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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We can fix this failure to serve the least of us

Image
  We have a big problem across this country.   We have failed to serve the bottom of the housing market for over 50 years.   Grants Pass now has people camping in our parks, protected under court order, because we have no place for the vast majority of them to go.   There are well over 1000 people in this county who have no secure place to live.   Grants Pass has a little project run by a non-profit with people sleeping separately in a dozen sheds and walking through the cold to a bathroom.   There are plans for an urban campground that can’t find 5 acres where the neighbors will tolerate them.   There is a shelter that sleeps 27, mostly couples.   And there is the Gospel Rescue Mission, an 80-bed residential rehab that calls itself a shelter but takes only people who ask help for their addictions.   All of these have a high barrier in that they are small, and only take people vetted and referred by police.   They can be parts of a solution but cannot be the entire solution.   They
Read more

Open Letter to petitioners re #Measure48 Mississippi

Mississippi Measure 48 is a proposed constitutional amendment, posted at http://www.mississippiforcannabis.org/  .  I have a question about its "locality tax," licenses, and fees.   Answers and further discussion will be edited into this post. " ...Regulations will require an annual Mississippi Cannabis Sales license issued by any Mississippi County Circuit Clerk for a fee of no more than $1000.00 to all adult residents who apply, and a $25.00 annual city or county governing locality fee to farm 10 - 500 plants. Locality fees for cannabis farms with more than 500 plants will not exceed $1000.00...." At first this "locality fee" sounded like a flat yearly fee, but the last sentence above makes it clear that is wrong.  Is it $25 per plant?  If so, it should say "per plant" after "$25." But it couldn't be $25 per plant, because 500 plants times $25 is $12,500.  501 plants, however, would only be $1000.  A fee of $25 plus $5 per p
Read more

Paying For Free Leaf Pickup

Image
Jo Gro, our city’s composting operation, will soon be under the management of Republic Waste Services, minus the sewage bio solids that it was originally started to make use of.   Those will be hauled by Republic to Dry Creek Landfill to make methane for electricity generation.   The city will be running Jo Gro long enough to decompose the rest of their bio solids, and then lease the operation to Republic, who will run it as a regular composting service. Leaf bags waiting for pickup One might expect “free” leaf pickup to go away, since it was instituted to provide material for Jo Gro to help decompose those bio solids.   But leaves will be picked up by Republic and Southern Oregon Sanitation from the curb for free as part of their franchise agreements with the City, as they always have.   The only difference is that they will be free to take them to any DEQ-approved composter, to seek the best price for dumping.   Such “free” leaf hauling was part of the subsidy
Read more