by
Don Wharton
I
attended the protest demonstration in front of the White House held
April 2, 2016. Their 51 foot long plastic joint, inflated by a fan,
said “Obama Deschedule Cannabis Now.” This referred to Schedule
1 of the Controlled Substances Act, which lists drugs with a high
potential for abuse, no medical use, and no safe use even under
medical supervision. Marijuana does not belong on Schedule 1.
A
number of speakers described how some variety of cannabis was needed
to deal with their seizures, pain, or side effects of cancer. There
are many more medical uses for marijuana with various levels of
credibility in the published literature. A religious fanatic pranced
around the demonstration holding a Bible above his head and spouted
various verses. Not until he appeared right next to me did I find
out the Healing Church had won a court case defining marijuana as a
sacrament. The passages he cited were ones he thought referred to
cannabis. It shows how the metaphorical language of religion can
justify just about anything.
The
single most common reason people cite for using cannabis is to
enhance their delight in the world. I consumed some edibles someone
gave me at the demonstration. I had five hits from joints that
people shared with me including one from Adam Eidinger, organizer of
the event. This was in a sea of cameras so there is likely to be
ample evidence I was violating the law as a point of civil
disobedience. I also got royally stoned for the first time in
decades. I love life as it is, so I feel little need to chemically
enhance things. My choice to engage was purely political.
That
said, the experience was quite delightful. I use mindfulness
meditation where the goal is let go of all ideas and abstract
understandings to attend solely to what is real. Perception can be
maximized by choosing to place attention only on one's physical being
and surroundings. The cannabis enhancement of this effect brings it
to an amazing new level. I was richly reminded of the peak in joy
that can occur when someone feels totally unified with everything
that is. Many people have mistakenly presumed such peak experiences
are a transcendental communicating with God. The vibrancy of flowers
and the singing of birds are examples of experiences that become
massively richer. A wren landed a few feet in front me. I stopped
walking and attended to the bird. I was amazed this small wild
creature showed no fear. It cocked its head five different ways to
look at me. It felt like a quasi-conversation where each of us
shared awareness of the consciousness of the other.
Given
my delight in interacting with the wren it was obvious I was enjoying
my abstract understanding of what happened. I then looked what I was
doing in front of the White House. There were five million people
arrested for marijuana just during the Obama administration. Some of
these suffered radically outsized penalties such as the veteran who
got life in prison for the two pound stash used to manage the pain
from his wounds. Ehrlichman in the Nixon administration had made it
clear the motivation for the war on drugs was to target their major
political opposition, the anti-war left and blacks. The facts about
marijuana literally did not matter. What mattered was allocating
power to the pro-war conservatives who supported Nixon. I loved the
idea of being there in civil disobedience against the repressive
stupidity of that drug war. I was standing against the pain and
destruction of millions of lives because a power elite deemed
segments of the population to be their political enemy. These ideas
and many others covered by the protest speakers were included in one
massive non-verbal network of ideas that somehow appeared in my mind
as a single unified whole. It became clear that ideas could be as
awesomely vibrant and luminous as direct sensory perceptions. With
this awareness the goal ceased to be a mindfulness empty of ego and
abstractions. Instead I became aware of the vast range of choices
possible concerning consciousness and savored exploring that range.
Later I spent an extremely delightful evening with my loving
significant other with no hangover the next day. In fact the next
day had a wonderful afterglow of happiness.
A
central scientific claim by those who support keeping cannabis on
Schedule 1 is that there is no safe use and no medical use. It is
not a goal of this article to do an extensive review of either the
benefits or possible negatives, but we do need to review the major
problems and fears. There are some allergic reactions which can be
severe. Some people get panic attacks. Some cannabis supporters
claim that users do not get addicted. Routine use does increase the
prevalence of cannabinoid receptors and there are some negative
symptoms such as irritability upon withdrawal. The fact the percent
who get addicted is much lower than the case for alcohol and tobacco
and the symptoms more mild is no excuse to pretend that cannabis
addiction does not occur. It does. There are no deaths whatsoever
from the direct chemical effect for average people. It is nominally
even safer than caffeine. Caffeine has a lethal dose level only 75
to 100 times the typical dose in a cup of coffee. With marijuana the
lethal dose of tetrahydrocannabinol is not know with precision but it
is certain to be thousands of times greater than the amount required
to saturate all cannabinoid receptors in the human body and produce
the maximum possible psychoactive response.
Obviously,
it is highly recommended that people not drive or engage in dangerous
activities while under the influence of marijuana or any drug. The
possible harms from marijuana are the exception and it is clear the
vast majority of people can safely use it. Medical services are
needed only to determine which variety and dosage is required to
provide benefit and to respond to the small percent who have the
unfortunate responses noted above.
Bernie
Sanders has introduced a bill, S. 2237, titled "Ending Federal
Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2015"1. In his opinion
it is crazy to continue having marijuana on Schedule 1. A recent
Gallup poll had 58% of American favoring legal use of marijuana2.
As with LGBT rights there is a sharp differential across
generations. A PEW Research poll earlier found 68% of the millennial
generation supporting legal use3. Personal quotes cited
in the PEW report:
“It
is not as harmful as alcohol. [...] It also helps medical conditions
as a more natural substitute to pharmaceuticals.” Female, 46
“My
grandson was diagnosed with epilepsy a year ago and it has been
proven that it helps with the seizures.” Female, 69
“I
think crime would be lower if they legalized marijuana. It would put
the drug dealers out of business.” Female, 62
“Because
people should be allowed to have control over their body and not have
the government intervene in that.” Male, 18
“I
think that we would have more control over it by allowing a federal
agency to tax and regulate it like alcohol.” Male, 25
Footnotes
1:
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/s2237/text
2:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/186260/back-legal-marijuana.aspx
3:
http://www.people-press.org/2015/04/14/in-debate-over-legalizing-marijuana-disagreement-over-drugs-dangers/
1 comment:
Great read thannkyou
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