The High And Frighty

Yep. The annual SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) Awards were in full throttle last night/early evening, and one might expect a Flog or two toward someone or something about the program today. Not really. What's to say? Almost everyone who "should" have won did. There were very few surprises - at least from my armchair assessment view.

The SAGS are conducted in an easy-going atmosphere, considering how many celebs and their "handlers" were seated almost on top of each other in the already too-close-for-comfort Shrine Auditorium. And the fashion? I'm not crazy about gowns. I like to see tux's. Not much to say there, either. "Hey, nice satin lapel ya' got going on..."

No, not gonna go there today. Instead, let's view a controversial subject quite high on my list: Medical Marijuana. Of course, last night's Hollywood festivities have nothing whatsoever to do with why weed/grass/pot/MJ is on my mind this morning.... Especially when the product-placement champagne bottles on the tables were the size and height of many of Kate Middleton's hats.

The other day I spent a few hours with a friend who informed me that she and her husband have doctor-prescribed Medical Marijuana cards and shop for their supply at a legal dispensary in their Suburban neighbourhood while jaunting around on regular errands. How nice - and convenient, I commented. Pick up the pet food and dash across the street to buy a few ounces of "legal medication" and bounce back to the car and be on one's way for a Mani-Pedi.

I'm a major proponent for Medical MJ and believe the continuing illegality of it is one more indication of how both social and financial forces in the U.S. maintain the Black Market on an herb that has been used for hundreds of years to cure nausea (along with other ailments), and is not at all the danger to society we have been fed for ages. Statistics via often dubious studies always cite how marijuana is a "gateway" drug to harder substances, and once a person has tasted that pungent herb, the next thing they want to do is smoke crack, snort coke and inject heroin.

Uh. No. Not always. What I'd like to know is how many MJ users started-out drinking alcohol? From what I have read and witnessed throughout my life, are car crashes, horrendous domestic/public fights when one or more in a family/group are under the influence, compromised livers causing jaundiced eyes, broken blood vessels in the skin and so on.

Yes, I've seen the sad, horrifying pictures of Meth addicts. Crackheads. Heroin users. The physical deterioration is often astounding. But have you seen the same with those who don't go beyond marijuana? A glazed, sleepy look and an odd smile or two are the primary physical "ravages" of smoking weed. The overview of MJ use cannot in any reality compare to alcohol and hard drugs. Read this: Alcohol vs Marijuana Truths


Just as with any substance, not everything "agrees" with one's system. Not everyone has a pleasant experience on weed. Not everyone can hold their liquor. Some people can't drink at all without becoming ill. Same with MJ. It isn't an herb for all. Nor are many of the prescription drugs on the market. One's own body tells us when something isn't "right" for our systems and, if not on a mission to self-destruct, we don't continue to take or use whatever the "remedy" we tried for what ails us and will move on to other alternatives with the aid of a professional. In the best case scenario, that is.

So, to cut to the cliche'd chase, a key and unjustly under-reported aspect to the Medical Marijuana issue is that most of the legal "Smoke Shops" sell a legal form of what feels and tastes like weed, but is actually an entirely different plant - stronger and prone to cause more side effects than the pristine little weed possibly growing in your garden next to the parsley and cilantro. The legal plant? Salvia "divinorum." The odd part of this post is that I had to tell my friend that she and her husband were not smoking actual MJ.

How did I know this? I was shown the little green bottle in which the supposed MJ was stashed, labeled like a true medicine. In small letters at the top of the label were the words Salvia Divinorum. Having been out of the party scene on a drug level for quite some time, I had never heard of this form of highness. Therefore, on a first glance I thought the word was "Saliva" Hmmm, I thought. What's that mean? One smokes a joint or pipe and must ensure that enough saliva mingles with the supposed THC for a quicker dispersal throughout the brain? That's a new one. Hey, you never know.... But then, out of curiosity, I executed a Google search.

Hahahaha! A joke can now be made that if my weed-laden past had not been destructive, perhaps I would have read the label correctly at first glance. But then again, I don't think so. My own experiences with the Devil Weed had an opposite effect on my mind and life than what is purported to be the stereotypical lifestyle and internal response to sending THC on a little trip through the body.

For me, who tends to do everything backward better than forward, after my first initiation into the world of altered reality in 1967, I suddenly gained a memory that until that point had a "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging on my brain's door. Rather than fall upon the nearest Bean Bag chair and giggle and eat anything within sight for hours, I was energized, focused, and became incredibly organized in both thinking prowess and in my environments.

My actions were more of that of someone flying on cocaine than on a tranquilizing herb. (And no, nothing had been added to the herb to stimulate the ability to focus and the desire to organize tedious tasks.) My brain opened-up; I could understand previously confusing-to-me mathematical equations. It was as if the THC knocked the once-blocked ability to assimilate detailed information right out of its hibernation. On a scientific level, there is no doubt once disconnected energies, pathways, came together in an awakening. Blood was now flowing where once there had been nothing but blocked, dormant matter.

But, as I tend to say at times like this, that's just my experience. My inner chemistry. And that is my point for publicly addressing and advocating Marijuana as a natural healing substance Mother Nature gave to us to cure some of our ills: it does work for millions. In a healing way.

Not legalizing what is ultimately a truly miraculous adjunct to alleviate as much discomfort as possible within painful illnesses, as well as the truth that as a recreational drug it is at the lowest rung of seriously dangerous substances, proves how deep many governments are enmeshed in the combination of "Green" drug wars and bribery/blackmail with Drug Cartels, and the consistent refusal of others to place the herb in a factual perspective.

Prohibition didn't work in the States when the Flappers Were Flapping and Speakeasy's were all the underground rage because lotsa Menz of Power knew a money-maker if they ever had seen one, as well as following a tradition of wine, women and those optimistic songs.

No one is listening with true intent on the higher political podiums to the common sense plea to legalize Marijuana in a similar fashion: tax it, build an industry around it = jobs = bring money to states that need it. 

There is always an excuse why it won't work on a biz level. Say what? We can't create Marijuana Industries? Too much competition with Big Tobacco, or is Big Tobacco too afraid to play around with a bloody cartel industry already in full swing. Why not? You mean the tobacco companies don't want to have their throats cut and families killed in their sleep by the Drug Lords? Hey guys, we're just talking about Weed, here. Not the powder, okay?

Yes, legalizing Marijuana would be a complex and lengthy process were it to become Federal Law. Even State laws, as we have seen in California, are always a target for appeal. But I will suggest one more time that if a seriously damaging legal and addictive substance such as alcohol is allowed to reign supreme in most of the U.S., so should a green leaf that very possibly caused the visions of many a sage and shaman to save lives in more ways than one.

Loose definition of Salvia: Try Not To Salivate 

UPDATE: It must be in the air. I found this article a few minutes ago: Something's Burning.
7:40 pm PST