Meeting Persephone

I really need to know something and if anyone can explain it to me, I'll be eternally grateful.

I have a friend (someone I went to jr. high school with many moons ago). He's a business owner, single (in a committed relationship), college educated, white, Christian male. Everything is pretty much already on his side right? Can someone then please explain to me why he feels the need to create a load of drama by "illegally" importing beer into the U.S.? Here's what I mean - he apparently likes some particular beer not made in the U.S. and decided to have it shipped to his state so he could drink it here. There is NOTHING illegal about this except for the fact that he didn't pay any kind of taxes on the beer because he had it wrapped as medical samples to throw off customs. If he'd been caught he'd have gotten a slap on the wrist and a fine and he and the cops/attorneys/judge could have had a good laugh as well as swapped some tips on other great beer out there that they've tried. End of story.

I'm not a drinker. I have the occasional glass of mead or wine and every so often I might drink a kahlua and cream. In a year's time I might have a total of 6 drinks. I don't get the fascination and I have a family of alcoholics so that may have influenced my position a bit. I believe in people's right to choose to drink (as long as nobody's endangered as a result).

The thing is, I'm chronically ill. The medications I have been prescribed over the past decade have done little to help and many of them raised hell with my body with their various side effects. Anyone with chronic illnesses can tell you the same story. Some of us get some relief but often times the relief is inadequate or comes at a horrible price (destruction of other organs for example). What I want is the opportunity to try using cannabis to treat my many differing ailments. Cannabis is all natural (if grown myself would also be guaranteed organic), is a single medication (as opposed to as many as 12 Rx I've been on at one time not to mention countless supplements), has few side effects that could be considered bothersome rather than lethal, has been proven to relieve many illnesses (and many that I have at that), and it is non-habit forming.

What's the problem? Well, cannabis is actually illegal. If I were caught trying to have even the seeds for this plant shipped to me I would risk being arrested and jailed. For a plant. A plant that requires little more effort to grow than a tomato plant and virtually nothing to use and it is completely illegal in this country. There would be no slap on the wrist for me if I were to be caught. There would be no elbow nudges with cops or attorneys over the situation if I were caught with this herb. I would lose my daughter and risk my husband's position at work not to mention our home and everything else trying to fight when I have no energy to even do so. I'm stuck not being able to use it. Not being able to choose.

So when I hear a story like that of my friend, I feel like my situation is being mocked. Not only mine but so many others across the country that do NOT live in those states with compassionate laws for patients or even for the recreational user. He didn't bother researching the laws but immediately decided that he was going to be sneaky and for no good reason since the law is really on his side anyway. I have researched cannabis for medical use (as well as recreational) for a decade now - studies, videos, books, articles, etc. - not from personal use. I have begged, pleaded, argued with, and confronted countless politicians on its illegal status and how hypocritical it is that the US holds 2 patents on the medical benefits of cannabinoids while maintaining that cannabis has NO medicinal value at all. The US is issuing patents for the medical benefits of its components (nearly 2000 patents total) to pharmaceutical companies but will not permit scientists to run the necessary tests to prove its medical benefits legally. So when scientists do run those tests and find the benefits the US can ignore them because the tests were run using an illegal substance and the results then become null and void. I am begging politicians to think like physicians but not pretend to be physicians by interfering in treatment.

Several years ago I went to my doctor and asked them if cannabis would interfere with all of the medications I was on at the time. My doctor flipped the pages of my chart and gave the obligatory glance at my list of meds and then said "no it won't interfere". I was then told that it irritates doctors to no end that alcohol and tobacco are perfectly legal and yet so lethal while cannabis is illegal and is relatively harmless. It irritates patients too.

MPP (The Marijuana Policy Project) has a paid lobbyist trying to work with politicians in Washington D.C. for reforming the laws against cannabis. The efforts are fairly futile considering that the movement has nowhere near the money that Big Pharma can throw at them. I watched a video of this lobbyist touching base with many of those politicians and one of them, while on camera, told him essentially that he needed to scratch his back and throw some money his way before he'd think about it. WE PAY THEIR WAGES (not to mention their health care!!)!!

So yeah, I'm pissed that people will play games with their alcohol choices as if they have anything to fear. I'm pissed that they don't give a shit at all that there are some of us out there who'd like to have the right to choose to relax or medicate as we (and our doctors) see fit.

I'm angry. I'm impatient. When do I get a chance to choose for myself? When can all adults be free to choose for ourselves?

The Trash Heap has spoken.