ganges

This is one of the more balanced videos on the subject I have seen. I actually came to these realizations on my own, so it was interesting to see it laid out independently in a way that resonates so closely with my own experience. Curiously almost every spiritual person I know who claims that they can eat anything with few consequences (kinda a 'mind over matter' lifestyle, restaurant food, fast food, processed food, soda, candy, etc.) smokes quite a lot. Everybody who is very careful with what they eat seems to think "chronic" use of ganja blunts their focus and clarity and vitality. Is that a coincidence? There is a lot of evidence to suggest that this sacred herb counter-acts harmful food additives and specifically neurotransmitters. So I have to wonder...

Fun facts: "Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simply having marijuana. [i.e. for personal use, not a "dealer"] Nationwide, the arrest data revealed one consistent trend: significant racial bias. Despite roughly equal usage rates, Blacks are 3.73 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana."

I do feel that it is vitally important to decriminalize this plant, and immediately release all prisoners. Immediately. Not least of all because the side effects of this illegal herb are more gentle than most *legal* mind-altering substances...definitely more gentle than alcohol, which studies point to as the most dangerous of ALL drugs (yes, more dangerous potentially than *that* one too, whichever you thought it was). On an ironic side note, banning alcohol was actually attempted and failed (see: Prohibition) because it literally made Americans too gangsta, and prohibition was found to increase crime and the many organizations surrounding it. But I digress: in 2017 alone 659,700 people were arrested for "marijuana." Yet, now that there is a massive industry behind legal recreational sales in many states (and medical in far more, which conveniently isolates and concentrates the profit pool to a select few) we are seeing scientific articles all over the place touting the health benefits of this herb, not unlike coffee, chocolate, red wine, etc. All of a sudden these substances can do no wrong, once the mainstream figures out how to capitalize on them? It's all very strange to me.

Suppose we could just take care of ourselves instead of juggling (molotov?) cocktails all day long. But it requires a holistic focus, not just going for whatever you "want" whenever you "want it." Because the sad fact is, if you really knew the full sequence of events and the alchemical reactions happening inside your body, you might identify very differently with what you... "want" (AKA, would you still "want" to eat a delicious meal, if it gave you obvious food poisoning 12 hours later?) Our society can be so lusty, all ways "chasing the dragon." It's fine to explore and experience, wonder*ful even. I'm fond of the old saying, "Everything in moderation: even moderation." But I also speak to nature, and although she is happy to share the whole spectrum of her gifts with us... she is not entirely enthusiastic about cash cropping her medicines, and encouraging addictions, and selective breeding and/or refining processes which remove the "checks and balances" divinely placed within the plant.

For one reason, simply: much like cocaine & crack (derived from coca leaf, which was the ingredient from which Coca-Cola originally got its name), heroin and all opiates (from the opium poppy), speed (a close chemical relative to meth-amphetamine, from the plant ephedra), various other stimulants, depressants, and their further pharmaceutical derivatives... We run a dangerous risk of abusing this equilibrium, and turning a medicine into a poison.

Even a lot of the so-called natural, organic, boutique ganja (especially sold in stores or "dispensaries") is selectively bred for its narcotic properties, with disregard for the plant's intuitive medicine and natural habitat. It can also contain undisclosed additives, especially if they are a consequence of manufacturing/growing/curing and not explicitly "added." I'm definitely not saying, "Never smoke!!!" But I am saying if you're experiencing problems in your health or lifestyle, especially anxiety, inflammation, anger, restlessness, mental haze, lethargy, exhaustion, forgetfulness, feeling stuck in a rut or a loop...? Seek holistic means of regaining your balance, not a quick fix which leaves you forever coming back for more. Try eating more raw and minimally cooked vegetables, whole grains cooked at low temperatures (like, actual grains, in whole form... whole wheat bread is cool and all, but it's not really what I'm getting at), beans not from a can, nuts and seeds (try soaking or sprouting grains, beans, and seeds first if you feel so inclined...all of these "dry foods" come alive, or sprout, when water is added), use good oils, and try getting more sunlight, more sleep, going on walks or bike rides, and drinking herbal teas. I'm talking about whole foods, not the brand, not stuff that comes in a box with ten "natural" stabilizers, desiccants, emulsifiers, preservatives, thickeners, colorants, et. al. Not the "dope cheap shit" that comes in a box at WalMart yet costs more per meal than these so-called "privileged" foods I just mentioned, while leaving you mal-nourished and hungry again 30 minutes later, when not bloated. Or did you think I wasn't gonna call you out on misnomering traditional earth foods, which all our ancestors ate, as "wealthy" or "privileged"?

