I hope to spark some interesting debates on this subject.
I grow pot for a few reasons. First, I love the hobby, nurturing a plant from seed to fruit is a love of nature, a love of life itself. Secondly, I enjoy smoking pot. I smoked pot long before I realized that it was in the better intrests of my health. When I finally realized that it was relieving many of the symptoms of age I enjoyed it even more. I expect to smoke/use pot until I am old, like taking vitamins. The third reason is to remove myself from the seedy underworld. Too many things can go wrong when you are buying pot from some teenager in an alley somewhere. I am not saying that I did this, but as fewer of my friends smoked, I found it nessisary to find "new friends" to aquire my herb and many times these are the same people I would not want to associate with otherwise.
So I began many years ago to supply my own medicine by growing.
I have never sold pot and never will.
I normally grow just enough for my wife and I as well as to make sure that when friends come over there is plenty to share. If I find that I have a few extra ounces that I know won't be needed I generally just give them to my close friends. I give it away because I want to save them the hassle of the seedy underworld; god forbid a friend should get hurt in a bad situation because I was to greedy to help. If I am low I still offer a bit to help out, it's the least I can do, but I will not take money in return.
I am not wealthy; I would have a hard time affording my medication if I had to go to a dealer to aquire it. So the fact that my hobby "saves" me money is a bonus.
Greed is a weakness of character, and temptation tests that character.
Here is a breakdown of the past, present and future as the movement to legalize/decriminalize moves forward, and the way greed will destroy it as it happens.
The Past: We all know the history of prohibition and how it evolved as a tool for political motives and control. In the 60's the issue was so heated it led to revolt, but fell short of revolution. With it becoming part of mainstream culture such as "Cheech and Chong", it was veiwed with more acceptance by the general public but the government held fast to it's illegality.
In the 80's with the emergence of crack and cocaine, the government began "The War on Drugs" and marijuana got thrown into the mix with the "hard" drugs and became the symbol for a war to save the country's youth who were once again destroying the fabric of society. During these troubled times it seemed that defeat was imminent, but our passion for marijuana became the symbol for freedom of choice and human rights and did not yeild to onslaught brought forth by the government. We were winning the war, although we were not aware of that yet. What most failed to realize was that the govenment was still making more profit from fighting a losing war that they would by giving up. Thier greed was overshadowing thier common sense and the movement was stalemated for 20 years.
The present (1995-now): Head shops started opening up, the internet brought the community together, Bill Clinton didn't inhale, marijuana started making some positive headlines in the media and once again the general population seemed open to discuss marijuana and it's legality. The govenment was involved in many wars by this point and could not continue to spend huge resources on the drug war. The oil profits were astonomical and it found that if they locked up all the pot users they would have a smaller number of available soldiers to fight the wars. One soldier is more profitable that one inmate in a privatized prison. But instead of losing the war, they gave the individual states the ability to choose the laws for themselves. We had won.
Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.
The people that were most influential in progressing the legalization movement were the sick people. The people with cancer and AIDS, the doctors that saw the benefits of marijuana, the true soldiers were the people who's lives were given to the cause, those same people would be disgraced at what they would see today. We had won the war, on principals of humanity, compassion, and kindness to our fellow man. We marched togeather in solidarity of the cause and said that money was not the issue, it was all about helping those in need.
Now what I see is greed, greed wrapped in sheep's clothing protesting for the rights of the sick and huddled masses while stepping on thier fellow man for a quick buck. I am not talking solely about the big dispensorys making millions, or the decietful doctors writing prescriptions for a "fee", but I am talking about everyone that grows more that they need just so they can sell some for some extra cash. These people were the ones that made the war such a hard one to win as even public opinion wavers when some teenager is pulling in a million a year while his recklessnes burns his house down. Getting back to those big dispensories, they claim that they would be happy to pay taxes on it and it would make a big profit for the government. This all sounds too familiar, like when big pharmacutical companies give "campain contributions" to politicians. "Let us pay your tax so we can both make huge profits."
