A Changed Mind

An old friend came to town to visit and we had a wonderful time together. What was interesting was her change in attitude towards cannabis. She was never one of those “lock them up and throw away the key” type people. But she was one of those “stay away from that dangerous stuff” types. This time she was citing the medical literature left and right about the virtues of the drug. The anti-cancer properties. The uses for all kinds of diseases.

Her take on why it still is illegal? It would destroy the medical industry as we know it. When I said it would destroy between 1/4 and 3/4s of the medical industry she didn’t bat an eyelash. She just agreed. The most interesting part? Her husband is a doctor.

She did tell a few stories about how big pharma sells drugs and how most doctors don’t have any clue about the side effects of the medicine they provide. All they know about is the trips to the Bahamas provided by pharma companies to “educate” doctors.

I probably should add that she visits Colorado frequently because she has relatives there. But she was also influenced by the Sanjay Gupta specials on the value of cannabis in medicine. Sanjay on the revolution taking place:

Among my colleagues, my patients and my friends. I have even seen the revolution in my own family. A few years ago, when I told my mother I was investigating the topic for a documentary, I was met with a long pause.

“Marijuana…?” She whispered in a half questioning, half disapproving tone. She could barely even say the word and her response filled me with self-doubt. Even as a grown man, mom can still make my cheeks turn red and shatter my confidence with a single word. But just last week she suddenly stopped mid-conversation and said, “I am proud of you on the whole marijuana thing.” I waited for the other shoe to drop, but it didn’t. Instead, she added, “You probably helped a lot of people who were suffering.”

I don’t think we had ever had a conversation like that one. At that moment, I saw a revolution that can bring you to tears.

The word revolution, comes from the Latin revolutio, to “turn around.”

I had my own turn around a couple of years ago, and at the time it was a lonely place to hold a supportive position on medical marijuana. Hardly any government officials would agree to sit down and be interviewed on the topic. Even patients I spoke to were reluctant to share their stories.

I’d say Prohibition has at most a few more years to run. It is being kept alive by those who profit from misery. The police, the big pharma companies, and all the rest threatened by big changes in the human ecology. But change is coming and it appears that – thanks to the ‘net – resistance is futile.

The most delicious part is that those who resist are unlikely to live as long due to the life extending properties of cannabis.

“Truth never triumphs — its opponents just die out. Thus, Science advances one funeral at a time” Max Planck


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6 responses to “A Changed Mind”

  1. Randy Avatar
    Randy

    Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. — JFK

    The drug war is indeed becoming an orphan rather rapidly. The political currents are running the other way nowadays and there are fewer and fewer willing to defend it. However, it does appear that those who are willing to fall on their swords in defense of the status quo will be (a) those whose jobs depend on a steady supply of arrestees and (b) Republicans, because they still (erroneously) think they can continue to make political hay by supporting the WOD.

    What’s somewhat galling to me is that so few who now support ending cannabis prohibition feel any guilt about supporting it in the first place. Most would rather not own up to the damage wrought by their former position on the issue.

    Certainly, not everyone approached the issue with a “lock’em up” attitude. However, tacit approval for the WOD came from those people who just knew drugs were bad and that people shouldn’t partake. Prohibition served those ends. Very few opined that people shouldn’t do drugs nor should they be punished for doing so.

    I suppose it merely points out how easily we can be misled and manipulated, and how good politicians are at exploiting peoples’ fears and prejudices for political gain.

  2. Kathy Kinsley Avatar
    Kathy Kinsley

    Actually, I know quite a number of Republicans (admittedly, the Bill Buckley type of conservatives) who are very unhappy with the WOD. I also know quite a number of Democrats who are all for ‘protect from people against themselves’ – seems to me the divide is more old/young than it is Republican/Democrat. (Along with “I benefit from the WOD, of course – again that’s both sides of the political spectrum.)

    And more of the old are switching sides every day, so I think there is hope.

  3. Simon Avatar

    Kathy,

    The person who changed her mind was a life long Democrat.

  4. Randy Avatar
    Randy

    Kathy,

    No doubt many rank and file Republicans have and are changing their position on the WOD. It’s Republican pols, with a couple of notable exceptions, who seem to think the WOD is just dandy.

  5. Kathy Kinsley Avatar
    Kathy Kinsley

    Yes, but how long will those rank and file continue to vote for people who would deny them and their friends/parents etc. access to something that is increasingly admitted to be a big help?

  6. Kathy Kinsley Avatar
    Kathy Kinsley

    And that applies to the Dem rank and file and Dem pols who want to “protect people from themselves,” too.