If you already feel irie and ital, doing what you're doing? Go for it. But if not? Consider that what you're smoking may not even be of the same chemistry as what was in Jamaica in the 1960s, or San Francisco, or wherever we get our nostalgiac romantic blaze from. If you want to live your life FTW, be my guest (tho I'm curious how spending $40 a week on smoking herb, + snacks, drinks, dining out, etc. fits into your "cheap" and "non-privileged" food budget?). All I ask is that any "chronic" user of *anything* spend some time without that thing...but here's the catch: you actually have to be mindful of your health in order to "consciously" notice the difference. (It will also take a few days, and maybe a few weeks, to transition from one way of being into another.) If you eat "junk" food and don't smoke? You're probably gonna feel like a "junkie" either way, and yes the plant probably was genuinely, truly, generously helping you with your *other* addictive habits. It is not this plant's fault that we are using it in toxic ways, to become "intoxicated." Nor should you beat yourself up over it, we all need somebody to lean on at times. It's just that, ideally, we won't all fall down like dominoes when one leans too hard...

But listen to your body and see what helps it thrive, and witness consciously what takes away your shine? These things *will* absolutely help heal you (If you don't want to be in pain? You want to heal... Pain is our body's signal pointing to wounds that need healing. This isn't a "New Age" concept, it's both ancient science and ancient medicine). I'm not in perfect health, but I was a trainwreck as a teenager and a young adult, and I have done a lot to heal some of the worst anxiety I have ever witnessed. Without pills, without a psych diagnosis. I also spent time homeless and eating from dumpsters and food banks (even when I could, just barely, pay rent and did have a home), but other times I had more than I needed and squandered it unconsciously too, it's true. So don't assume I've only ever been that one thing which is easiest for you to compartmentalize and dismiss.

Funny enough, I actually do think ganja was instrumental in helping me to see my anxiety from another perspective, at one point in my life. A paradigm shift, if you will. A de-programming. And then what happened? It was almost as if a re-programming followed, chronologically in the footsteps of society's initial imprint. A friend of mine once remarked, "One thing I can say about it is...it's great for getting you out of tunnel vision. It's also great for getting you into it." I will all ways revere this plant for its wisdom. But oneday, it asked me to stop knocking on its door every day...at first it was subtle, nobody would be home when I would come by, despite thinking we'd made a plan. Then I noticed some unfriendly characters hanging around the neighborhood, and I wasn't sure who was more frightening, the robbers or the cops. Ganja told me she'd been hiding out from both of them like Li'l Red Riding Hood, something about them striking a deal to get her for their own agenda, and that I should steer clear until that's resolved. She had that devilish grin she gets when fools don't know what kinda trouble they're asking for and muttered "I'll show them some wacky tobacckkyyy." Who knows, maybe I wasn't worthy. Maybe you are...

I have struggled with many forms of trauma, self-medication and addiction in my life, including: alcoholism, over-eating, blame, scape-goating, PTSD, escapism, rationalism, political correctness, misanthropy, positivity, science, religion, atheism, self-harm, self-care. Notice the counter-balances here? The problem may well be that we so often forget to take the best of both worlds (all worlds), without plundering the source and removing our success and failures from the context in which they were originally wrought. (If that's not the most damned American thing I ever heard, I don't know what is...)

My question is this: Are you telling yourself the *whole* story about the choices you are making on a daily basis? For example, today it may help you to smoke a joint. But if it's the first thing you do when you wake up tomorrow? Would you even know the difference, if it helped or hurt?