We have reached a point in this long standing war on drugs where we could realistically decriminalize marijuana and live happily ever after. This will not happen, we are about to lose this war because of greed and corruption. As far as I am concerened, we have already lost.
The future: Legalization will happen, and when it does, people who fought the war will regret ever fighting for it in the first place. We will watch as greed destroys the hobby that we once loved.
The movement has now gone so far that it can never move backwards. They will never shut down every dispensory or reverse every medical law. There is only one direction it can travel and that is forward, and the government knows this. First we will see more pro-med-pot laws passed, by then there will be more dispensories, more grow ops, and more profits. Once the nation as a whole passes a federal bill allowing the sale and production of marijuana as a medical perscription, you will see the end of the war and we will have lost.
Why you ask? Profits and greed.
Big pharmaceutical companies will begin buying up dispensaries, they will use thier political power and wealth to control the market. They will see the huge profits and will stop at nothing to get them. They will appeal the gov't to class it as a pharmacutical so that home-growers can no longer produce it. You can't make your own aspirin or morphine at home and you will not be able to grow pot at home either. The cost will skyrocket for users, like most perscription drugs that cost pennies to make. profits over compassion. Recreational users will now be treated like drug addicts and the recreational users will be forced so far underground that they will be treated like meth addicts. The gov't will crack down on "unauthorized" grow ops harder than ever because the big pharmacutical companies will pay them to do so. It is a never ending cycle of greed and control. As long as there is a profit in marijuana it will never be out of the control of the gov't, and they dont like competition.
In summary, I am not a pessimist, I have fought in the drug war for 30 years and hope one day to see a victory, but that will only come if greedy people stop acting like the gov't does and remember that compassion will be the road to victory, not profits. If you sell pot you are only making this war harder. If we all gave it away there would be no profits at all and the gov't would stop caring about it and just decriminalize it. Greed makes us all look bad.
Jonny Stilletto
I grow pot for a few reasons. First, I love the hobby, nurturing a plant from seed to fruit is a love of nature, a love of life itself. Secondly, I enjoy smoking pot. I smoked pot long before I realized that it was in the better intrests of my health. When I finally realized that it was relieving many of the symptoms of age I enjoyed it even more. I expect to smoke/use pot until I am old, like taking vitamins. The third reason is to remove myself from the seedy underworld. Too many things can go wrong when you are buying pot from some teenager in an alley somewhere. I am not saying that I did this, but as fewer of my friends smoked, I found it nessisary to find "new friends" to aquire my herb and many times these are the same people I would not want to associate with otherwise.
So I began many years ago to supply my own medicine by growing.
I have never sold pot and never will.
I normally grow just enough for my wife and I as well as to make sure that when friends come over there is plenty to share. If I find that I have a few extra ounces that I know won't be needed I generally just give them to my close friends. I give it away because I want to save them the hassle of the seedy underworld; god forbid a friend should get hurt in a bad situation because I was to greedy to help. If I am low I still offer a bit to help out, it's the least I can do, but I will not take money in return.
I am not wealthy; I would have a hard time affording my medication if I had to go to a dealer to aquire it. So the fact that my hobby "saves" me money is a bonus.
Greed is a weakness of character, and temptation tests that character.
Here is a breakdown of the past, present and future as the movement to legalize/decriminalize moves forward, and the way greed will destroy it as it happens.
The Past: We all know the history of prohibition and how it evolved as a tool for political motives and control. In the 60's the issue was so heated it led to revolt, but fell short of revolution. With it becoming part of mainstream culture such as "Cheech and Chong", it was veiwed with more acceptance by the general public but the government held fast to it's illegality.
