Pot is my anti-depressant: Marijuana speech 32

A month ago, I told quite a few people that I had quit using marijuana for good.  I was feeling worse instead of better when I smoked it.  It seemed that, instead of losing my high as had happened in the past when I smoked too much and too long, I was staying too high for comfort, as though my aging body was unable to clear the THC from my system and I was building intolerance rather than tolerance.

I told this to various groups because I am the most famous pot smoker in the county, after 10 years of street protests against the Drug War, 31 Marijuana Resolution speeches to the Board of County Commissioners, and another felony pot conviction, tied to my protest.  It ended in May 2013, when I decided that I had won my point after two states legalized pot.  Being a locally notorious celebrity, I had nothing to lose by letting people know that I was quitting for my own good reasons, and I owed people the truth.  I also thought that, by being so public about it, I would not go back on it.

Being so public about stopping meant that I would have to be even more public about resuming my use, which frankly is a lot harder, as I am disappointing people who love me and were happy I quit.  I cannot live a lie and not be myself.  A cover-up would definitely be worse than this so-called crime.

So I stand before you to tell both you and your audience that I resumed smoking pot in the evenings a week ago.  The first two weeks after I quit, I was fine, except for exceedingly vivid and memorable dreams and difficulty sleeping.  But over the last two weeks, I became progressively more depressed, and my mood could not be lifted by good things that happened to me, especially by the end of the day.

I remembered that I had been a depressed teenager before I started smoking pot in college.  I also had vivid nightmares and difficulty sleeping before I became a pot smoker.   I knew that pot had saved me from becoming a social drinker; I was drunk at a party when I started smoking it, found my drug of choice and lost my taste for alcohol.


My dreams no longer haunt my days and I sleep well again.  Most chronic pot users, I believe, depend on it to ward off depression.  It’s our medicine.  Governments should recognize it and stop punishing us because we take our medicine.
Marijuana Speech #32, to the Josephine County Commissioners, 10/7/14. 

#Cannabis is my #antidepressant; we shouldn’t be #punished for using it. @AnRycke

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener    541-955-9040      rycke@gardener.com

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