided to let local areas temporarily ban them for one year. Never mind that they had roughly nine months to get used to the idea. And never mind that they looked the other way as the dispensaries opened without benefit of law. Now they suddenly are so overwhelmed by the possibility of a dispensary opening (or continuing to operate) that, oh my Goddess, they have to have a moratorium on them for a while longer. Spare me.

Washington state, our legalization problem child to the north, has legal patients who are going to trial federally in July, I believe, for following state medical cannabis laws to the letter. So, if this can happen in Washington, it can happen in Colorado as well. I also read an article that suggested the Feds might not deliver water to cannabis growers up in Washington as well. In my opinion, this is chicken shit. The Federal Government is going to have to deal with legalization sooner than later. They know it's safe and they know it cures all kinds of things. People are incarcerated for nothing at all. Lives are continuing to be ruined..all to preserve a lie told long ago.

Cannabis users are not criminals, nor are we unfit parents. Isn't it time the charade stopped?

End prohibition. Live in truth and with integrity. Legalize cannabis.

Enough already..

Robert Duncan went to prison Monday for working in a collective/dispensary in Northern California. The owner of the operation was sentenced to five years, Duncan to two. The business is legal in California, but that didn't matter to the feds. They prosecuted them and now they're serving time for something that is legal in that state. Oregon legalized dispensaries last summer. Applications began this month. Will it matter? Will they go to jail too? 

When is this going to stop? When are states going to stop letting the federal government arrest people for following state law? Where are the lawsuits on behalf of residents who are doing everything right, yet still lose everything? Where is the outrage from governors and legislatures? Law abiding citizens are helpless in the face of federal abuse. And that's what this is. Abuse. The feds have known for years that medical cannabis is legal in many states. Why haven't they taken steps to solve the parity issue between state and federal law? Why is it okay in their estimation to ruin lives? The cost to taxpayers is enormous to incarcerate everyone and then to deal with them when they come out of prison, jobless.

The whole situation is beyond ridiculous. No one should go to prison for a plant, especially one that has so much use, whether medicinally or industrially. Industrial hemp could have been so beneficial to our country, let alone the world, but the lie was told and sanity went away, replaced by a profit motive so great that honesty and integrity went right out the window. Isn't it about time that we got some of that back?

Two states have legalized cannabis. Washington is in the process of screwing over patients, which many of us saw coming during the I502 battle. Here's the thing..we didn't get medical cannabis laws passes so that we could get high. We did it so that we could get well. I realize the Washington State Liquor Control Board doesn't agree with that and views patients with disdain, but that's not based in reality. Patients will suffer in Washington if this happens. So, I hope someone steps in and stops these fools. Otherwise, patients will be in real trouble there. Things seem to be going better in Colorado, but there's always time for shenanigans to occur.

Alaska is set to vote on legalization this summer, and many more states, including Oregon, will have legalization initiatives on the November ballot. Washington DC decriminalized cannabis in limited amounts yesterday, instituting a $25.00 fine for up to an ounce. Imagine that..sanity in our nation's capital. Even Italy understands the travesty that cannabis laws have on people because they're poised to let 10,000 of their citizens out of prison for cannabis violations.

So much would be solved if the federal government would come out and say, once and for all, that cannabis laws should never have been instituted, that cannabis is safe, and that everyone who is currently incarcerated will now be released with their records expunged. It's the only fair thing to do at this point. The truth about cannabis is coming out daily now and the federal government's denial of the truth only makes them look dictatorial and small. Legalization is favored by the majority of citizens now, and those numbers would rise substantially if the government would be honest about this plant.

People suffer when governments lie. We've had too much of that in our history. It's time the truth was told. Cannabis is safe. Cannabis heals just about everything. Hemp can heal the earth. Stop the insane lie that has destroyed so many lives. I think we reached critical mass on this years ago. How about we do something positive for a change?

Did we just open the door to legalization?

Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that as long as states don't let it be a free for all, they can move forward on recreational use of cannabis. And apparently, this applies to the states with legal medical cannabis as well. Now that we have legalized dispensaries here in Oregon, and reduced cannabis to a Schedule 2, it will be interesting to see how all of this unfolds. 

It certainly feels like we're on the path to full legalization. I've never understood how it could be prohibited on a lie in the first place. Especially considering how many lives have been ruined by incarcerating folks for using a completely safe plant to feel better - either medicinally or recreationally. What difference does it make which it is?

But then we've been led astray before, and I suppose that we'll have to wait and see just how far-reaching this is. Will it stop the court case involving an Anaheim landlord and the DEA in which the DEA wants to seize the building owned by the landlord because he had a tenant there with a dispensary? I read that the building is worth 1.5 million so is that what this is about? Money? What about the fact that it's legal in California for dispensaries to exist? Will they finally leave Harborside alone? After all, Oakland wants them there. Will this result in releasing the people in jail for cannabis? It should. Will the raids on the legal dispensaries stop now? Was it the fact that Senator Leahy decided to hold hearings next week in the Judiciary Committee to ask why state laws aren't being respected that this response happened today? I mean, I don't really care as long as this is the real deal.

I don't know, but things do feel different. Watching the Let Freedom Ring event yesterday in Washington DC commemorating the March on Washington as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave me hope for the future. It seems like people are getting really tired of the nonsense that's been going on. It's all about oppression in one fashion or another. Doesn't matter if it's cannabis laws, the Voting Rights Act, the Keystone XL Pipeline, Wall Street and the economy, Congress, the Violence Against Women's Act, SNAP, Meals On Wheels, Head Start, or anything else. We want to be treated with respect and dignity by our government. We want law enforcement to stop behaving like thugs. We want Congress to do it's job. We want this ridiculous sequester to stop so that necessary programs such as SNAP, Meals On Wheel, and Head Start are fully funded. It's okay to care about the American people. You're supposed to. You can't create the current situation and then walk away from your responsibilities. 

And your primary responsibility is to tell us the truth. Always. The last thing any of us should fear is following our state laws. Because that's what cannabis patients fear. We follow our state laws and then we go to jail anyway, or the dispensary owners have their businesses raided. Or our children are taken from us. I hope this new understanding stops all of this from happening in the future. It's like that doctrine of clean hands idea. If you can't come into court to sue someone when your own participation in the situation is less than legal, then how can the government prohibit something it's lying about and then incarcerate its citizenry for knowing the truth and using it anyway? 

It would be one thing if cannabis killed people. I know the government likes to say it does all kinds of horrible things, but it's simply not true. But if it were that bad, then prohibition would make sense. We have all kinds of laws on the books protecting consumers from businesses that essentially lie to them about their products.  If it's against the law to scam people in business, why isn't lying to the American people about cannabis? Surely we can all agree that we've been scammed all this time. If anyone doesn't agree, better watch Sanjay Gupta's special again. 

All we're asking for is for the truth about cannabis to be common knowledge. I attended the Seattle Hempfest this year and listened to a panel of doctors talk about the efficacy of cannabis in the treatment of pretty much everything. Dr. William Courtney went on and on about the benefits of daily raw cannabis in one's diet. He fervently believes that it should be a regular part of our diet. And given all of the environmental concerns we face, cannabis can protect and heal us. 

The federal government never should have allowed this state/federal conflict to exist in the first place. As soon as decriminalization efforts began, followed by medicinal cannabis laws, the federal government should have eliminated the conflict so that state laws would be respected. To let it go on this long is abuse. The federal government needs to own what they did to all of us. 

So there you have it...