Silver Lining

Hemp farm linked from burnonewith.us

I’ve been thinking about the illegalization of marijuana. And I came to realize that there’s a great silver lining to the fact that it’s been illegal for so long. And that is this: it’s remained pure.

We know by now that the great illegalize movement came from big business. I will simplify, but if you want a full, detailed account try this link. That’s because marijuana – in the form of “hemp” – is about the most versatile plant in the world. In those days everything was made from hemp, from the clothes people wore to the ropes on the great ships. Look it up. The cotton and logging industries wanted the business so they began a campaign against “marijuana” and when they had people convinced they then stated that “marijuana” = “hemp”. Very clever. Bravo. In fact, it is the same plant, but I dare you to smoke those clothes – or even the hemp that was used to make it.

Anyway, since then it has been illegal – except for a small period during World War II that the U.S. government passed a law that all farmers must grow hemp for the war effort. Yes, that’s true. You can check it out. If that’s not showing your hand then I don’t know what is.

But I digress. Imagine big businesses being able to sell us our ganja. Phillip Morris, for example. They’ve made their careers out of selling people addictive substances. What do you suppose would be in our “marijuana cigarettes”? Look at the list of ingredients in tobacco that has nothing to do with tobacco. More addictive killers. Paper chemicals. Nastiness. And tons of it. Our ganja would be in the hands of the incompetent. Their interests aren’t – and wouldn’t be – the same as ours. They’re not out to make high quality tobacco and they wouldn’t be out to make high quality ganja. It would be about how to keep us hooked and not how to keep us high. It would be awful.

Now look at the state of ganja today.* You can clearly get it anywhere in the world. The quality is higher then it’s ever been. It has not been genetically engineered (as far as I know). It will still grow anywhere. Nobody tries to corner the market. It’s a beautiful business model made up of local growers, couriers and distributors. And it’s still what it has been all along. The “mainstream” world is just rediscovering all of the things that this plant does – medicine, food, textiles, plastics, etc. etc. etc. It’s a gift that our ancestors hid in the warehouse. And the gift of it sitting in the warehouse is that they, themselves, did not play with it and fuck it up.

It makes me realize that if vegetables were illegal nobody would go hungry.

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*As we move forward and marijuana is reintroduced into medicine and other industries, there are already patents on strains and companies whose sole purpose is profit from its sale. Hopefully we will remember that we can grow it on our own, as we seem to have forgotten about this with food.

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Rant 1

It’s a fucked up sucked up
meat sack of a place
that’s being torn down worn down
and is eroding into space

when you prefer buildings to trees
and poison to fleas
getting down on your knees
in an effort to please

some king some god some unworldly man
all the while brewing his in-articulated plan

you’ve been bushwackled, bamboozled
thought you were wide eyed just to end up a spectacle

now it’s all being laid bare
and with a last ditch effort to get you to stare
to some place far over there

there’ll be some droppings of bombs
maybe a few tons
and we’ll all look away while they continue their play

for our resources no one cares about your money
it’s all about the bees and their honey

because that’s what they’ve taken away
while they get our eyes always to stray

to each other – look at him, he’s gay
and she’s convinced that religion’s the way

the republicans, the democrats
the whites and the blacks
all a subterfuge for the real attack

but freud was mistaken in his final analyzation
for my father and mother were also forsaken
by a society that let them grow up in a situation
that pain is okay and punishment deserved

but you are society so I understand
you were unwittingly part of the plan
to get me to look at my mom and my dad
and never look farther to what’s really bad

the conflict within is caused from without
we are not born with a headful of doubts

and our parents and grandparents are not to blame
also being born into this intricate game

but as long as we can blame each other
we’ll never see beyond our own brother

to the guy with the gun at his head
poking and prodding him too into dread

what’s really going on may actually not matter
just that they’re wasting our time with jibber and jabber

once again diverting our eyes
from what’s been all along the one and only prize

while we run around for another dollar
they grab another forest by the collar

another river full of oil
a bit more poison in the soil

but keep looking at the president’s mistakes
and wars taking place between sovereign states

because all that’s important is our attention
while our world is raped of its regeneration