George Washington Would Have Been At The Cannabis Rally

“Make the most you can of the Indian hemp seed. Sow it everywhere."
- George Washington -

“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”
- Thomas Jefferson -

It is well-known (within my circles, anyway) that Washington and Jefferson were both promoters of hemp and its many uses. They both articulated an excellent case for this “weed” because they saw it as a way to create some agrarian self-sufficiency for our fledgling republic. Specifically, from what I have read on the subject, they saw it as a way to reduce our dependence on foreign goods and trade.

Back then, hemp was widely used by small farmers as a food and as a natural fiber with which one could make cloth, rope and paper. The oil from its seed could be used to fuel lamps or a torch. Its slightly different cousin, Marijuana, could also be used to aid those in pain (not to mention providing one with a ’sunnier’ disposition). Hemp and pot, today, are no less useful with the noted exception that, growing either will get you sent to prison. How is it we got to this point? How did we go from our founding fathers expounding the virtues of this miraculous ‘weed’ to a puritanical society in which it growers are jailed?

If you do not know about how slavery and industrial agriculture and Dupont (and many other various and sundry catalysts) lead to hemp and marijuana prohibition, I would humbly suggest that you have some reading to do. Suffice it to say that most reasonably informed individuals can agree that the real reasons for this prohibition had very little to do with marijuana usage and any negative impact said usage may have had upon society.

There are lots of marijuana reform advocates who feel compelled to isolate discussion of these multiple issues to “medical marijuana” instead of speaking about the broader subjects of marijuana and hemp reform. While they are all inter-twined, it does hemp a great disservice to let the medical marijuana issue speak for it. While all prohibitions on these plants are immensely unjust, they are not all the same issue. As such, I’m not going to speak about medical marijuana. If Ed Dague and his brave and frank public discussion of pain and relief have not melted our regional resolve where this cruel prohibition is concerned, I really can’t imagine what else might.

I think that the quotes from the two iconic figures from American history that began this piece sum it all up quite nicely. Hemp (and pot) being illegal is an anti-farmer, anti-citizen issue and Jefferson and Washington knew that so lets keep it that simple as well. They were pretty smart guys, right?

Instead of “medical marijuana”, lets instead openly discuss the more prevalent use for marijuana. About 70% of Americans have admitted to engaging, at least once, in the smoking of marijuana to … get high … as a way to relax or just for kicks. Most of us have smoked pot. As a thinking individual who has performed this heinous act many different times in my life, I know from personal experience that it is far less harmful than alcohol or tobacco can be (and, arguably, far more amusing, as well). But, the government has made me so paranoid about occasionally blowing off steam in this manner, that I long ago switched over to working out or having a few glasses of wine or beer, instead.

Over 16,000 people are killed every year in the United States in alcohol-related vehicular accidents. Add this to the massive number of people who die every year from alcohol and tobacco use (85,000 and 435,000) and we’re looking at a death toll of over 536,000 people in the U.S. alone from alcohol and tobacco. How many people does pot kill?

Well, this evil, terrible, ‘gateway drug’ featured so honestly in classic films like ‘Reefer Madness’ has resulted in not one single documented case of death … ever, in the history of the universe. That’s the actual number … ZERO. Think about that for a second … 536,000 per year versus Zero.

Now, if you explain this to the average third grader … Substances A and B kill 536,000 people every year and Substance C kills no one. Then you ask them which substance should people be put in jail for using, what do you think they would say? Why is society’s answer to this question any different? Why do we prohibit the use of the substance with the zero death rate and legitimize and tax and regulate and encourage to use of the substances that kill so many of us? Are we complete and total idiots?

To put it simply, those who know these truths understand that pot and hemp must be illegal for reasons other than the propaganda calling pot a ‘gateway drug’ or a ‘dangerous substance’ because it is truly neither. The first reason is that big cotton growers did not want to see a developing crop that was easier to pick than theirs (hemp could be easily harvested with a machine while cotton needed to be picked by hand). Secondly, blacks and Mexicans were the primary users of Marijuana when it was criminalized which helped to provide a steady flow of inmates during the advent of our racist industrial prison system. Third, Dupont didn’t want its newly-emerging, petrol-based, technology (plastic) to have to compete with a better, cheaper, cleaner, natural product that could be used in almost every application with as good or better results. Lastly, the CIA needs a way to fund its illegal and covert operations.

So we deny ourselves access to a natural product that truly could be ours. A product that can be grown domestically and made into composites harder and lighter than most carbon fiber resins. We deny ourselves a clean fuel source that can be burned in any diesel engine. We prevent the growth of a cash crop that can be eaten at our breakfast tables and worn on our backs. We say no to rejuvenating small family farms in America by allowing them to grow a crop that is 100% usable and that will flourish pretty much anywhere and with far less impact than wheat, corn and most other subsidized commodity crops. Why? Because our government does not do things that benefit us unless we force it to do so.

Today (Friday April 17th) on the East Capital Lawn in Albany, from 2pm to 6pm, there will be a “Rally To Restore Your Rights Ending Cannabis Prohibition”. Its organizers say there will be live bands, activist speakers and hemp products for sale. We should all be there.

I know that if George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were around today, not only would they be speaking at the rally, they probably would have been the ones to call me and ask if I would be attending, in place of the current organizers, N.Y.C.A.M.P. (New York Citizens Against Marijuana Prohibition).

Would George and Tom have been heading over to the Dead show at the Times Union Center afterwards? Of that, I can’t be certain.