I promised last time to talk about differentiating between medical and recreational marijuana.  With 14 states legalizing the use of medical marijuana and other states lining up behind, I think it is an important distinction to make.  There are plenty of us pot smokers who would use medical marijuana usage as an inside advantage to accessing legal marijuana.  It’s convenient, it would solve the problem of availability and it would give us partakers a certain level of protection against prosecution. But let’s not do that; let’s not use this important development to further the agenda of responsible recreational use.  Let’s declare our own front in the ongoing battle.  It will be the less popular front and the path of more resistance, but it will better serve the cause.

There are people with real and serious afflictions that are eased by using marijuana.  They deserve to have their medicine taken seriously.  But when recreational users invent or conflate a problem to game the system for their own benefit, we all lose.  Hey, I like getting high as much as the next person; I’ve even trained myself to clean extra well while under the influence.  I’ve stated before that marijuana makes me a calmer, more balanced person.  But claiming ADD or mild depression to get a prescription is a hollow victory.  When we chuckle up our sleeve all the way to the dispensary, we are undermining the medical marijuana movement and appearing as opportunists.

Marijuana has a long and well documented history of medical usage.  I have a textbook on epilepsy from 1895, which suggests tincture of cannabis sativa as a method for lessening the severity of seizures.  I know several people with epilepsy whose lives are improved by smoking marijuana.   The Herb Book by John Lust (no puns, please), which students of herbal medicine will tell you is a seminal reference book, lists 14 different usages for cannabis.  Included in this list is its use as an appetite stimulant, an antidepressant, antispasmodic, and pain reliever, the very ailments that marijuana is being used for now.

Ever since being classified as a Schedule I drug, alongside cocaine and heroine, meaning there is no known benefit or reason for further study, marijuana has been caught in limbo.  Most medical use and results are anecdotal, something the medical establishment dislikes.  Creating a double sided blind study (control group vs. placebo and standard dosage, nobody knows which is which), the gold standard of objective studies, is impossible to do as the DEA refuses to release marijuana to researchers.  So here we are stuck in no man’s land, with public opinion leading ahead of science and sound research.  It is my belief that we need to free marijuana for proper research.

By blurring the lines between legitimate and necessary medical marijuana use and responsible recreational use, we undermine an important stage in the rising acceptance of all marijuana use.  The anti-partakers are adamant that the medical marijuana movement is a thinly disguised effort to make marijuana available to all.  Why give them any ammunition?

Last time I wrote I discussed the effect a positive drug test had on my life.  By necessity I was brief, just 600 words to make a statement.  In the interest of continuing the conversation, I thought I would talk about the conscientious use of recreational marijuana.  I am convinced that the rule of law will not change until the responsible users can stand up and be counted; we need to remove marijuana from the purview of college students, gangsters and hippies.  While medical use of marijuana is an important step, it’s a small step not necessarily in the direction we need to go; and arguably even undermines the importance and seriousness of marijuana’s medical applications – but that’s another story.

Conservative sorts would say that use of any inebriant is irresponsible: good for them, I hope they’re happy.  The other extreme would say “I can do what I want, when I want” and again, I hope they are happy.  However, in order to have a real debate, one that can change public policy, we need to decide what society will accept.  Prudent usage will mean different things to different people: some might condone daily use, others maybe just a few times a year.  I think frequency is less of a guideline than the context.  If you are the parent of a small child, the welfare of that child comes first.  Inebriation from any source is irresponsible: don’t spend the day watching TV or surfing the Web either.  But everyone tucked in or at the grandparents? — a bit of marijuana can go a long way to reviving the joy of parenting.  A child free adult with a job (white collar or otherwise), who lights up in the evening to relax can be a responsible user.  Getting stoned before work is a bad idea but a nurse who recharges on her weekend by smoking some marijuana is not putting her patients at risk 36 hours after the fact.  Likewise, I don’t want my kid’s teacher to come in hung over, but if he wants to spend Saturday afternoons watching the Twilight Zone while getting stoned because it helps him cope with a roomful of raucous teens, fine.

Those who are firmly against marijuana, let’s call them anti-partakers (not-heads maybe) would frown and say that partakers are wasting their lives.  But there are many legal ways to squander a life in this society: television, alcohol, sex obsession, chain smoking cigarettes, even the single minded pursuit of exercise counts, but we don’t arrest them for it or prevent them from being employed.  There is much discussion of a balanced life, of living fully and wondrously, but it seems that only the not-heads/anti-partakers get to determine the rules.

By bringing the idea of responsible use into the public sphere of influence we can also facilitate transparency.  We can discuss the use of marijuana with our children and like alcohol, teach them what not to do with an inebriant.  It is also true that societies with a high level of marijuana acceptance also have a lower usage rate.  (We know that Prohibition had the unfortunate effect of glamorizing alcohol in all its forms.)

We know who we are: we are high level professionals, we are trades people and artisans, and we are teachers, doctors, nurses and pedestrian folk just living our lives.  We partake of a plant that has the safest usage record known and we do so for varying reasons.  We know that the argument against marijuana use is based either on a presumptuous moral judgment that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny or the blind acceptance of an unjust law.  Nothing will change until we stand up and get counted.  Let the millions of us responsible citizens raise our collective voice and be heard.

Kelly McGannahan admits to being a part-time hypocrite but hopes that she can get some help.

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