Many people have already seen the CNN documentary by Soledad O’Brien “Gary and Tony Have a Baby”. Those who have not seen the documentary yet will likely see it, as CNN practically goes out of its way to bring this touching story to millions of people around the country. The story is about two professional gay men in a stable relationship of twenty years who, determined to have a family, overcame many obstacles, both legal and financial, in their quest to become parents, a story that they agreed to share, in all its intimate details, with their fellow countrymen, and they did it with a clear sense of pride and accomplishment. This story, as far as I could see, was not just about Gary and Tony and the people who helped them in their quest, it was about our society’s views on this sort of things, or rather the evolution of these views that has taken place over the last 35 years or so. If a documentary such as this one had been shown by anyone 30-40 years ago, the reaction would not have been of sympathy and support, it would have been entirely different altogether. The documentary would have been considered an “abomination” and “affront” to “family values” and to “common decency”. All the advertisers would have probably pulled out, the courts would have declared the whole affair illegal, and Moral Majority would have called for a boycott, if not an outright shutdown, of the station responsible for such an “insult” to our “common moral ideals”. In other words, to put it philosophically, the whole thing would have had a different “existence”.

What this simple example demonstrates is that all our perceptions are determined by the state of consciousness. As our common consciousness changes and evolves, so do our perceptions which are more than our sense experiences by virtue of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Indeed, if “Gary and Tony Have a Baby” had been shown 35 years ago, we would have seen and heard the same things, but we would have perceived them very differently. It is exactly the same evolution of consciousness that is taking place right now with respect to Cannabis legalization. As our scientific knowledge accumulates, and the racist stereotypes of the past gradually fade into oblivion, our common consciousness gives rise to different perceptions about Cannabis and its users. We are now suddenly able to “see” that our neighbor who “smokes weed” is actually not a bad person, that we would even much rather deal with him than with the drunk across the street who beats his wife, neglects his children and gets into all kinds of trouble with an almost predictable certainty. We begin to realize that we never “hear” about Cannabis overdoses, although we do hear about prescription drug-associated deaths quite often, even in people like Michael Jackson or Craig Cory, the people we almost worship collectively and individually. The Nation’s nurses, our main caregivers, whose opinion we seek and value, cannot deny the fact that it is much easier to deal with Cannabis using patients, who tend to be polite, respectful and non-aggressive, as opposed to alcohol, or hard drug, or even prescription drug abusers.

In fact, prescription drug abuse has reached truly epidemic proportions in this country and around the world, and the medical professionals, both doctors and nurses, are well aware of its destructive potential and the difficulties inherent in dealing with prescription drug abusers. This is why more and more doctors and nurses are now able to “see” that prescription drug abuse is far more dangerous than Cannabis use can ever be, or have a potential to be. There are almost two million opiate addicts in this country, the opiate addiction originating from contact with heroin or prescription opiate pain-killers, such as Morphine, Percoset, Oxycontin and others, with chronic methadone maintenance therapy as a “final common pathway” for these patients in case they seek help for their dependence. Methadone is a long acting opiate that is capable to suppress opiate cravings if given at a proper dose. If opiate addicts do not seek help, their addiction is often fatal, the cause of death being an overdose, violence, or diseases transmitted as a result of intravenous drug use. Methadone maintenance therapy is frequently complicated by other prescription drug abuse, as many patients in methadone clinics take benzodiazepines, such as Valium, Xanax and Klonopin that produce a heroin-like “high” when combined with methadone. A program physician in a methadone maintenance clinic has to constantly “walk a fine line”, for if the methadone dose is too small the patients will use illicit opiates, and if it is too large, they may easily overdose by ingesting benzodiazepines or other prescription drugs on top of methadone.

The reason for a potential for overdose with opiates, both legal and illegal is that opiate receptors upon which these drugs act are located in a very close proximity to the “respiratory center” in the brain stem, so that an overdose usually manifest as a cessation of breathing, a very dangerous condition, as it is easy to see. Another hallmark of opiate dependence is the rapid development of “tolerance”, a condition where more and more opiate drug has to be consumed for the same effect, so that even “experienced” opiate addicts sometimes “miscalculate” the amount or strength of a drug with the disastrous consequences.

