You know, if you were from the future and were able to travel back to the past, and came to this time, I think you would be utterly confused. First, you would want to go to the major metropolitan areas, and see what they are like, being that they contain the most diverse population of people available for the time.
You would find that those people, at least a vast majority of them, are actually rather forward thinking. However, even though they agree with the ideals of civil rights, and of the right to one's own body, they don't really do anything about it. They don't get active or involved. They don't participate in their government, with the exception of a small few, who happen to vote. However, there were even a smaller few, that happen to get even more involved than voting. They volunteer their time to further causes that are important to them.
However, what you would find most confusing, for someone from your time, let's say 2111, a century in the future. You would be used to ALL drugs being completely legal, and regulated. You would also be aware of the consequences of drug use, and which drugs have what risks. You would make choices based on that information, to be informed about what you put into your own body, but you know that you would be the one ultimately responsible for how that ends up.
And with that information, you might even be willing to start being a regular user of Cannabis. Possibly for medical necessity, however, it might even be for recreational purposes, and that's fine. In your time, that's perfectly normal, and not looked down upon, seeing as how most people whom use drugs recreationally at this point, do so safely because they're so well controlled and regulated, it's almost impossible to fathom an overdose or "Bad Hit" or "Hot Load" or whatever other slang you choose.
However, most likely, you would probably choose to use Cannabis, for recreational purposes. Which is, in a way, medically relevant anyway. Because, studies show that those who are able to relax and deal with stress, and have some kind of hobby, or recreational pastime, actually live longer, and have reduced risk of heart disease and cancer.
That is fact. And to further the proof that recreational use of cannabis can be medically beneficial. Cannabis is used in the regulation of the digestive tract. Because of it's promotility, it is actually medically beneficial to anyone, anytime, period.
So you would probably be studying some of the patterns about the people that you would come to interact with in our time. You would notice that there are several people arrested and put into jails because of their drug use, which would probably seem, in itself, criminal to you. Because it is so backwards, to think that these people who are sick, the ones that are horribly afflicted by addiction, not necessarily the casual recreational users, the addicts that are several abusive of their drugs; to think that these people would be put into jail rather than treated in hospitals.
That's like putting an autistic man into jail for assault, because he lashed out at someone that came to close to him, when he didn't know any better, he had no idea what was going on, just that it was unpleasant.
And this is exactly the same thing, we take our sickest people, some of which are the best kind of people, that can actually be so much more, and rather than helping them, we just put them into a place that is ultimately more destructive and devastating to not only their lives, but everyone's life that they come into contact, or have a relationship, with.
This, is what would be most to disturbing to you.
You would also find, that there are people using Cannabis in a "semi-legal" fashion, which would also seem extremely strange to you. You would be most put-off by this idea when you started to examine what kind of foundation it was built upon. This is really, the most interesting, and probably the most disturbing part about the whole story.
Here you would find a large group of people who did take proper use of the political system, and the advantages that it comes with. Democracy is a powerful tool, when applied properly.
This group of people banded together, and through their own volition were able to pass an initiative which allowed them to legally possess, grow, obtain, transport, and use their cannabis for medical purposes, as long as they had a doctor or other "authorized healthcare professional" give them a recommendation.
And along with this, this allowed them the right to not be prosecuted in court, provided they could provide documentation.
However, if you were to examine this a little more closely, you would find severe cracks in that foundation. The main cracks are due to the fact that even though this initiative was able to legalize the use of cannabis in the state of washington, you would find that people are still arrested every day because of their legally obtained and possessed medical marijuana. And this is for a threefold set of reasons:
1. Because "Marijuana" is maintained federally controlled as a class 1 narcotic, the drug is still considered for all intents and purposes "illegal" regardless of the fact that the voters of the state have passed an initiative which legalizes it for medical use. Which should have precedence over the domain of legality in our state, because our state constitution supercedes the federal constitution.
2. Due to this illegality on a federal level, state regulators have been very wishy-washy in their terminology and usages in the structure of the law, and it's interpretation. This has caused major difficulties in law enforcement, and patient arrest. As well as jurisdicitional problems, and problems with legally opening dispensaries for patients to obtain their medication, because the different cities and counties interpret the law differently.
3. Because of the fact that "Marijuana" remains illegal on a federal level, even if we are to completely "Legalize" it in the state, it would remain on the United States Controlled Substances Act, and therefore remain a federal crime, and would conflict with the laws of the state. Therefore, the Governor would have no choice but to veto the law and comply with federal regulations.
Here's where we, as someone in 2011, can do something to change this. You can get informed, involved, and initiate. You need to get as much information about Cannabis, that you can, and make sure it's completely factual. Don't get any information from websites such as Google or Bing. Please reference somewhere like a library, or a peer review medical journal. These locations would have valuable, FACTUAL, information. And that is the Key, because there is too much mis-information available on the internet these days, and it's too easy for someone with ideals to find a website with someone who agrees with those ideals. That is why polymatheism.com is backed up with evidence and references to factual non-fiction literature.
Also, get involved. You can do more than just vote. You can get politically active by contacting your congressmen or senators, and by writing to the house of representatives and the senate. If you feel like you can do more than that, because not everyone can, then you could also choose to volunteer for an organization that works to further the cause, such as NORML, or Sensible. I personally volunteer for Tacoma Cross, and they're working hard every day to further the cause.
And lastly, you can initiate, and this means both to initiate the uninitiated and also to write initiatives to help remove criminal penalties for Cannabis, and eventually all drugs. Because criminalizing it, just makes the people who are afflicted by this, criminals. And that doesn't help anyone. We need to take a look at this matter from a different perspective, and a different way of thinking. And that would be to just get the debate on the table, and let's figure this out, and how we should do it. It needs to happen.
Drugs aren't going away, not now, not ever. And throughout human history, we've always had some form of intoxication. And even if we were able to get rid of every drug that exists now, someone would just invent something new that gets you high. Chemistry is a fact of life. And Chemistry is why we have drugs in the first place. Molecules like to bind to receptors, and receptors were made for molecules to bind to them, it's a symbiotic relationship that will never end, and will never go away.
Humans use drugs every day, in all walks of life. In all forms of political structure, government, religion, whatever...
There will always be some form of drugs, and so we need to learn how to live with them, and manage the epidemic of addiction, and learn how to safely manage our lives with these drugs that are already here.
We need to be sensible people. We need to re-evaluate our thinking, and it's time we finally did something about it. Please act now. I've talked with the aids for two senators in the last week, how about you?
-Frank
