Bill Hicks - Marijuana and Global Illegality

Personal note :-
I occasionally eat pot, rather than smoking it, so I find it extremely difficult to understand why my personal well-being is causing anybody else so much upset, as to make a plant illegal! Under the influence, I am in a sound state of mind, lucid, gentle, and empathic. I neither trouble my close family, nor any friends or strangers I may bump into during my adventures. I amuse, titillate and entertain. The next day, I feel blissed out and healthy. Contrast that against the influence of alcohol, where you can easily become aggressive, arrogant and opinionated. The next day, you feel grotty, poisoned and head-achey. You can easily see that there must be some other reason that pot is globally illegal, and has been made so only recently.

Exposing Marijuana Myths at Erowid
New Study Proves That Marijuana Increases Brain Cell Formation
Cannabis smokers still cleverer than lager fans😉

Medically, there can be no denying that pot serves as an excellent medicine for all types of ailments. It can even cure cancer and ease suffering in extreme arthritis, multiple sclerosis and cluster headaches, where other medicines seem to hinder with side-effects, rather than help with uncomplicated relief.

Bill Hicks died of pancreatic cancer on February 26, 1994 at the age of 32. He was a heavy drinker, but had given up the booze prior to his death. Notice how Steve Jobs gets a liver transplant to bail him out from this awful disease, but Bill Hicks gets death. Listen to the following MP3 clip, and you'll hear the "matter of fact" delivery with which he presents government-upsetting, but common sense, ideas.

hicks.mp3 (5.36MB 3m 54s)

I trust the following sections from the Bible are clear enough :-

Genesis 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Genesis 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Genesis 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Psalms 104:14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
Psalms 104:15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.
Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

A superb discourse on Cannabis use, its effects on consciousness, appetite, sex drive and repercussions for society if legalised, done in 1991 and featuring Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake and Ralph Abraham, is available for download here (MP3 17.6MB 1h 17m 16s). This is one of the most balanced and accurate discussions of the subject I have ever heard, and some of Terence McKenna's comments are startling and eye-opening, especially when he talks about the CIA illegally importing and selling drugs in the US to finance covert military operations in other countries. At the time of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the supply of Afghani black hashish to places in the US was unprecedented, and quickly fell off after the conflict had been resolved. The only inaccuracy I detected was that about the direction of European countries with regard the legal use of the drug : these guys believed Europe would be heading towards a much more lenient future, with the stigma associated with Cannabis being largely diluted by now, as opposed to the US's stance of complete intolerance at any level, including medicinal usage. Europe seems to be following in the footsteps of the US lately, despite faint-hearted lip service being paid to the legal status of this and other drugs, as in Portugal.

For a really good read about the so-called "War on Drugs" and the farce that it stands for, plus some revelatory facts on the subject, have a look at Serendipity's Prohibition: The So-Called War on Drugs. Quote :-

The criminalization of marijuana in the United States in the 1930s at the behest of the oil industry and others threatened by hemp, and the maintenance of the criminal status of cannabis to this day by cryptofascist governments, principally the United States, profiting enormously, directly and indirectly, from the "War on Drugs" while callously inflicting, directly and indirectly, major harm upon their citizens, is one of the great contemporary crimes against humanity. How long are we going to let those bastards get away with this?

The Hemp Revolution

You can download an MP4 (375MB 1h 12m 44s) of this clear, concise video to share with friends ("pass the vid!"). One thing I can't get my head round is a few simple questions. They're based on the fact that, in Elizabethan times (1550 odd), there seems to be no illegality attached to pot in the UK or anywhere else for that matter. In Victorian times (1850 odd), even Queen Victoria was puffing away on it and opium.

Exactly when in the history of civilisation did marijuana become illegal globally?
ANSWER : 1926
And who or what was responsible?
ANSWER : The Prohibition Laws of the USA. Europe accepted all the implications of the law except that which prohibited consumption of alcohol. When the USA repealed part of the law later, Europe simply carried on with the remnants. However, dope was stigmatised prior to that in the USA in the early 20th century. I think it is part of the pharmaceutical, cotton (plus related pesticide), paper, alcohol, oil and military cartels' agendas to keep a product that challenges their profits, out of consumers' reach.
And, why, in places like Morocco, where, even today, the men have daily afternoon sessions with it, but the tourists get turfed into jail forever, if found with a tiny bit?
Why do we have to skulk around pretending that we don't smoke it, when millions do? Why does it have to be kept secret from all but your closest friends? Why does the government try to stigmatise it so much? The reason for the government's reluctance to accept different recreational drugs, and fastidiously sticking to alcohol and tobacco despite health issues, is succinctly dissected in Gifts of Forgiveness (MP3 22kHz 32kbps Mono 700KB Length 2 mins 55 secs). If you consider it a "psychedelic" (I certainly do), then Terence McKenna's laconic 41 second explanation as to why all these types of drugs are illegal, can be found HERE and I heartily agree with him.
Why is the government so out of touch with the people it is supposed to represent? The following clip by Bill is so funny, and yet people remain stalwartly sympathetic to the stigma that mass media attempts to indoctrinate. It just makes this even funnier - The War Against Drugs (MP3 22kHz 64kbps Mono 2.54MB Length 5 mins 33 secs) from the classic performance "Sane Man".