There is a common misunderstanding about the nature of addiction where it is erroneously believed that all that the addict needs to do to “recover” is to have enough “willpower” to get over his “sickness” for a “couple of days”, and then just to stay away from drugs. The fact of the matter is that addiction is much more than drug “cravings”, and it is also more than even physical dependence on a drug. There is a great emotional instability that is observed in most addicts, a “negative affective state”, or whatever else it may be called, an inner “uneasiness” that persists long after the drug use has stopped, and that may actually have been present before it began, the cause and effect relationship between a certain personality structure and the development of addiction often being far from clear-cut, in a sense that it is impossible to say which condition is a “cause” and which one an “effect”. This is the reason why the relapse rate is so high, being over 90% for opiate addicts, often happening years after the termination of heroin use. This is also the reason why many authorities now believe that it is the functional stability, and not necessarily the total “abstinence”, that determines the treatment success in the final analysis. This is also the reason why most authorities now believe that in order to treat a severe addiction, be it to heroin, cocaine, alcohol, or prescription drugs, the underlying emotional balance must be addressed as well, or otherwise the relapse is practically inevitable. The persisting symptoms of anxiety, insomnia, mood swings and depression are so severe and poorly tolerated by patients that they lead to unrelenting drug-seeking and other risky behaviors, and eventually to a full-blown relapse to dangerous levels of drug use, both legal and illegal.

This is why some authorities, especially those advocating for a “harm reduction” in addiction treatment, are now also looking at Cannabis as a possible solution in a “long-term” management of addictions, both chemical and behavioral. Why would they ever do something like that, especially considering a strong opposition from the DEA and its prohibitionist allies who, despite all the accumulated scientific evidence to the contrary, still consider Cannabis to be a “dangerous drug” with “no medicinal use”? I recently listened to Dr. Donald Abrams, one of the leading specialists in medicinal Cannabis use, himself an oncologist by training. As Dr. Abrams put it, “I can either use five different drugs on a patient, one for anxiety, another one for insomnia, another one for mood swings, another one for pain, and yet another one for depression, or I can use CANNABIS to address all of these symptoms at once”. Dr Abrams also correctly pointed out that Cannabis is less addictive than caffeine and definitely less addictive than alcohol or nicotine. I believe this refutes the prohibitionists’ argument portraying Cannabis as an “addictive drug” unsuitable as an aid in addiction treatment.

The same, the very same logic would apply for addiction treatment. It has been shown that Cannabis can alleviate anxiety, and insomnia, and depression, and pain, and mood swings in a sizable number of patients. Cannabis would also induce a mild euphoria along with a calm, relaxed state that will address and alleviate this deep-seated “negative affective state”, so conducive to chemical relapse and risky, often violent, behaviors. And the beauty of this approach is that Cannabis does all of this without inducing a physical dependence and with no danger of overdose, since by some very strange “coincidence” (which holistic philosophers consider to be no coincidence at all), that cannabinoid receptors upon which Cannabis acts in our “system” are, as opposed to opiate receptors, quite scarce in the vicinity of vital brain centers, making a Cannabis overdose impossible.

Unfortunately, the very same mechanism responsible for preventing a physical dependence on Cannabis is also “at fault” in “driving” people to indulge in alcohol, hard drug, or prescription drug abuse. Sounds strange? Let me explain. Cannabis is dissolved in fat tissue after use, being then gradually released into the blood stream. This prevents wild fluctuations in Cannabis blood levels due to mechanism known in addiction medicine as “self-tapering”. But this “built-in” safety feature of Cannabis is also the reason as to why it can be detected on random urine drug screens for such a long time, which in turn “encourages” people to use much more dangerous substances as they leave the “system” rapidly and are much less likely to be “detected” by an employer, court system, or any other “concerned” entity. The legalization of Cannabis for responsible adults will eliminate this “fear of detection”, and together with it the “incentive” to engage in alcohol or other dangerous drug use. This way, as I firmly believe, Cannabis will serve as a “barrier” to the initiation of a serious chemical dependency on physically addictive substances. No less importantly, by using Cannabis as a potential “adjunct” in addiction treatment, we would be able to address the main precipitating factors for relapse at a very “low cost”: there is no potential for either physical dependence or an accidental overdose. If I am not mistaken, the State of Pennsylvania now considers the recovery from opiate addiction “possible” in a patient using Cannabis. I would, of course, change the word “possible” to something like “much more likely”.

