More states than today had legalized marijuana back in the 60's and 70's. This wasn't taxable medical marijuana with conditions for growing and sales. It was just plain legal. Massachusetts (or was is Michigan) allowed an annual smoke-out on the steps and front lawn of the state capital all the way into the 90's.
Everyone back then thought it was a foregone conclusion too. So the momentum died. Then Reagan declared war on drugs and the long dark night began for marijuana.
Now we may have good polls and see states legalizing medical marijuana and think it's all downhill from here. But the opponents of legalization are much better organized, funded, brainwashed, and filled with righteous zeal than ever before. They don't need to be in the majority. Hell, they don't even need the law on their side. Otherwise they wouldn't be busting people that are working inside the medical marijuana laws!
No, we must not rest. It is just now when we are feeling tremors of liberty that the rest of the world is getting ever more antagonistic towards marijuana. In many countries efforts are being made to strengthen prohibition of marijuana. China is an ever more influential opponent of marijuana. Even the hallowed image of Amsterdam is being tarnished with efforts to increase prohibition of marijuana.
The effects of America's past efforts at influence are now having their delayed effects. Eventually, and especially if we have 'softened' on marijuana those other countries will begin to influence us back. They will call us hypocrites since we asked them to get strict and we loosened up. They will use our own international laws and rules in the united nations to turn our own requirements for anti-drug efforts against us.
So if we don't have strong laws and widespread acceptance when that wave of influence turns back towards us, then we will fall again into darkness. Now more than ever we need to stick together and keep working at it. We need to find local groups and attend meetings. Sign petitions and spend some time getting them signed by others. Investigate which politicians local and federal support our cause and support them in return.
And aside from all things, keep spreading the word and be strong. Even if we live where we can finally be legal, we lucky few have as much responsibility as those who are still working for laws in their states. We still feel the need to sneak around like we're being stalked. We still fear enough that we cave too easily when offered a plea instead of standing up to injustice. We certainly don't talk much about marijuana outside our own community.
So we may be legal, but we have yet to achieve liberty. We won't be there until we can declare in public without hushed tone or concern for who might hear that we use marijuana. When we can be friendly with a cop because we expect the law to defend us and not persecute us. When we can offer information on the benefits of marijuana to someone in need without being doubted, suspected, and marked as a 'stupid' stoner.
Hopefully more people will sue back instead of pleading out. Then the authorities might get the message that it is they who are on the wrong side of us, not the other way around. Then the public might see these district attorneys' offices and commissioners are rogue organizations and vote different people into the jobs, or those who appoint positions will see the wrongs done as avoidable costs and appoint different people.
Hopefully more people might bring up the conversation of marijuana in mixed company to spread the word not only of the benefits and safety of marijuana but of the comfort we feel and respect that we expect in speaking about it. Then others might see that we are neither stupid nor dense but intelligent, informed, and determined individuals who deserve the same assumption of responsibility in consuming marijuana as those who drink alcohol, smoke a good cigar, take aspirin, or eat food. Of course they should see that the only real difference is that marijuana users can't die from poisoning or an exploded stomach.
When these things happen and the general population is better aware and informed, when taxes build schools and playgrounds instead of more cops and prisons, when doctors support this cheaper medication so we can afford more preventive visits to their offices, when crime drops and brotherhood grows, we might gain the support that will give our cause the momentum to shatter the barriers between us all. That is worthy work. That is what should get us up from the couch and out to greet a world worth changing.
So we must keep moving forward and doing what we can to help. Even if that is just bringing up the subject of legalization during Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Who knows how many later conversations you will engender and how many converts to our cause that might create. Who knows how many such dominoes it takes to start the cascade that will run through every part of American life and finally return to us to tip over the last brick of opposition.
I dream of a better world where I can use and discuss the use of marijuana with no stigma, no impact on my career, and no legal worries. I dream of standing tall in the open light of day and declaring my preference for marijuana proudly. I dream that if anyone comes into my house to take my marijuana it will be a robbery and not confiscation. I dream of loving the neighborhood cops who keep us safe instead of fearing them, of being able to invite them into my house and serve them coffee while I smoke a joint and discuss how I can help keep my neighborhood safe from real trouble.
I dream of freedom and liberty as we all wish it really could be. I dream of an America where we are all on the same side and the same page. Where we can be ourselves without fear or anger. Where we stick together because it makes us strong instead of being driven apart by mutual suspicion because profiteers know that to divide us is to conquer us. That is why I tell you most emphatically that our greatest challenge is not to defend ourselves from attacks by outsiders but from the divisions we bring against ourselves from within.
So let's make this coming year better than any before. Let's support the wedge of regulate and tax bills that can crack and break asunder the monolithic oppositions to our cause. Let's vow to stand up to the authorities when they illegally persecute us, and sue back instead of taking the pleas they offer. Let's start now to speak up and promote all the good things we know about marijuana.
I do so vow to continue to press my cause as I have done in converting my brother, a life-long marine to the idea that he fights for my freedom and liberty, not against it. I vow to work for smaller companies that do not drug test rather than big companies that micromanage my private life. I vow to be active and alert and aggressively show that I am not couch-locked when I am not treating my insomnia. I vow to bring up the issues of legalizing marijuana and promoting protection and respect for users whenever I can, especially when I have the opportunity to challenge someone to convert to our cause.
I vow that this will be a better year than any before, and so will be the next and the next. I vow to stop wishing and start acting, to stop arguing and start persuading, to step over division into unity, to stop being a victim and become the victor.
GMLOGMD, A.