The Global Conversation

Tag: legalized marijuana

  • It’s the economy, stupid

    Bill Clinton said that, and he was right.  So why do I bring this up now, almost 21 years later?  America has a new cash crop, hemp, also known as marijuana. Legal to farm for the first time since 1906, hemp farming is off and running.  Hemp is slightly different than marijuana, the difference being that hemp is bred to not include Tetrahydrocannabinol, THC.  Cannabis, otherwise known as pot, is also being harvested for the first time in the US.

    pot

    With the evolution of the medical marijuana laws now moving towards legalization for recreational use, we now have a new form of income that was previously only available on street corners and back alleys.  In theory, this should help to eliminate some of the drug-related violence as it pertains to marijuana sales.

    So this begs the bigger question for our society: Why not legalize all drugs?  Why would we limit the huge profits being made to criminals only?  Could our bureaucracies come up with a system of regulation that would be acceptable in a civilized society?  It is my opinion that the way some municipalities, like Venice, California, for example, regulate the sale of pot is not acceptable.

    The glamorization of drugs is dangerous to children.  This has been proven to be the case by the results of lawsuits against big tobacco.  Any advertising or “in your face” sale of drugs is not responsible for a society that calls itself civilized.

    Commonsense spirituality would tell us any behavior that negatively impacts others is not coming from who we really are.  The economy can benefit from our allowing our fellow man to choose freely what he or she puts into their body.  The economy should not be the primary reason for legalization; our inalienable right to choose should be.  Ultimately, allowing for free choice in society will increase the speed in which we evolve into our next grandest form and vision.

    Having a flourishing economy will also expedite human evolution.  As it stands, the wealth being created by the sale and distribution of illegal drugs is being hoarded by the ruthless, dark side of mankind.  Once mainstreamed, the profits and tax money will help our governments provide more services to more of the world’s people in need.

    The financial impact from this alone could create the space for the majority of our population to experience financial security or at the very least giving us the upper hand in eliminating poverty and malnutrition.

    Some will say that we are not responsible enough to manage this without it becoming the downfall of society and having everyone strung out on drugs.  May I point out that alcohol is legal and nobody seems to have a problem with that?

    I trust that by giving the people freedom to choose and experience the results of their choice we tend to find our own power.  When we remember that we are the source of our choices and the resulting consequences, we begin to see the world in a new way.

    Money is the method we have chosen to be our energy exchange for goods and services.  It is not the root of all evil, as some would say.  It is merely the means for us to experience some of the opportunities life has to offer.

    Bill Clinton had it right, it is the economy. When the people experience abundance our happiness, the group is lifted.  When we are happy and abundant, we tend to be more giving of our abundance to others.  We have been in this period of greed and hoarding known as recession for far too long.  It is time to experience the truth – we have enough for everyone.

    (Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional and auriculotherapist.  He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, life coach, and interventionist specalizing in individual and family recovery and also co-facilitates spiritual recovery retreats for the CWG foundation.  You can visit his website here for more information. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)

  • High – pot – cricy!

    On a recent trip to the west coast of the United States, I had an interesting experience.  Now, for some of you who may live in California, this may not come as a surprise to you, but I believe there are plenty of people, who, like me, actually thought that medical marijuana was being prescribed by actual doctors and not a guy in a green suit and rollerblades.   I know, I know, call me naive, but I thought there was truly some degree of legitimacy in the whole medical marijuana debate.

    Okay, I knew, of course, there was going to be a tremendous amount of fraud accompanying the legalization.   What I did not expect was that the government of California would simply turn a blind eye to it.  I mean, how does code enforcement allow the “Pot Doctor” to put up a sign that says, “get your green card for $40” on his shanty right next to the water pipe store?  Really?  Really?  In my disbelief, I did not notice what type of store was on the other side of the Pot Doc’s place.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a Doritos store!

    All right, it is too easy to make jokes about this, and I can easily get off track from the point I am trying to make here.  When I turn on the news and hear a story about a state considering the legalization of marijuana based on the “medical need” argument, am I to believe that they are actually considering this as a compassionate alternative for those who are ill and may benefit from the main chemical in pot, Tetrahydrocannabinol?