The proponents of “harm reduction” in addiction treatment now correctly view Cannabis as an “exit” drug for former alcohol, hard drug, or prescription drug abusers. I expect that at the upcoming conference in LA organized by the California Society of Addiction Medicine in cooperation with “New Directions” in recovery these issues will be discussed in greater detail, and I will do all I can on my part to help convince my colleagues of the validity of this approach. As I indicated in the beginning of this article, our perceptions change as our consciousness evolves. This new, scientific view of Cannabis reflects the evolution of consciousness as well, and it is a long process, for it has to come all the way from the absurdities which led to Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 back to scientific reality. I mentioned the CNN documentary “Gary and Tony Have a Baby” with yet another purpose; just like our opponents do right now, the gay rights opponents used the scare-tactics against the gay people just a few short decades ago. And the scare-tactics, if we pay attention, are almost the same, namely, “What will happen with our children???” And just as nothing at all happened with “our children” when gay people won their civil rights, nothing will happen with “our children” when we finally recognize the remarkable medicinal properties of Cannabis plant except, perhaps, that they will have a much safer alternative to alcohol and dangerous drugs, including prescription drugs, and more effective ways to treat addictions to those substances if, for whatever reason, genetic or otherwise, they do develop in susceptible individuals.

In their relentless efforts to derail the Cannabis Legalization Movement, the DEA and its prohibitionist allies are attacking the Movement on two fronts; on the one hand, and mostly in the States where Medical Cannabis is “legal”, they assert that full legalization of the plant is somehow against the patients’ interests, while in the States that are still struggling to reintroduce this remarkable natural medicine, the DEA is engaged in a full-scale campaign of disinformation aimed at depriving the sick people of help they so desperately need under the false pretenses that Medical Cannabis “is already legal”, and that its name is Marinol. All these efforts (and counter-efforts) remind us that nothing in this world exists in isolation, that every single component of the plant, as well as every effort to legalize it, is just a part of a greater Whole, a part that does not even have an independent existence, much less the efficacy or effectiveness that our opponents would love to ascribe to the parts in order to separate them and, by doing so, to destroy the Whole. Marinol, being just a synthetic THC “analogue” is not very effective for precisely this reason. Not only Marinol is not “Medical Marijuana”, it is not even that part of it that its “proponents” insist that it is; torn and isolated from the Whole of the plant, it is simply a little more than nothing at all. In fact, many philosophers believe that the Whole is logically and “ontologically” prior to its parts, that is, on the level of pure “Being”, the Whole had already been “conceived” in Consciousness even before any of its parts, and that the Whole makes each part into exactly what it is in the end. In other words, the Whole is much greater than the simple sum of its parts, and every part is exactly what it is because of the Unity of the Whole.

The same philosophical truth applies to the Cannabis Legalization Movement. There is no such thing as Medical Cannabis legalization without the overall “liberation” of the plant itself; even more than that, the so-called medical marijuana laws are the classic example of philosophical distinction between “appearance” and “reality”. It only “appears” that medical marijuana laws even exist; the DEA and its allies stress again and again that the plant is still strictly illegal under the Federal law, so that they may feel free to conduct their “raids” on the growing and distribution facilities at will, being restrained not by the “State Medical Marijuana” laws, but by the current benevolence of the Obama-Holder Administration, something that is liable to change “without notice”.

The “reality” then is that “Medical Marijuana State laws” have an extremely uncertain “existence”, an existence that is more illusory than it is real. And now we can approach the California Initiative to Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis 2010 from the same philosophical perspectives. Not only this Campaign is inclusive with regard to Medical Cannabis patients, but even then the California Initiative itself is not that final Whole that the Cannabis Liberation Movement aspires to be in the end. The California Initiative is but a part of the greater Whole of the National Movement, and that also is just a part of even greater Whole, something like the International Movement to free the plant. And even then, that Movement is just a part of the even greater Whole of Unity with Nature, and THAT is a part of the Evolutionary Impulse of the Universe.

