Freedom

You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.
Abbie Hoffman

Free Speech
Because it is my body.
Because it is my life.
Because it is my choice.
Because it is a flower.
Because it is natural.
Because it is safer than alcohol.
Because it is nontoxic.
Because it doesn't kill.
Because the statistics show this.
Because I know this.
Beyond a certain point---and I believe I crossed this point within the first few pages of this book---it feels completely preposterous to keep up the fight, to stay on the defensive, banging my head against a wall, feeling I need to somehow convince those against.
But let's face it folks, denying and condemning cannabis smoking is degrading...damaging and insulting...ultimately infuriating...

Akin to the dark ages of masturbation prohibition...
Deemed sinful by church authority...
Caught and humiliated by mother...
Thrashed and punished by father...
This is a control issue, is it not?!
Any wonder why I might get upset?
Get over it folks.
I do this because it feels natural,
Because I want to,
Because it feels good,
Because it helps me.
I'm not hurting anyone.
I don't need your permission.

Stop looking in my bedroom.
Get out of my house.
Get out of my business.
If you think you have the right to do this,
You are the one who needs your head examined, not me!
You are the one who needs to stand trial, not me!
You want to forbid what makes me feel good?
What are you afraid of?
You want to outlaw good medicine that relieves suffering?
Are you inhuman?
Are you that greedy and power hungry?
Do you wish to stand in the way of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
I say this because I am a thinking being with authentic feeling,
Attempting the healthiest expression of my emotion.

Free speech. Take it away and what have you got?


A Tempest in a Teapot
Expressing oneself is powerful and necessary medicine. Hopefully by now I've driven this point home. But just in case, here's one last hit to drive the nail beyond flush.
We all know from our own direct experience, the human psyche can be filled with all sorts of hurt and trauma, old and buried memories of painful and damaging experiences, emotions and feelings hidden and trapped, or repressed if you will, deep within the mind. Probably the rule more than the exception, possessing these buried memories and traumas is nothing to be ashamed of, as life's trials and  tribulations and uncertainties inevitably lead to such injury. And sadly, though most predictably, it is the child's mind, open and vulnerable, most susceptible here. But really, psychic injury knows no age limit.
"Life is suffering," says the Buddha. And while Lao Tzu might respond, life is joy too, the Buddha's point is well taken. Life can really hurt, and sometimes it downright sucks. But a recognition of this is no excuse to eternally wallow in sorrow. In fact the Buddhist path seeks to overcome this suffering. And in its own way, so too does the path forged by Freud, as the basis of psychoanalysis is to uncover deep traumas and hidden memories, get to the root of human suffering, bring it to the surface and then... What?

Let it out!
Like a festering wound locked deep within the body and unable to heal, psychic energy buried in the mind is damaging to the organism. Some schools of thought say these bundles of festering psychic energy are the ultimate root of much sickness and disease, even some cancers.
The best way to treat a festering wound is to lance it and drain it, and perhaps apply a poultice on top to help the body's own immune system and healing mechanism. Of course this works well when the wound is on the surface. But when buried deeper in the body, treatment is more difficult. Same goes for psychic injury. Here we need a psychic lance of sorts.
As discussed in the chapter The Spirit of the Joint, cannabis can act as such a lance, or at the very least, assist whatever lance-like therapy one has chosen to get at and release their festering psychic energy. By whatever biochemical-energetic mechanism, cannabis has certainly done this for me. In effect cannabis lances "my" psyche (though what is "my" psyche and what is "collective" psyche often blurs), thus uncovering buried issues and troubles, allowing hidden memories and traumas to rise to the surface. 
Lancing the deep psyche is sometimes a troubling and disturbing process. What comes out does not always make sense. Powerful emotions, hurt and anger, rise to the surface along with traumatic memories. These deep memories are concentrated bundles of energy after all, and their release can be a powerful outburst. This is demonstrated somewhat in my "Free Speech" poem above. Here emerge themes of a cultural-religious nature. Here is expressed hurt and anger. Here is what sounds like a defiant adolescent-come adult, ready to stand up for  his self and move out, because the truth of his experience can no longer tolerate the ways of his parents or the cultural-societal system in which he sees himself a sorry product.
Over the past twenty years I have filled a dozen journals with such emotionally cathartic writings as well as a number of other exploratory scribblings. In 2008, I developed a website that acts as a sort of repository for my writings both current and past. I found this an even more rewarding outlet as the opportunities afforded by "web expression" far exceed that of paper and print alone. After all, no other medium allows the entire world ready access to one's open letter to President Barack Obama (see, http://manitounaturalhistory.com/theFeather/DinosDesk.html). There's a certain peace that comes with sharing one's piece. And the more people you share it with...well...

