“The cannabis experience has greatly improved my appreciation for art, a subject which I had never much appreciated before. The understanding of the intent of the artist which I can achieve when high sometimes carries over to when I’m down. This is one of many human frontiers which cannabis has helped me traverse… A very similar improvement in my appreciation of music has occurred with cannabis. For the first time I have been able to hear the separate parts of a three-part harmony and the richness of the counterpoint. I have since discovered that professional musicians can quite easily keep many separate parts going simultaneously in their heads, but this was the first time for me.”
~ Carl Sagan
Today is 4/20, also known unofficially as the marijuana holiday. It always perplexed me why this is, but I added a link to a Time article (updated earlier today, fittingly enough) which explains the link more closely. Also, while I myself am not a pothead or anything, I nevertheless have long been in favor of marijuana legalization or, as it is often called now, ending the Prohibition of marijuana. To that end, I added one particular blog entry that I posted a couple of years ago about some of the possibly environmental benefits of legalizing cannabis in combatting climate change. They may be surprisingly substantial to those who are not aware of them. It seemed fitting to republish this anyway, given that I am celebrating Earth Day week (and remember that Earth Day proper is this Saturday).
Enjoy!
Universal Marijuana Legalization Could Be Beneficial in Fight Again Climate Change
(originally published on July 26, 2021)
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2021/07/universal-marijuana-legalization-could.html
Anyone who follows this blog or knows me and my position on marijuana legalization knows that I am, and have long been, an advocate of legalization. That has been my position since at least the early nineties, when I first really began to pay attention to this issue, and be a bit more knowledgeable about it. In fact, it was probably my position well before that, going back to the eighties, although I admittedly knew very, very little on the topic.
Now, let me qualify this statement. I am not a pothead. Not even close. That is not to say that I have not tried it, because I have. Twice. But neither time did I feel much of anything. Someday, I might be willing to try it again. In fact, I probably would have, if not for the invasive drug testing that both of my jobs potentially have. In fact, at my previous job, we got tested fairly frequently. These always were set up as a surprise, to catch you off guard, but it was hard not to notice that these tests came about twice a year. And as much as I hated this aspect about the job, the fact of the matter is that this was just one of several aspects about this job – and it was hardly unique to this particular job – that I had to hold my nose and look the other way and just kind of take, you know?
So, that is the main reason why I have not tried marijuana more frequently, most likely. Mostly, it’s nervousness about the possible ramifications on a professional level. It is not because of all of the propaganda about the supposedly harmful effects of cannabis use, or that it is supposed to be some kind of a gateway drug to other, more serious and harmful drugs. Or that it is addictive. While I myself have very limited experiences with taking marijuana, admittedly, there are some friends of mine who take it much more regularly than me. Mostly, they take it on occasion, as well, hardly confirming any notions to it being addictive. Over the years, I have known more than just a few such people, who take it pretty much only occasionally, and it just seems too common to suggest that this is actually either addictive, or a gateway drug.
Now, getting back to what I began to learn in the early nineties, when I began to have stronger, and more informed, opinions favoring legalization. It was around that time that I learned about it from several different source. One of them was the Environmental Club at my community college, an era with almost exclusively fond memories. That was about the first time for me learning about how incredible cannabis was, in terms of all that it could be used for. That included good quality clothes (yes, I still have a garment or two made from the stuff). Yet, that is not the only thing that marijuana would be good for.
It also can be used as paper, and has been in the past. Did you know that some drafts of the Constitution were written on marijuana paper? George Washington and Thomas Jefferson used to plant marijuana. The best part is this: marijuana plants can regrow quickly, up to four times faster than traditional forests groomed for paper manufacturing. So it could potentially save our forests, assuming that those forests are not then torn down to be manipulated for other purposes, since many elites would likely view forests as wasteful use of land space, because they cannot necessarily profit tremendously from it.
Later, it would be a revelation to me that, in fact, marijuana also had some medical benefits. It can ease people’s pains, provide some measure of comfort to people who are suffering.
Oh, and it is a whole lot cheaper, more accessible, and more natural, than a lot of the drugs that Big Pharma tends to produce.
After learning about stuff like that, the main question that I had was why more people were not in favor of legalization?
Remember, back then, most people were still opposed to marijuana legalization, although that slowly began to change.
The only real reason, seemingly, that there could be any serious opposition to it seemed to be that it cut into the profits of certain industries. Why were so many people still opposed then, or even now (approximately one-third of Americans are still opposed to legalization)? Because certain industries who traditionally made tremendous profits felt threatened by it, and produced all sorts of convincing propaganda meant to discredit the drug in the eyes of the public.