Is the Evolutionary Impulse the final “Whole”? Some Holistic theologians believe that it isn’t. The “final Whole” is inconceivable to human reason, as it is that “Source of all Being”, or the “Essential Being” that many people call God, and on the level of the Essential Being Matter and Consciousness are One. The contradictions arise when the Essential Being expresses Itself in the multiplicity of material manifestations, as the parts begin to “forget” that they are still not fully independent, that each and every one of them is just a constituent of the Whole. Once the “Existence for Itself” replaces the “Being In Itself”, the “good” and “evil” come into play, the forces of creation as well as forces of destruction, the Forces of Light as well as the Forces of Darkness.

These “Forces” have operated under different guises depending on the period and the prevailing material conditions of the time. The Forces of Darkness assumed different identities, and so did the Forces of Light. Currently, the efforts to abolish the cruel, obsolete and anti-scientific Cannabis laws, and to Legalize the medicine that is so remarkable that it makes cancer patients eat again, or helps glaucoma patients preserve their vision, are identifiable with the Forces of Light; where as the underhanded maneuvering of those who would deprive people of this Goodness using every “dirty trick” in the book, is undoubtedly a constituent of the Forces of Darkness.

What I would like to see is the introduction of the Universal Consciousness into the Cannabis Legalization struggle. I would like to see the realization of the simple fact that no part of that struggle exists by itself; that there is no such thing as separate Movement to Legalize Cannabis for medicinal use as “opposed” the one to Legalize Cannabis as a safe alternative to alcohol, hard drugs and prescription drugs of abuse; both of these endeavors are none other than parts of the Whole which then is a part of an even greater Whole and so on, all the way to the Essential Being Itself. Once the Movement is viewed from the vantage point of Universal Consciousness, we gain an immediate advantage, as we begin to conceive all our actions as none other than “parts of the Whole”. The Evolutionary Impulse of the Universe will not be denied simply because the DEA has chosen to be associated with Forces of Darkness in this instance and even engaged some “doctors” to scientifically perjure themselves on the subject of Medical Cannabis, as we have witnessed in Illinois recently. It is easy to see that generally the Forces of Light are associated with “Love”, while the Forces of Darkness feed from, and depend for their very existence, on “Fear”. This explains the scare tactics of our opponents as their first and foremost “weapon”.

There are more good news, however, that we can extrapolate form the Holistic Theology, and that is that “evil” self-destructs in the end. This is why the Universe is moving according to its “Evolutionary Impulse”, even if it sometimes appears that its movement is slowed by the “Forces of Darkness”. As long as we ourselves realize that we, and not our “opponents”, are “in tune” with the Evolutionary Impulse, as long as none of us views his or her actions as “separate” from the Whole, the eventual victory will be ours, and when it comes to Cannabis Legalization, our opponents will hear, in the words of the California Campaign official, the “unrelenting drumbeat of Inevitability”.

It seems that the DEA and its prohibitionist allies are getting rather desperate in the face of strong and growing support for Cannabis Legalization, the support that is felt not only in California, but across the Nation ahead of the November Ballot Initiative that would Legalize, Control and Tax Cannabis in the State of California. Realizing that the people of this country are becoming way too informed to fall for the stale, washed-out “arguments” that Cannabis is “addictive”, that it “favors the criminal activity”, or that it is a “gateway drug”, the prohibitionists are now singing a new tune, and that is that “there are no good reasons” to Legalize this relatively harmless and widely used substance. “No good reasons…” Well, let’s see.

The way I look at it, the California Initiative is not just about anyone’s individual right to “smoke weed”, it is about a fundamental personal liberty of an adult individual to use the less dangerous substance for recreational purposes, when those who “outlaw” it and would love to keep it illegal, use the more dangerous one themselves. I am referring to Cannabis and alcohol, to be certain. Even though the DEA and its allies may have a finely tuned machinery of repression to enforce this sad state of affairs, there is no moral authority on their part to do so. And as most of us know, repression and moral authority are two very different things. But let’s suppose that the simple absence of moral authority is not good enough reason for the prohibitionists to stop their repressive actions for, after all, they are following in the infamous footsteps of Harry Anslinger, a racist egomaniac and author of Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Very well, Gentlemen, here are some good reasons to legalize Cannabis, and they go well beyond a simple “absence of harm”.

