Reflections ►
Marijuana is Okay Now ?
Are We There Yet ?
The Conversion of an Unlikely Ally by Dolores Halbin , contributing writer
Grandpa and I always answered the same when the grandkids asked , “ Are we there yet ?” Answer , “ Twenty minutes .”
Eventually , we would be telling the truth . I give the same sarcastic answer , tempered with , someday , I would eventually be telling the truth about federal cannabis reform . Now , in one of the most unlikely turn of events , we may sooner than later be hitting the 20-minute mark for my January prayer to be answered . The sands are finally shifting .
April 1 , 2014 , two weeks after the raid on our home , Gene and I agreed to testify before the Missouri Law Committee in Jefferson City . We circled in for a landing looking for a place to park and got to the hearing a few minutes late , but just in time to hear the warrior moms , Heidi Rayl with her baby son Zayden and Brandy Nichole Johnson with tiny Tres , who is about to turn 19 and not so tiny anymore thanks to cannabis .
Brandy talked about Tres having a seizure on their way to Jefferson City and how her child had stopped breathing . She used the rescue bag hanging from his little wheelchair to resuscitate her son on the side of the road ; then they came on to the hearing .
Zayden ’ s mom , Heidi , made a book of over $ 10,000 in meds for her special needs child that could be replaced by cannabis . Then it was our turn to talk . Gene kept his seat . “ If you think I ’ m going to go up there and complain about ‘ a little eye pain ’ after those moms , you ’ re nuts . You go fight for them ,” he told me . So , I did .
I channeled my inner Grandpa Hancock , a Church of Christ Preacher . I shook my finger and preached the gospel , The Beatitudes of Matthew ; “ Blessed are the merciful ... Blessed are those who seek justice , for they shall be satisfied !” I pointed back at the row of toddlers in their wheelchairs and little helmets . “ Don ’ t you want to feel satisfied ?”
In the following Q & A , one of the Senators asked me the question , “ If marijuana is so great , why is it still illegal ?” Ironically , about 2 a . m . the night before , I had asked Gene the same question while preparing for the presentation . “ God , honey , how is this still going on ! I ’ ve found over 20,000 prescription drugs with the side effect of death that marijuana can replace !” Gene said , “ Ask the computer .” So , we did , “ Why is marijuana still illegal in 2014 ?”
The top three reasons :
1 . Private prisons , which were trading at 35 % on the stock market . Although not the investment they were , American taxpayers are still on the hook for $ 80 billion a year in tax dollars to support the for-prophet prohibition / prison industry .
2 . The harsh prison sentences introduced during the Reagan years by ALEC ( American Legislative Exchange Council ).
3 . The Koch brothers , founders of ALEC .
Ironically , today our best chance at ending the cannabis war is coming from the overall cause for the last four decades , the Brother ’ s Koch . The very same men that doubled down on prohibition in the Reagan years of the 1980s , brought us private prisons , and the three-strikes-equals-life insane sentences . The devil has grown a halo .
At the beginning of January , Amazon founder and overly rich guy Jeff Bezos sent his lobbyist to DC to push for passage of the MORE act . I can imagine Henry Ford commenting to inventor George Schlichten , whose hemp decorticator was featured on the cover of Popular Mechanics Magazine in 1938 , forecasting the new harvester would make hemp the “ The Billion Dollar Crop .” Watching Bezos ’ team of Amazon lobbyists , Ford says , “ Yea buddy , we know how you feel ; they ignored us too !”
But out of the blue , Bezos got an unexpected big brother .
Charles and David Koch ’ s Americans for Prosperity ( AFP ) is the most conservative ( and wealthy ) group in the Country . David Koch had a slow conversion towards social equity and justice . David passed away in 2019 . Charles ’ conversion was slower still , but converted he is . Out of left field , it appears Charles called Bezos to tell him Christmas came early ( or late ), and the AFP would be adding “ millions in lobbying funds ” to join with the millions in Amazon lobbyist dollars to end America ’ s longest uncivilized war and pass The States Reform Act .
Their joint conclusion : Joints are good business , and the prohibition / prison / pharmaceutical complex has run its course , heading down the same path as the cigarette industry , with death catching up .
The Bureau of Prisons just released its 2021 report on morbidity and mortality , and they definitely got some explaining to do . Prison deaths were up 49 % in 2021 . While shares have plummeted to junk stock , the prisons are losing their only commodity , people , in record numbers . Likewise , Purdue pharmacy stocks tanked after the pharmacy filed for bankruptcy in 2019 , leaving its shareholders very high and dry , with victims and their families filing wrongful death suits relentlessly against the Sackler family who brought us the Oxy plague . Death is bad for business unless you own a funeral home .
The broad-based reform of the MORE Act ( Marijuana Opportunity Investment and Reparation Act ), which the House passed last year more as a show , is all but dead .