I’m No Criminal, I Just Grow Cannabis
A local drug-farmer shares his views on medical marijuana.
AnonAfter tending to the plants this morning, spliff hanging from my mouth as I work, I paused to think. What would happen if the police were to walk in now?
I’d be dragged off, arrested, charged, and sent to court. Given my previous convictions, I’d probably receive a hefty fine and some community service (my grow isn’t large, but large enough).
Some of you may even think I deserve jail time for cultivating a few plants that have been grown for millennia. As a recreational user, it’s a risk I’m willing to take. But what about those people who really need cannabis?
Never trust propaganda with bad punctuation
For some people with MS, leukemia, Crohn’s disease or AIDS, being in ready supply of cannabis isn’t about getting high. It’s about maintaining their standard of living, managing pain, and being able to eat, walk and sleep. Depriving them of their only relief from debilitating ailments is a monstrous wrong.
Despite overwhelming evidence of cannabis’ safety compared to alcohol, tobacco, and almost every pharmaceutical drug, the law forces sick people to obtain their medicine from unscrupulous drug dealers.
Cannabis laws have roots in corporate corruption and racism. In the early 1900’s, there was rising tension over Mexicans entering the USA; incidentally, the Mexicans smoked a lot of cannabis. On the East coast, they were more concerned about black jazz musicians.
Rumours were proliferated by William Randolph Hearst, a media mogul with a vested interest in hindering the hemp paper industry to safeguard his investments in timber. Harry Anslinger, an ambitious Bureau of Narcotics agent, saw this opportunity to expand the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to police marijuana in addition to cocaine and opium. They used Hearst’s newspapers to instigate a furor, with lies more flagrant than the worst of today’s redtops.
Now, nearly 100 years later, medicinal users the world over are struggling to find medicine (or being arrested for growing their own). Non-violent recreational users are prosecuted for a victimless crime, prisons overflow, and billions are spent annually on enforcing laws that have failed. They aren’t going to stop my grow, but they will stop sick people getting what they need.
Leah Whiting
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