6/14/2004 08:14:00 AM|W|P|projectpeace|W|P|Regarding the interview in Salon entitled "Blowing our minds" Martin Torgoff, author of "Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945-2000," talks about America's complicated and schizophrenic history with drugs. By Larry Smith http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2004/06/14/stoned_america/ Very interesting, but incomplete. The absence of reference to economic competition from industries that maintain prohibition out of concern for the bottom line makes this a quaint, somewhat nostalgic personal history. It misses the larger point that the drug war is a tool of the "un-free market economy" which we were born into. Consider how much Pfizer/Monsanto have to lose if Cannabis suddenly is allowed to play its natural, free market role in organic agricultural economics. Billions of dollars, perhaps trillions are at stake. Cannabis is the most useful plant on Earth. To properly understand prohibition, it is necessary to recognize the significance of essential resource scarcity being induced for the past three generations. Other examples of economic competition include organic production of biofuels, organic protein and healing foods, tree-free paper, biodegradable plastics, building materials, cloth...and much much more. Ending prohibition would effectively shift the basis for the world economy, and consequently, human values, back into proportionate respect for Nature. The alternative to a free market economy is synergistic collapse of environment, economics, and social evolution, with inertial momentum, carrying us toward extinction. Only after prohibition of Cannabis ends will our species have a snowball's chance in hell of achieving sustainability. Like any personal account of drug experience, Mr. Torgoff's needs to be considered for what it is. One person's limited perspective, digesting his own and other people's limited perspectives, colored by cultural values, judgments and experiential gravity. To some degree we are all effected by the imbalances induced by the drug war. To a great extent we are not even aware of how deeply the imbalances have warped our perceptions, interpretations of experiece and our system of values. Consider for example that Cannabis is such a useful plant that without it, sustainable existence on this planet may not be possible. Certainly organic agriculture has been crippled by induced scarcity of this essential and unique resource. The rise of GMOs is one indication that people have lost confidence in Nature to provide what we need to live on this Earth. By failing to recognize the industrial and nutritional value of Cannabis, in addition to its value as a consciousness-altering, relaxant, the big picture of the true significance and impact of prohibition is being diverted by fascination with the role that 'marijuana' plays in the recreational drug culture. This is a relatively minor dimension in the overall context of the plant's greater significance. The role that 'marijuana' plays in displacing the truly destructive substances that people turn to when pot isn't available, is a huge argument for ending prohibition, that is worth emphasizing. The effect of creating a "forbidden fruit," which increases young people's attraction to illegal drugs, is another imbalance resulting from prohibition that is a primary reason to stop the drug war. There is value in Mr. Torgoff's book, I'm sure, and I'm looking forward to reading it. But from what I can tell in this interview, it seems to taking a macroscopic view of a universal subject, and presenting it as an expansive vision of an era shaped by much larger forces. |W|P|108722622928117612|W|P||W|P|projectpeace@gmail.com6/01/2004 04:21:00 PM|W|P|projectpeace|W|P|Regarding MARIJUANA'S RISKS BECOME BLURRIER by B. Bower, Science News 22 May 2004 Please see http://www.mapinc.org/tlcnews/v04/n778/a09.htm?155 "Reason For Madness" or "Who You Callin'Crazy, Stupid?" by Paul Jeronimo von Hartmann It is incredible to me how often scientists attempt to figure out and quantify answers to the wrong questions. As an ethologist, with more than twenty five years invested in the study of 'marijuana,' it seems obvious to me that there is a correlation between the use of Cannabis and difficulties of a mental nature. I would not call it mental "illness" however. I see it as consequential to the increased sensitivity and thoughtfulness that Cannabis affords. In and of itself, increased sensitivity is not necessarily a bad thing, In fact, many artists cite this effect as a reason to use Cannabis, inspiring creativity and heightened awareness. In a world that continues to degenerate environmentally, economically, and in terms of social evolution, increased sensitivity could elicit behavior that , given the mass denial of responsibility, could be misdiagnosed as "paranoia" or "schizophrenia," when in fact what is happening is much more complex. Is it paranoid for a 'marijuana' smoker to be worried about being arrested, in the middle of a "drug war?" Is it schizophrenic to protest against war, and then be conscripted to work and pay taxes to support that war? Is it balanced and reasonable to witness the planet dying from mankind's addiction to fossil fuels, then to have no choice but to drive cars that burn petrol? What effect does it have on a young person to learn of the exceptional nutritional value of hemp seed, then witness the DEA's repeated attempts to kill the hemp foods industry? Consider also that the entheogenic properties of Cannabis are, for many people, a significant part of the 'marijuana' experience. The "counter-culture" which uses 'marijuana' is in fact the only truly global culture, spanning chronological, geographic, national and religious boundaries. As inspiration and adjunct for spiritual experience, Cannabis is further complicated by the prohibition of it, incorporating a criminal dimension to the spiritual experience. For many people, this is all happening at a very young age. The people being effected in this way have no preparation or model for understanding the effect that such revelations and conflict may have on their social and spiritual development. In such circumstances, confusion and anger are not unlikely responses to the failure of our society to deal honestly, compassionately and maturely with the problems being created. It is much more convenient for society (and particularly "drug war-" & petroleum-addicted, prohibitionist governments) to delegate responsibility, by funding scientists to reinforce what isn't working, by proclaiming that "young people are becoming mentally imbalanced, from marijuana use." Well what else would you expect? Mental imbalance is a predictable response to induced aggravated environmental, economic and social imbalance. Would it not be much more productive to point out the failure of society to provide a sustainable, balanced and functional condition in which to grow and develop increased awareness and sensitivity to the deteriorating global condition? Rather than looking for ways to blame 'marijuana' for mental illness, it would be more ingenuous, and of greater long-term benefit, to take an honest look at our species' failure to accommodate increased sensitivity, spirituality and the predisposition toward peace that Cannabis use afford. Lack of respect for Cannabis has created conditions of imbalance at every level of society, but it is not reasonable to fault the plant. Rather, it is the self-inflicted weaknesses that mankind has imposed for three generations, by failing to recognize, acknowledge and honor the true value of this exceptional resource. We are witnessing the predictable consequences of our own ignorance, based on bad science, corrupt political leadership and mass denial. It has been my experience to observe that Cannabis users are more sensitive and reluctant to participate in our species evolution through spiritual fraud, into synergistic collapse toward the eventual destruction of this planet. It isn't mental illness we are witnessing. It's the inevitable frustration of the young that accompanies dysfunction, induced by the old. Paul J. von Hartmann Project P.E.A.C.E. Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious Economics http://www.webspawner.com/users/projectpeace/ http://formalcomplaint.blogspot.com/ |W|P|108613220827174401|W|P||W|P|projectpeace@gmail.com