In the 80's with the emergence of crack and cocaine, the government began "The War on Drugs" and marijuana got thrown into the mix with the "hard" drugs and became the symbol for a war to save the country's youth who were once again destroying the fabric of society. During these troubled times it seemed that defeat was imminent, but our passion for marijuana became the symbol for freedom of choice and human rights and did not yeild to onslaught brought forth by the government. We were winning the war, although we were not aware of that yet. What most failed to realize was that the govenment was still making more profit from fighting a losing war that they would by giving up. Thier greed was overshadowing thier common sense and the movement was stalemated for 20 years.
The present (1995-now): Head shops started opening up, the internet brought the community together, Bill Clinton didn't inhale, marijuana started making some positive headlines in the media and once again the general population seemed open to discuss marijuana and it's legality. The govenment was involved in many wars by this point and could not continue to spend huge resources on the drug war. The oil profits were astonomical and it found that if they locked up all the pot users they would have a smaller number of available soldiers to fight the wars. One soldier is more profitable that one inmate in a privatized prison. But instead of losing the war, they gave the individual states the ability to choose the laws for themselves. We had won.
Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.
The people that were most influential in progressing the legalization movement were the sick people. The people with cancer and AIDS, the doctors that saw the benefits of marijuana, the true soldiers were the people who's lives were given to the cause, those same people would be disgraced at what they would see today. We had won the war, on principals of humanity, compassion, and kindness to our fellow man. We marched togeather in solidarity of the cause and said that money was not the issue, it was all about helping those in need.
Now what I see is greed, greed wrapped in sheep's clothing protesting for the rights of the sick and huddled masses while stepping on thier fellow man for a quick buck. I am not talking solely about the big dispensorys making millions, or the decietful doctors writing prescriptions for a "fee", but I am talking about everyone that grows more that they need just so they can sell some for some extra cash. These people were the ones that made the war such a hard one to win as even public opinion wavers when some teenager is pulling in a million a year while his recklessnes burns his house down. Getting back to those big dispensories, they claim that they would be happy to pay taxes on it and it would make a big profit for the government. This all sounds too familiar, like when big pharmacutical companies give "campain contributions" to politicians. "Let us pay your tax so we can both make huge profits."
We have reached a point in this long standing war on drugs where we could realistically decriminalize marijuana and live happily ever after. This will not happen, we are about to lose this war because of greed and corruption. As far as I am concerened, we have already lost.
The future: Legalization will happen, and when it does, people who fought the war will regret ever fighting for it in the first place. We will watch as greed destroys the hobby that we once loved.
The movement has now gone so far that it can never move backwards. They will never shut down every dispensory or reverse every medical law. There is only one direction it can travel and that is forward, and the government knows this. First we will see more pro-med-pot laws passed, by then there will be more dispensories, more grow ops, and more profits. Once the nation as a whole passes a federal bill allowing the sale and production of marijuana as a medical perscription, you will see the end of the war and we will have lost.
Why you ask? Profits and greed.
Big pharmaceutical companies will begin buying up dispensaries, they will use thier political power and wealth to control the market. They will see the huge profits and will stop at nothing to get them. They will appeal the gov't to class it as a pharmacutical so that home-growers can no longer produce it. You can't make your own aspirin or morphine at home and you will not be able to grow pot at home either. The cost will skyrocket for users, like most perscription drugs that cost pennies to make. profits over compassion. Recreational users will now be treated like drug addicts and the recreational users will be forced so far underground that they will be treated like meth addicts. The gov't will crack down on "unauthorized" grow ops harder than ever because the big pharmacutical companies will pay them to do so. It is a never ending cycle of greed and control. As long as there is a profit in marijuana it will never be out of the control of the gov't, and they dont like competition.
In summary, I am not a pessimist, I have fought in the drug war for 30 years and hope one day to see a victory, but that will only come if greedy people stop acting like the gov't does and remember that compassion will be the road to victory, not profits. If you sell pot you are only making this war harder. If we all gave it away there would be no profits at all and the gov't would stop caring about it and just decriminalize it. Greed makes us all look bad.
Jonny Stilletto