What industries? Well, the tobacco industry, for one. The alcohol industry would be another. Both of those can be defined as drugs that allow people to escape, provide some comfort. And marijuana would likely be a serious threat to their profits.
Also, the paper industry. Again, how can you compete with a completely natural plant that grows four times faster than trees?
Of course, the healthcare industry and Big Pharma. With so many profits hinging on the latest and greatest new drugs meant to minimize suffering and/or cure people of their ills (talk about addictive!), marijuana providing comfort was not good news for these people. Indeed, it was viewed as a threat.
And so naturally, opposition to legalization, to the end of the new prohibition, remained strong. Many Americans still remained opposed, believing the hype about how destructive marijuana was, even though the facts did bear these “facts” out.
That hardly seems to matter among Americans, of course. It has not mattered in a long while, because people believe seemingly only what they want to believe. That has become more the case over the years. Yet somehow, surprisingly, and perhaps even amazingly, public opinion began to shift on the subject, nevertheless.
Since Colorado and Washington legalized recreational marijuana a few years ago, there has been a wave of states who have followed suit and also legalized it.
To be fair, it began not in the United States at all, but in Uruguay. Individual states have done it, but whole countries have done it since, including our neighbors both to the north and south, Canada and Mexico. My guess is that many more countries will be following suit over the next few years, too.
As with seemingly everything else, here in the United States, it is far more complicated. Each individual states makes it own decision. Not every state has even so much as legalized medical marijuana yet, let alone recreational marijuana.
There are many good reasons to finally end the prohibition on marijuana. Frankly, to my mind, it should never have been illegalized to begin with. After all, it is completely natural. Leave it to bureaucratic modern societies to try and criminalize nature.
In any case, we have been learning over the years that marijuana, far from being some kind of evil that we need protection from, actually has significant benefits. First of all, it seems to help to sick by alleviating their pain, which is no small thing. And hemp can be turned into strong, quality clothing.
Beyond that, though, hemp can be useful for many things. It is good for producing quality paper. Moreover, it is far better for the environment, as well. It grows four times faster than conventional trees that produce paper. That certainly seems to mean that it would be better for the environment if we produced paper made of hemp. Then again, I read somewhere that the paper industry owns most of the woods east of the Mississippi, particularly in the northeast. And if they cannot produce profits from these forests with paper, then they likely would sell the land, presumably for development, and that obviously would be not so good for the environment.
When profits are involved, it seems difficult to know exactly what to do. Mostly because of the possibility of unintended consequences.
Now, most states have legalized medical marijuana use, and a number of states have legalized recreational marijuana. More and more states seem to be doing it, and Uruguay, Canada, and Mexico have all done it, as well. Clearly, the trend is going in the direction of legalization.
Good thing, too. Again, legalizing marijuana would be good for the environment, as well. It would be good in terms of saving land and water resources, and can contribute to decarbonizing industries.
Dr. Michael Obersteiner, the director of Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, recently said:
“It might turn out to be a land-saving crop in the sense that you would need more land to produce the same amount of protein, oil, biomass if produced by different specialized crops. The land saving would spare the expansion of cropland into forests. This will create substantial emission savings.”
The British Hemp Alliance (BHA) says the plant can also host other environmental benefits. Rebekah Shaman, BHA managing director, and co-founder said:
“Hemp has wide-ranging applications, including construction materials, biodegradable plastics, and uses in the automotive and aerospace industries.
“People working in the sector believe the plant has been underused and overlooked partly because of the stigma around marijuana, another form of the cannabis plant used as a drug. But hemp could help create a lucrative green and sustainable economy – heralding its rapid growth and ability to aerate the soil. It is the world’s most versatile natural product, potentially replacing wood, cotton, and all petroleum-based products.
“Compared to cotton – that requires about 1,400 gallons of water for every pound of produce – hemp requires half that, or even less, and yet produces 200-250% more fiber on the same amount of land.”
In any case, below is a link to an article about how marijuana might indeed be good for the fight against climate change.
Take a look. There's some interesting stuff!
To read more about this, please take a look at the article, from which I obtained the above quotes, and which I found to be quite informative. Enjoy!
Hemp Could Be A Crucial Tool In The Fight Against Climate Change by Andrea D. Steffen, June 21, 2021:
https://www.intelligentliving.co/hemp-tool-against-climate-change/
And here is an interesting article from Time which goes into some details on how 4/20 (April 20th) came to be associated so closely with weed:
Here's the Real Reason We Associate 420 With Weed BY OLIVIA B. WAXMAN UPDATED: APRIL 20, 2023:
https://time.com/4292844/420-april-20-marijuana-pot-holiday-history/
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