The Collective Effort
Naturally, I am not alone in this need to get at the root of troubles and express my discontent. Here are a few recent quotes from the website DrugWarRant.net:
I really loathe this about cable news. They bring in the same personalities to talk what’s going on in the news. It doesn’t matter if those personalities have the slightest idea what they’re talking about. They’re on TV not because they have specialized knowledge about a given story, but because they’re talented at applying standard partisan talking points to a wide variety of issues.
International drug policy is at a tipping point. Emerging from a forty year repressive dark age following the excesses of the 1960-1970s, the world seems ready to begin making serious changes in response to problems that have not been getting any better. But has the world learned enough to craft a saner, more compassionate approach to drug use?
It’s like driving the wrong way on the expressway all night, knowing something is wrong, but refusing to get directions because you don’t want to face the fact that you’ve wasted all that time, so you continue heading the wrong way.
A quick glance at this website reveals a number of discontented and frustrated individuals. Any wonder why they, like me, are so emotional about this cannabis issue? These stats from the website are a good start:
Deaths in the United States in a typical year are as follows
* Tobacco kills about 400,000
* Alcohol kills about 80,000
* Workplace accidents kill 60,000
* Automobiles kill 40,000
* Cocaine kills about 2,500
* Heroin kills about 2,000
* Aspirin kills about 2,000
* Marijuana kills 0
And yet, above all the rantings and disturbing reports, DrugWarRant.net offers ample samplings in the positive direction, news articles and YouTube videos showing encouraging signs of reform, support and progress in law enforcement, medicine and science, messages from the Drug Policy Alliance and more. 

Essential to Healing and Health
Over the course of my psychic explorations and writings, I've done plenty of analysis, ferreting-out demons and problems, finger-pointing, bitching and moaning and complaining. And of this I have no regrets. Getting this stuff out, as I've already talked about, is a normal and necessary part of the healing and growing process. Releasing thoughts and feelings and emotions prevents the concentration and festering of trapped energy. Without this expression of underlying wound and hurt, we have an infection waiting to happen, latent disease, either directly as mental disturbance or potential physical manifestations such as cancer, autoimmune disorder or outright violence against ourselves and/or others.
It's one thing to locate a problem and allow its healing release, and quite another to keep it from coming back again, and finally find a new direction that does not allow the problem to return. Free expression is not only necessary for healing, but also for continued health. Keeping the channels of communication open ensures problems do not slowly sink below the surface only to again fester in the subconscious. I submit Free Speech is not just a right, but necessary medicine for societal, interpersonal and intrapersonal health.
Foremost, Free Speech fosters expression at its easiest and safest, allowing energy to come out right away rather than getting buried deeper in the psyche where things can only get ugly, both for the individual and eventually for others, as the festering wound gets worse and finally bursts.  In addition to preventing sickness, Free Speech promotes health through exchange of input and ideas, the consideration of many alternatives and any number of ways to solve a problem. Again, as in the example from the Wrights at the beginning of this book, here we are drawing on the inherent power of Nature and its secret to Creation in the midst of entropy and destruction. Free Speech allows and invites the Creative principle of Synergy to take place. Thus Free Speech allows the society and citizen to move from sickness to healing and from healing to health.