Cannabis has had a bad press since the 1930's, when the oil, cotton, and paper industries decided it would harm their profits, if its global and traditional usage were allowed to continue. It is now outlawed in every country - even places like Morocco, where tradition dictates an afternoon hookah pipe for most males, as has been customary practice for thousands of years! The irony is that, as we currently run the resources that provide material for the oil, cotton, and paper industries into the ground, and as stocks dwindle, the prices of all these things rise, and the companies that monopolise them, employ less people and make more profit. How much longer can this continue? Cannabis would solve all 3 resource problems at one stroke, in that it can provide each of these products. Other benefits include the prevention of soil erosion, where, for example, in Bangladesh (translates to "Land of Hashish"), the culling of cannabis plants caused country-wide soil erosion, and all the natural disaster problems that come with it. Cannabis plants have very long roots, and naturally hold soil together.

Those who argue that cannabis consumption is the first step to the rocky world of harder drugs, are, in effect, comparing a post-prandial sherry as the slippery slope towards piss-soaked trousers in a tramp's drunken haze under Brooklyn bridge!

World, come to your senses, and take off those "profit" glasses that taint your perception of reality so much nowadays. Most of God's earthly vegetation has some very useful properties. God hasn't made a mistake - mankind has.

It really does seem to me that, the more advanced and populated society becomes, the more repressed the members of it are. Governments' thinking is that the greater the technological advancement and population size, the greater the need for imposed order. The trouble is, the rules that are applied to the voters, often do not apply to politicians, the rich, or the powerful. This principle of absolution for those deemed more important has been carried on for generation after generation of governments all over the world. It is currently apparent as hypocrisy in the law. So, you'd be more able to do what you wanted if you lived longer ago, as there was less control over the populace then, than now. The romanticised ideas I come across in my everyday life in England about living in the past, are borne out by the degree of unconscious control from external influences that people feel in their everyday existence. To escape from it now or again, is a lovely ideal, and very necessary. However, if you were caught in those days, you would be more likely executed, unless you were a member of the aristocracy. Such is the nature of an alcohol-fuelled society, and one that been that way for thousands of years. We have to wake up to how brutal we are and do something about it.

Some more information can be found at Toke of the Town and there's this great poem from John Turmel's site :-

ODE TO LAUGHING GRASS
By John C. "The Engineer" Turmel
Aug. 16, 1994 Hemp Rally in Toronto Canada
(To the tune of "Glory Glory Halleluiah")

Throughout all history, hemp's been a plant of great repute,
Four months to grow a mini-tree of twenty foot from shoot,
More oxygen converted from dioxide-carbon smogs,
Four times more wood than forestry can chop trees into logs.
A hardy plant, insecticides and fertilizers, not,
It grows so tall the shade kills weeds for fertile garden plot.
With petro-fuels with sulfur being burned into the air,
A fuel of bio-mass would help environmental care.

REFRAIN:
Hemp protects human environment,
Hemp prevents human defilement,
Hemp promotes human achievement,
God's gift for certain life.

Hemp fuel, hemp paints, hemp varnishes, hemp fibers, cloth and rope,
Hemp fertilizer, oil and plastics, medicines of hope.
It's source of protein primary for man and beast alike,
The best plant used for finger in environmental dike.
While alcohol debases, vibes of negative grow strong,
God's laughing grass makes calm and jolly, wishing no one wrong.
There's never been recorded death from using hemp, they say,
It's sedative that fits receptors in our DNA.
REFRAIN

The industry of dirty petro-chemicals may fear,
It's nature's agri-chemicals we'll substitute, it's clear.
For crops of untold uses which can soon be realized,
Our greatest source of bio-mass must first be legalized.
The chance that we may yet evade environmental doom,
With planet's fastest-growing vegetable, no need for gloom.
The Abolitionists charge that "On lies are based these laws."
Abolishing hemp prohibition is our second cause.
REFRAIN

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