Cannabis Is A Visionary Plant, Not A Panacea – Forbes

A writer I respect gave me some constructive criticism that got me thinking. “How is it,” she asked, “that I can advocate for cannabis to change people, when the January 6th insurrectionists were smoking weed in the Capitol? Where was my precious panacea known as the cannabis plant to save the day then?” 

Her insight blew a giant hole in much of my recent writing and advocacy. I felt panic set in. It’s the kind of panic you get when you suspect you got something wrong or incomplete. After some rumination, I thought maybe I would sit down and try to make sense of the riddle. 

The first thought that came to mind was the weed those folks were smoking wasn’t any good or they hadn’t smoked enough of it. Or perhaps they needed a more powerful visionary plant than even cannabis. My ego told me that the weed could not possibly be to blame. The plant did not have enough time to work her magic from the inside out. I’ve had about 35,000 cannabis sessions in my life and those folks simply didn’t. They’ll come around in time. 

The second thought that came to mind was that the first thought might be naïve. Bad people doing bad things smoke weed, too. This truth must be acknowledged if I’m to try building bridges between cannabis people and everyone else. Cannabis can cause harm when humans interact with it in a negative way. There are giant, illegal cartel grows in the forests of California polluting rivers and streams. There are violent criminals in the weed trade. And, yes, a bunch of fools storming the Capitol earlier this year had joints a-blazing as they tried to steal an election. They are more than lucky they didn’t get shot through the heart, as any Black or brown American can tell you. We’ll see if any of them get charged with weed possession on top of everything else, given the federal laws against it. Our community certainly would have faced such charges, assuming we survived the bullet.

The truth may be that plants can’t really work their magic on people unless people want some magic worked on them. And those same plants can work some dark magic on people who want that. They’re called visionary plants for a reason and if your vision is evil, well, the plant will be there for that, too. I like to think these plants are smarter than people because there are more people consuming cannabis today than ever before. On balance, my experience informs me that most of these interactions have ultimately yielded a more gentle person. I know the cannabis plant has arrived at a much different place within the people than when I was growing up in the 1970s and ‘80s. The plant is inside more minds and bodies than ever before despite a trillion dollar effort to stop it that continues to this day. There’s something happening here and what it is may not exactly be clear. Like everything in American life, it’s complicated. 

In the end, the struggle for cannabis rights and freedom is a multi-level chess game. One of those levels involves advocacy and transcendence to mainstream society. Another level is in the streets and our community stands ready to resist when it comes to that. The arena of public policy has been another battleground and will continue to be a place cannabis people need to show up strong. This is the only way to get our pioneers and warriors out of prison and back to work in the trade. 

Sometimes bad people will do bad things in the name of weed, and our community will have to respond in a good way. Other times we can celebrate heroic acts of triumph as legalization sweeps the globe. And there will be moments of bitter defeat where we have large wounds to heal and big lessons to learn. We can count on all of these outcomes and more for this has been our path for many generations now. 

Cannabis is not a panacea, but I haven’t found another issue to advocate with greater impact on the people and communities. The only panacea in life is our dependence on others, and the love and hope that inspires humanity to carry on despite the darkness all around us. One good joint being passed between us can help illuminate the earth as we walk down the long path home. That same joint can be used to plan all kinds of things I don’t subscribe to. All of us have to be wide open to that fact and understand that even visionary plants are complicated by the folly of human beings.