A Rant From The Editor
By Judith Stamps
This is a unique time for public education on the subject of cannabis. The movements toward legalization have achieved more in the past two years than in the previous forty. We’re witnessing an implosion: militarization of the police exposed, the brutality of civil forfeiture exposed, lies exposed. We’re witnessing the kindling of new hope: new medicines, new freedoms, new vistas for recreational cannabis, and new products for industrial hemp. We’re seeing a breakdown of long held ideologies that reveals itself in striking contradictions: cannabis destroys the teenage brain; cannabis protects the infant brain from neural damage. Cannabis shrinks the brain; cannabis heals the concussed brain. Cannabis destroys memory; cannabis protects against Alzheimer’s. These contradictions cannot be maintained. For every one of us helped by cannabis, a dozen more wake up to the truth. With every passing day the old anti-cannabis warnings strike one more person, one more group, and one more family as pernicious and hollow. Every month another newspaper declares itself part of the movement: The National Post, The Globe and Mail, The New York Times. It’s not trendy yet, but it will be. For the first time in a very long time, history is on our side.
But this is no time to sit on the sidelines. What history needs now is a massive push. At this juncture, and given our momentum, we can do so much. We can, each one of us, reach out to someone who is new to this subject. Talk, after all, is legal. This very day let’s set aside our hesitations. Let’s raise the subject with our aunt, our cousin, our neighbor, or the guy that runs our favourite café. This month, let’s write a letter to the editor, a letter to the city council and a letter to an elected official. They won’t be shocked. No one is shocked by talk of cannabis any more. Between this issue and the next, let’s see how much communication we can manage. We might try our hand at producing a pamphlet; drawing a cannabis cartoon and pinning it up on a public notice board; teaching ourselves to draw a cannabis leaf; drawing a few on our napkin to leave behind at our next restaurant meal; writing a song on the subject or helping to promote someone else’s. Need a plan? Here’s one. This month, start an educational explosion with you at its centre. If you have a better plan, do that one. And while you’re at it, enjoy this issue of the Cannabis Digest. It’s not in every decade that we get to change the world so much. Shine a light today, and help us end this miserable war. Oh. And don’t forget to drop us a line or contact us through the Cannabis Digest Blogs.
We’d love to hear from you.
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