Friday, April 17, 2015

Gulliver's Travels

Still Life with CWHO and Frida**



"Absolutely,"  Christie said. "I will crack down and not permit it."



That was the answer Governor Chris Christie gave to a conservative Iowa radio host when asked what he'd do about marijuana if he were to become POTUS. He was referring to the "flaunting of federal law" that is going on in Washington and Colorado. He said a whole bunch of other stuff, too, most of which is not even true.

Sigh.

This whole thing is confusing on so many levels, isn't it? On the one hand, you've got conservatives bemoaning marijuana as the evil weed, a "gateway drug" that leads to debauchery, addiction and moral decline, and on the other hand, you've got conservatives crying out about the evils of government over-reach and grand conspiracies against the people. Then there are conservatives who believe that marijuana is a gift from God thrown up against scientists who believe there isn't enough research. Thrown into all of this are families desperate to try cannabis for their children or themselves as they're suffering from not just epilepsy, but autism and multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's and lupus and cerebral palsy and cancer. You've got Rand Paul supporting the cause, a guy who believes in the supremacy of the individual at any cost, but there's Chris Christie hell-bent on stomping it out. You've got Obama waffling around about the issue, and then you've got -- well -- me. 

I stand for full legalization of marijuana for both recreational and medicinal use. Yeah, and I haven't smoked or ingested the stuff in about thirty years. I went through different gates, too, than the ones referred to by that poor Chris Christie, none of which involved drug or alcohol debauchery.

I was going to tell ya'll about the history of marijuana -- how it was used for thousands of years not only as medicine for a host of diseases, but also for textiles and military uniforms and navy ships. It was one of this country's earliest crops and was used for pain, as a sedative, as an anxiety medicine, as an anti-inflammatory, as an anti-epileptic and so forth right up until the 1930s when the Powers That Be conspired to put it under. Those powers were William Randolph Hearst, Andrew Mellon and Charles DuPont. Hearst owned all the timber in the land, as well as the newspapers that needed wood pulp that needed DuPont's bleach to make newsprint and paper. Mellon was not only the head of the biggest oil company in the land but also, conveniently, the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. Down in Mexico the people were brown and dirty and Less Than, held "up," or down (according to how you see it) as examples of what could go wrong with hemp/marijuana. Hearst's newspapers thus reported the evils of this drug, how it turned people into rapists, thieves, drunken louts, dirty Mexicans. In 1937, The Marihuana Tax Act was passed which destroyed the hemp industry. In 1938, the movie Reefer Madness exploited the image of marijuana as a drug that turned youth into crazy rampaging degenerates. And in 2015 we've got big ole Chris Christie spouting off about the moral dee-cay of our youth.


Well, I did just tell you a bit about the history of one of the world's oldest cultivated crops (12,000 years old, to be exact). 

These are almost Swiftian times, are they not? Gulliver comes to mind and the most clever satire one could imagine. 















9 comments:

  1. Elizabeth, It's not like you have a lot of spare time with all of touring around Hollywood you do in your sexy white Mazda, but I think you should personally contact Chris Christie. Ask for his ear. Seriously. Because you can move mountains.

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  2. I am overwhelmed by the stupidity and blindness and selfishness and absurdity of human beings. Sometimes I just wonder- is there any hope for us at all? Is there?

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  3. I think there's hope. I was at a luncheon with a group of women I know primarily from a tap class I take. The instructor knows my story and asked me to share in particular about our recent success with cannabis. I swear--- they would have listened for a hour. All mothers and some grandmothers--- all supportive. We can do it one group at a time to anyone we can get to listen. As for Christie: One. Big. Ass.

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  4. You go, Miss Thang. Christie is a dope. (har har).

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  5. Elizabeth, I think YOU should run for president. Heh heh. In your spare time, of course ;-)

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  6. The conservative tendency to meddle in other people's private business -- medical care, recreational pot use, homosexuality, you name it -- has always mystified me.

    I had no idea "Reefer Madness" was from 1938! I would have put it a good 20 years after that.

    Anyway, you're preaching to the choir where I'm concerned, but still -- amen and right on!

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  7. In the same vein, I read an obituary today for a cardinal (I refuse to capitalize that word) of the catholic (or that one) church. It said something along the lines of, "a vigorous defender of roman catholic church who led the U.S. bishops' fight against Obamacare..." How can someone who claims to follow Jesus be against health care for those who cannot afford it? It makes me sick. Good riddance, says I.

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  8. If you run for president you have my vote!
    I was raised very conservative but that did not last long...people change so do their views, politically I don't know what I am to be honest,(still very religious though) I try to vote for the best people but am horribly frustrated about how you have to choose a party here before the primary when I like a mix of people. I get ridiculously frustrated with politics .
    As far as religious people being against any sort of government help....or too much government I don't understand...I don't understand a lot of stuff I really don't.
    Also....... I have say I appreciate the mug in the photo.

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