If you consider fast-food and a beer as freedom, good for you. You're at the right place.I drink lots of beer and eat lunch at a fast-food joint everyday day, M-F. Although I used cannabis (marijuana) daily and by daily I mean about half a joint, with one beer maybe two, I gave all that up when I turned 50. I'm 58 now.
Wow I imagine you wondering... am I okay, after 30 years of "drug-addiction"? Do I still have a brain? Did I start living again, find a job, get married and finally have children - and, well, hope they're not deformed.
Well, I imagine I'm grateful for your concern. I imagine that gratitude as I hope you're not seriously concerned about me in that way.
The truth is, from around 1974 - 2004 I had a pretty good life. I worked FT, earned three college degrees, enjoyed the company of friends and lovers. I managed. I managed quite well.
I was dealt a curve in life, as many of us are. I will admit that my curve involved PTSD, depression, anxiety to the point of panic. From the age of 20 - 50 ...
I used cannabis and saw a therapist. I've worked at colleges, universities, and public schools. The benefits were always free therapy, and I took advantage of it. In those 30 years, between approximately 8 therapist/psychologists, only one panicked when I said I use therapeutic cannabis. 1 in 8. Yet every MD I saw it raised a red flag. "You shouldn't be using marijuana".
I'm only being truthful... this is the "truth about marijuana", isn't it?
I was highly productive for those 30 years, and then I gave it up. Turning 50, well, it sucked. It didn't help that those close to me around 2004 suddenly became "born-agains". People close to me I used to pass the peace-pipe with, suddenly convinced it was evil. "What evil", I'd ask, but the only answer I got was, "it's illegal, it's a sin".
And why I wonder is it illegal?
Which is beside the point. Fact is after 9-11 people changed, I got old, I lost touch with old friends and found myself too busy keeping my job, which required a 3 hour a day commute. I'm still at it.
So how has quitting cannabis helped me? It hasn't. After a year I started drinking. First it was rum and cokes, coffee brandy, and then it was beer, and coffee brandy. And I gave up quitting tobacco. Easy to buy and it reminds me of the old days when I could instead imbibe in the plant of my choice.
I recently spoke to my new psychologist about going on SSDI. We discuss my depression, PTSD and anxiety too.
The state I live in, NH recently passed a Therapeutic Marijuana law. It doesn't include depression, PTSD and anxiety. Even if it did one must wait until the NH Dispensaries are built. One can't grow their own, nor can one get a temporary card for what's estimated to be 19 months. To get a card the homeowner, landlord or property owner must give written consent.Yeah, that'll happen!!! Imagine, as a citizen you can get Oxycontin, morphine, Nicolette gum, Xanax, Valium, Prozac and many other pharmaceutical drugs with just a prescription. You can carry a gun, even get a concealed weapon permit. You don't have to get the okay of your landowner nor your employer. Technically, you can even get a prescription for cocaine from your physician, though I don't know anyone who does - it's not a Schedule One drug.
As I've said previously, though maybe not here, physicians are simply not qualified to recommend cannabis to patients. It was back in the early 20th century when physicians were trained to use and dispense tinctures and grams of medicinal plants like cannabis.
Physicians today know next to nothing about plants. Psychologists know a bit more, from experience dealing with patients who are more honest about their use of cannabis, but even they aren't "trained" in use of therapeutic plants, although they are more open to the benefits. They also have a better grasp of the difference between a client that uses a plant like cannabis for therapeutic wellness, and a person that over-uses, and are not particularly "helped" by cannabis.
This Medical Marijuana response to cannabis use is, in my opinion, a Trojan-horse. It benefits many, it really does, but it's clearly unprecedented in it scope as to the regulations the sates can impose on an individual and I believe simply the impositions are probably unconstitutional. I simply don't believe a state has the right to impose such cruel and inhumane restrictions on a plant that is safer than fermented grapes.
Live Free or Die is our State Motto. Means little to a citizen who's lived her for over 20 years!
Rational Conclusion: Legalize it already and Stop the Hurt!
BTW (by the way)... the federal goverment earned US patent # 6,630,507... for therapeutic use of THC back in 2003. The National Institute of Heath provided the research and clinical trial necessary. As cannabis is currently a drug listed as Schedule One, this would be illegal. To see why read my section, the last part of my favorite media... about the ONDCP and federal law regarding Schedule One plants and drugs. Why is it our federal government feels it can break it's own laws, while hunting and prosecuting citizens in states where cannabis is legal?
That's the truth, the whole truth... I swear by Nature!
US patent # 6,630,507
I enjoyed this last segment. Interesting that HIPA (Health Information Privacy Act)laws don't protect people using medical cannabis? Why should you have to tell your landlord your medical business? If the Feds would just back off and let the state run itself, your landlord wouldn't need to worry about getting busted for what you are doing. I'm sure people smoking tobacco and alcohol don't get notes from their landlord. Here they go treating us like babies again.
ReplyDeleteInteresting observation Cass, about HIPA. It's a federal law, so I figure states don't need to apply it to therapeutic/medical use of cannabis. I'm relieved at least we don't have to put bumper stickers on our cars and wear the ID in a readily observable place. I'm not certain, but I think NH is the only state that requires the landlord/homeowner's permission. It is none of their business, our health and therapies. I trust the 21 states are trying their best to accommodate people and their needs. The NH House never required such violations of our privacy, asked that temporary ID cards be issued, and legal protections applied from day one. It was the NH Senate and Gov. Hassan that demanded the above violations to our rights. NJ is not faring much better, I hear, with Gov. Christy's games.
ReplyDeleteAgain, thanks for your comment... as you say the feds need to back off, cannabis needs to be decriminalized and it should be sold in health food stores, not dispensaries or liquor stores.
Great observation, re: HIPA. Thanks!
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