About Us

Preface

All of us alive today, and all who will come after us, are heirs to Enrico Fermi's scientific legacy. We all have a stake in it...we must learn to integrate our scientific knowledge and our human experience to the nuclear dilemma, and to the many other dilemmas facing us today...We will need all our human gifts to survive and flourish on this planet...Enrico contributed all his gifts. Now it's up to us to contribute ours.

Olivia Fermi, granddaughter of physicist Enrico Fermi,

addressing an international conference,

September 29, 2001

Living with a lie somehow insults the soul...and eventually, perhaps due to some universally innate imperative or prerogative of Truth, the soul rebels. This insult to the soul becomes especially unbearable when the lie contradicts one's direct experience and common sense. In other words, how long can one keep quiet if they are told the sky is forever red, when in fact, they see quite clearly it is usually blue?

However philosophical these words and ideas may sound, my experience with cannabis speaks directly to this. For almost twenty years now, with varying frequency, I've been a smoker of marijuana. My own first-hand experience with this substance says it is nowhere near as bad as the so-called "authorities" say it is. In fact, in many ways, it appears quite good. There goes insult number one against direct experience.

Then I see two worlds of medicine: One is artificial and sterile, quickly conceived and contrived in test tubes and clean rooms and mass-produced by stainless steel and churning machine. The other is natural and green, anciently rich and born of a forest pristine from which we humans too had our beginnings. Now this first world of medicine, with all its laboratory-derived synthetics and better-living-through-chemistry promise, is fully legal and endorsed by the predominant government and medical establishment. Yet the forest, despite all evidence of our origins and history and connection to it, is off-limits. There goes insult number two against common sense.

Is there any wonder why medical marijuana is becoming more popular, why more people are stepping forward to proclaim its benefits and why cannabis, despite so much attempted repression over the last 80 years or so, has remained in use across vast sectors of the world's population? Truth, however much denied, eventually prevails.

As a registered pharmacist I broach this subject at risk to my license and livelihood. Yet as much as I feel a personal imperative to share my experience, so too I feel a professional obligation to express my thoughts and opinions regarding medical marijuana. While I don't claim final expertise here, I do think my dual schooling in this matter, as both professional and patient---a perspective from both sides of the counter you might say---offers helpful and necessary insight.

With this book I do not mean to pick a fight with the government, FDA, DEA, State Board of Pharmacy or mainstream medical community. On the contrary, I wish to build bridges of understanding and honesty. As leaders, educators and healers, ours is a common mission to care for humanity, to share to the best of our ability the best of what we have to offer, and to do so with the utmost compassion, integrity and good intention.

I have great respect and regard for modern Western medicine and its essential place in healing. But as Dillon said, these times they are a changin'. The business and economics of medicine is going from critical to outrageous. Without fundamental shift, affordable access will only get worse as the population gets older and technology more costly. Compounding all this is the stark fact that lack of treatment still exists for a number of conditions. But there's refreshing hope in the works.

Thanks to pioneers like Dr. Andrew Weil, alternative healthcare and the holistic approach of integrative medicine has arrived on the scene. From acupuncture to reiki to craniosacral therapy, more and more folks are recognizing and utilizing these various traditional and innovative healing methods. Accompanying these are Eastern approaches to wellness including yoga, meditation and tai chi, as well as the philosophies they bring. At root, the great promise and appeal of this holistic-integrative approach to wellness and medicine lies in its recognition and utilization of the mind-body connection.

How exciting and encouraging to see all these diverse disciplines coming together, where East meets West and old meets new. The holistic approach adds a whole new dimension to medicine and health. And as our world essentially goes from flat to round, new possibilities and opportunities for healing and fitness are made available, for the whole as well as the individual...the planet as well as its people.

Of course along with this r/evolution, medical marijuana has also re/arrived on the scene. Today, increasing numbers of citizens and states are recognizing it as legitimate medicine. This is no accident, as cannabis has in fact led this r/evolution in medicine from the very start. Truth is getting out. Cannabis has been used as medicine and more for thousands of years, and only within the past century has it been falsely denounced and criminalized.

In light of all evidence and experience, it seems increasingly absurd that marijuana still remains a Schedule I substance, right beside heroin and crack cocaine. This conflicting message and policy that the DEA and Federal government is sending to its citizens does anything but build confidence and trust. I especially hate to think that young people, trying marijuana and discovering that it's not so bad, might wonder if the same is not true about heroin or crack. Just one example of how misinformation can degrade the integrity of a system.

Again, this is not about pointing fingers, but rather gathering and giving correct information. Much is known about medical marijuana but there remains much to learn. As its benefits come to light so too its audience will grow. A new set of questions will emerge as cannabis spreads in the greater population: How best to reform drug law and education? Use in young people and special populations? Interactions and use with other medications, especially psychoactives? Potential as psychotropic replacements? Use in counseling and therapy?

One of the bigger challenges and questions centers around social prejudice and bias such as stoner stereotypes and dope stigmas. Do these alone build the walls that often form between the marijuana user and nonuser? Or do these walls inherently form due to differing states of consciousness and perspective? In either case, as marijuana use increases, a better understanding of what builds these walls may offer insight into what builds walls between all peoples of different types and inclinations, not to mention walls between humans and their environment. And isn't that the greatest challenge that humanity now faces?

Understanding the human condition and our place within the greater scheme of things seems the greatest imperative of our age. Listening...understanding...acceptance of difference and where other people are coming from, and, if we wish to get along, the undeniable necessity of tolerance. The question of human suffering, its sources and relief...why compassion is inextricably linked to true medicine...the ways profit, hubris, prejudice and ignorance can stand in the way of healing, etc. Without first grasping problems such as these, can even our best technical and chemical efforts ever provide real solutions to our healthcare dilemmas? Things to consider, with or without a toke, as you read this book. Thanks for checking it out.

Marijuana Medicine,

A World Tour of the Visionary and Healing Powers of Cannabis

Christian Ratch