    This is the point of this blog and I am going to keep it really short.  California legalized pot on the basis of its usage being for medical purposes.  If that is their stance, they should not allow it to be sold and marketed to anyone walking down the Boardwalk in Santa Monica.  Now, if they legalized it for recreational use, then they should have defined what that is and how it can be marketed.

    I was walking on the Boardwalk with my wife, my stepson, and his father, when we were approached by the esteemed doctor on rollerblades.  He nonchalantly put his thumb and pointer finger together and brought them to his lips, “You guys need your card?”  Mind you, my stepson is only 19.

    After my shock of what had just happened wore off, I started to watch the Horticulture M.D. , realizing I was watching partially because the addict within me was flabbergasted that it was that easy to get pot nowadays.  When I was actively using drugs, we had to be way more covert in our attempts to “score.” But I was also curious to see if he was interacting with families with smaller children, and although I cannot be sure he was, it sure looked that way to me.

    I haven’t been to Colorado since they have changed the law, but you can bet that I will be sure to notice the culture the next time I am there; however, I feel it is a little different in Colorado.  The people have voted and said they were in favor on a recreational basis.

    I don’t have anything against legalization of pot.  What I have a problem with is the amount of hypocrisy that surrounds these landmark decisions.  I know this is ridiculous to suggest, but just be honest, politicians, you are in it for the money.  You spent more than you took in, people are resisting you raising our taxes again, and you need to be creative.  First it is gambling, now it is drugs, why don’t you just fast forward 20 or 30 years and make the sex-trade business legal now?  This way, you can spend us further and further into debt oblivion.   Just be honest with us, then do the job right and keep the drug-pusher — oops, I mean the “good doctor” out of my family’s face while we walk the Boardwalk and enjoy a nice sunset and some beautiful weather.

    (Kevin McCormack, C.A.d, is a certified addictions professional. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, CWG life coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery. Kevin will be co-presenting with JR Westen at the CWG on Recovery Path to Peace retreat in Medford, Oregon, from June 23rd – 26th. You can visit his website for more information at www.Kevin-Spiritualmentor.com . To connect with Kevin, please e-mail him at Kevin@theglobalconversation.com) 

  • BIG MONEY AND IGNORANCE LOSES
    BIG IN 2012 U.S. ELECTIONS

    Todd Akin lost. Joe Walsh lost. Richard Murdouck lost. Tom Smith lost. That’s four for four of the Republican men who made absurd comments about rape in the past several months and paid the price for their absurdity.

    Elizabeth Warren won. Claire McCaskill won. Tammy Baldwin won. Tammy Duckworth won. That’s four for four of the Democratic women who took strong stands against the Republican establishment and walked away victorious.

    Eight of the nine so-called Battleground States — must win “swing states” that everyone on both sides knew would decide the election — went to President Barack Obama, despite the spending of nearly $150 million more by the Republicans, their surrogate super PACs, and a bevy of Super Rich individuals who poured millions into the campaign of Mitt Romney.

    On social issues, contemporary 21st Century Thought prevailed over Let’s Go Backward Mentality in several striking cases. The electorate of two states — Maine and Maryland — voted to legalize same sex marriage, and citizens in the states of Washington and Colorado voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Opponents of same sex marriage have long claimed that, if put to an actual vote, citizens in most states would reject the idea of legalizing it. They were wrong. Likewise, opponents of legalized marijuana predicted that ballot measures supporting it would fail. Washington and Colorado proved otherwise.

    Perhaps most impressively, voters across the United States fought back, and won, against Big Money, defeating candidate after candidate whose campaigns benefited from huge amounts spent by super Pacs (political action committees) and Karl Rove’s direction of phenomenal spending to try to capture seats with the sheer power of money, and the advertising dominance that it can buy.

    In short, People Power defeated Money Power in this election, time and time again — and that is good news for America.

    Huge amounts, for instance — almost unfathomable amounts — where given by big money moguls across the nation to Mr. Romney’s campaign. It just couldn’t “buy” the election.  Neither could it win a GOP majority in the U.S. Senate. According to a news story in The Wall Street Journal by reporter Brody Mullins, “In campaigns for the Senate,  Republican candidates were backed by millions of dollars in spending by well-coordinated pro-Republican super PACs and interest groups that hammered Democratic candidates in televised advertisements starting last winter.”