We all know how sick and tired we are of violence. Violence on our streets, in our homes, in our neighborhoods, on our borders. We also know that alcohol is highly “conducive” to violence, and true enough, many violent acts are committed under the influence of alcohol. Yet the DEA and its allies are unlikely to educate the public that Cannabis use has been shown to suppress violent behavior. Yes, that’s right, marijuana use suppresses violence. As Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook explains, “by inducing a calm, relaxed state, marijuana is not conducive to violence and only the unsophisticated think otherwise”. Wow! Although I believe that the DEA can easily withstand the “accusations” of being overly “sophisticated”, this alone, in my opinion, should put an end to the whole argument about Cannabis legalization. But wait, there are more “good reasons” if our opponents really want to see them.

It is demonstrated in poll after poll that between 74 and 81% of the voters support the legalization of medical Cannabis. If the nationwide Referendum on this issue was conducted tomorrow, the proponents would win. Decisively. Across the Nation. And yet, the DEA continues to vehemently oppose the medical marijuana laws everywhere, spreading what I could only call a campaign of deliberate disinformation, not unlike now defunct KGB Fifth Chief Directorate that I had the privilege to oppose in my younger years. I addressed this issue in my previous blogs, but suffice it to say without a moment’s hesitation that if it were solely up to the DEA, not one State medical marijuana law would survive for a day. It is not that the DEA does not “understand” that medical marijuana is highly effective in a wide variety of medical conditions – it understands this well, but the “dogma” that demands that Cannabis remain illegal is above any such considerations, even the will of the voters notwithstanding. The KGB operated by the same ideology: “Yes, Comrades, we understand that the economy is disintegrating and all, but the Marxist-Leninist doctrine prevents us from allowing private enterprise….” Well, you know. And before KGB there was the “Sacred Inquisition” that also placed “dogma” above everything else.

This is what I am afraid of:  if the California Initiative were to fail, the opponents of medical marijuana laws would descend like vultures on those frail, unsteady, “baby” State laws laws and rip them to shreds.  A continuing harassment and arrests of medical marijuana growers and suppliers, even in the States where it is legal, prove my point. Is this what we want??

But what about the prohibitionists’ “trump card”, the so-called “gateway drug” theory? I worked in addictions for almost 10 years, and this is what I know. The anti-Cannabis laws in this country seem to promote alcohol and hard drug addictions. The reason for this is that people are afraid of “being detected” on a “random drug screen”, so instead of choosing the relatively safe Cannabis for their “weekend recreation”, they indulge themselves instead with alcohol, cocaine, opiates, methamphetamines, or highly physically addictive prescription “pills” because those substances are “cleared” much more rapidly from one’s “system”, and are less likely to be detected on a “random drug screen”. This is the truth behind the so-called “gateway drug” theory.

President Obama and his drug Czar are absolutely correct in trying now to direct attention to prescription drug abuse, for the scope of this problem is truly enormous and does not even come close to that really or potentially caused by Cannabis. If we think about it, we do not have one single “recreational” substance that would provide a safer alternative to alcohol, not to mention “hard drugs”. The California Initiative seeks to end this and to provide people with safe alternative that has the potential of alleviating this Nation’s huge drug and alcohol problem.

“Well”, you might say, “but how is it that most doctors of this Nation remain silent about this deplorable state of affairs?” A fair question with a very simple answer. The DEA has a total professional “control” over doctors who need the special “DEA number” to practice medicine. No “number” – and the Medical License becomes a worthless piece of paper, so is it surprising that the doctors are forced to “side” with the DEA, and cannot say a word no matter what their own professional opinion might be? This also goes for the official addiction medicine “establishment” and all of the “allied” medical and counselor personnel. Is this the level of repression directed towards our health-care providers that we are willing to continue tolerating? Passing the California Initiative will send the clearest signal yet that we are not!

So, this is how the whole thing works – medical professionals are “paralyzed” for fear of losing the precious “DEA number”, while a large portion of the population is “held hostage” by the menace of “random drug screens” that would reveal Cannabis use before they reveal anything else. Is it difficult to understand then that the proponents of the Initiative are fighting a very much of an “uphill battle”, but also that we in this country will not allow anyone or anything to become that “State within the State” that would uphold its “dogmas” above our economic interests, our safety, our health, or our Rights as citizens.