    The same story noted that “in the presidential race, pro-Republican super PACs spend far more money than those favoring Mr. Obama.” Two of those groups along—Crossroads GPS (created and controlled by Mr. Rove) and Restore Our Future—spent $250 million supporting Mr. Romney, The Wall Street Journal report said. The biggest group supporting Mr. Obama, Priorities USA Action, by contrast, spent just $65 million on behalf of the President, the newspaper report added.

    It did Big Money no good. Try as it might to bend the voters’ views with dollars, it simply could not buy this election.

    An example is what happened in Virginia, where millions were dumped into the state by outside groups to help GOP candidate George Allen defeat Democrat Tim Kaine in the race for the U.S. Senate seat. Mr. Allen lost.

    In Ohio, more than $10 million was spent by outside groups —  including another controlled by Karl Rove (who seemed deeply determined to affect this year’s elections) and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce — in an effort to unseat liberal Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown. Mr. Brown won.

    In Connecticut, Republican Linda McMahon spent $40 million of her own money to defeat Democrat Chris Murphy for the U.S. Senate. She lost. Ms. McMahon spent $50 million of her own money in a 2010 election bid, which she also lost, proving that putting $90 million into two successive campaigns guarantees nothing. Peoples’ votes are apparently not as “buy-able” as some people might have thought.

    Likewise, tens of millions in outside spending money was shipped off to Wisconsin by rich Republican individuals and money-powered groups to bring former Badger State Governor Tommy Thompson to the U.S. Senate — but his Democratic opponent, Tammy Baldwin, batted away the huge dollar advantage of her GOP opponent’s campaign and walked away with the Senate seat. She will become the first openly gay U.S. Senator.

    The U.S. electorate made wonderfully intelligent decisions in many races, defeating GOP candidates who made utterly irrational statements about rape. Mr. Akin, a sitting GOP Congressman looking to move up to the Senate, famously said in August that the female body automatically makes it impossible for pregnancy to occur in cases of “legitimate rape.” Until that remark, he was expected to defeat sitting Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill.

    Embarrassed to high heaven by Mr. Akin’s remark, the Republican Party pulled its endorsement and its funding from Mr. Akin, and begged him to get out of the race so that it could run another candidate against McCaskill. Akin said he was in the race to stay, with or without his party’s support. He lost.

    Mr. Walsh, Mr. Murdouck, and Mr. Smith made equally offensive and/or ridiculous statements on the subject of abortion in the case of rape, and they also lost their races. Mr. Murdouck famously declared that if a pregnancy resulted from a rape, “it is something that God intended to happen.” Mr. Walsh, a sitting GOP Congressmen, was asked a question at a debate about abortion and announced that  he was “pro-life without exception.” Then he added, “The life of the woman is not an exception.” Asked by the press immediately after the debate if he had misspoken, or was serious, Mr. Walsh said he meant every word, and justified his stance by saying that modern medical advances have made abortion unnecessary to save the life of a mother. He lost the election in that moment.

    Mr. Smith, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, was asked by the media in August what his position was regarding abortion. He said he was opposed to abortion without exception. Not even in cases of rape or incest? he was asked. No, he said. Then he was asked by Mark Scolforo of the Associated Press: “How would you tell a daughter or a granddaughter who, God forbid, would be the victim of a rape, to keep the child against her own will? Do you have a way to explain that?”

    Mr. Smith then made the extraordinary comparison of rape with a woman having a baby out of wedlock. In the second instance, he said, he had a member of his own family who chose to have the child. But, the AP reporter, incredulous, asked: “That’s similar to rape?” Mr. Smith replied, “No, no, no…but…put yourself in a father’s situation…yes, it is similar. But, back to the original, I’m pro-life, period.” That was the end of Mr. Smith’s campaign.

    America has re-claimed its intelligence and re-claimed its power. Big Money and Ignorance have lost theirs — and with it, a stranglehold on the U.S. electorate.

    There is hope after all. People can and will think for themselves. People can and will overcome the onslaught of media buys by individuals and groups with millions to throw around. Sometimes when you “follow the money trail,” it leads, alas, to a dead end.

    It is as Mr. Murphy said when he won Connecticut’s Senate seat. “We proved that what matters most in life is the measure of your ideas…not the measure of your wallet.”

    Indeed.