What if everything you ever told and believed about a topic was not true? What will you do if all those well-meaning people you trust and respect who have told you these lies just repeat the propaganda they have heard? This is the same situation I was in three years ago. For most of my life, I have believed in the dark and terrifying stories I've heard of marijuana.
Whether they call it a joint, a hammer, a grass, Mary Jane, or a herb, I believed all these vicious voices when they warned me that marijuana causes everything bad from brain damage to other more powerful drugs. And as I grew up, I repeated all these mantras for other people's marijuana, convinced that I was right. "Marijuana is dangerous," I told others. "Only the zombie plugs use it."
Someone once told me, "the more you move away from the facts, the easier they can become myths." that was true. It all started three years ago when I decided to explore marijuana. I was ready to prove to myself and others that my claims were true. Living in Colorado, where medical marijuana was legal to own and grow, when you get a "red card", it was full of grass shops around. Thanks to Amendment 20 in our State Constitution, these dispensaries grew and flourished faster than medical marijuana.
Only in Denver there are about 400 medical marijuana dispensaries, more than Starbucks. I admit that I was making fun of this business and turning my eyes to the people who visited the dispensaries. And on this summer day three years ago, I decided to scramble for information about this controversial plant and to arm myself with facts that would support my position that this plant is a dangerous drug. But strange things continue to happen. The more I searched for the so-called "green threat", I found more and more research and research I did not know they existed. Some of these studies were buried - perhaps on purpose - and contained scientific facts about Cannabis Indica and Cannabis Sativa, which I found too good to be true. For example, I read
a study done in 1974 at Virginia Federal University, which demonstrated that cannabinoids in the cannabis plant reduce cancer tumors and kill cancer cells leaving only healthy cells . Although it was there in black and white, I still did not believe it. That's why I went on with the research. I found that when I introduced the words "Cannabis + Indica + Healing + Benefits" to the search engine, I found 220,000 sites. When I added the word "medical", the sites became 452,000. Over the next six months, I spent every free time looking for information about Devil Grass. To put it mildly, I was shocked. There was absolutely nothing "damn" in the grass. All this amazing information was exposed, in anticipation of this, that someone will see her and the only thing she has to do is agree with her. I understood that
marijuana was made of liquid in the 19th century until the beginning of the 20th century. This cannabis extract fluid has been recommended by doctors to cure everything from toothache in babies to relief of pain in arthritis and menstrual pain .
I found that, contrary to what I was told, no one had ever died using marijuana for the thousands of years that this plant was available. I also had no idea that the plant was used for medical purposes 2700 years before Christ and was called the "supreme" herb by Emperor Shen-Nung (2737-2697 BC). I found out that while I had demonized marijuana, thousands
people around the world secretly and effectively relieved or cured many health problems including Crohn's disease , migraines , headaches , chronic depression , post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia , dementia , epileptic seizures , Parkinson's and even AIDS. The more I researched and researched the plant I met and talked to people who were physicists, researchers, historians and patients, and they were studying the plant, the more I heard incredible acknowledgments of cure from illnesses and mental imbalances in addition to what a patient told me " just a better view of life. " And then I found the information that challenged all the stories they told me. People have used this "grass" to eliminate their passionate desire for opiates, alcohol, tobacco, heroin, cocaine and other strong drugs . In this way, there is more logic to call the grass "source drug" than "incoming drug".
Elderly people have also secretly used the grass to increase their knowledge. You are probably asking yourself, "How could that be?" Did not the marijuana make you an unfortunate brain exam stopper? No, not according to the scientific information I have gathered. True, it was the opposite that the plant helped neurogenesis - the growth of new neural pathways , even if the brain had been damaged by years or by trauma.
I understand that smoking the herb is the most ineffective way to get the many health benefits it offers. I found that doctors, lawyers, owners of large companies, accountants, and other highly qualified workers used marijuana every day and realized that it made them feel much better and enhanced their ability to withstand stress. I found that a famous doctor named William Courtney had given courage to chronic patients to drink the juice of 10-20 fresh marijuana leaves every day. This concentrated green beverage is not psychoactive and can fill the body with cannabinoid nutrients that help to reverse degenerative diseases.
To put it mildly, the information was puzzling. And then I realized there was a story that must be said. No one has ever written a fictional narrative about medical marijuana that did not include the triumphant stereotypes or the encouragement to fear. It took me five months and hundreds of hours of four-eye interviews with medical marijuana patients, caregivers, manufacturers, dispensaries, and experts in the cannabis industry to create something under the name of Betty's Garden (Little Massage).
When I wrote the Garden of Betty, my intention was to show the truth about the medical marijuana in Colorado. It's not all sugar and honey. I do not portray easy work in the world of cannabis, and I do not write in a romantic style what it feels like to be a producer for seriously ill patients who depend on the medicine you produce. The book depicts the massive change in propaganda against the marijuana I grew up with and believed in . I hope this will not only be an interesting story; I hope it will also be an enlightenment for those who have read it and believe in the ways in which this ancient herb is used. As Betty Craven states, " There is nothing more liberating than to see the truth and get rid of obsolete dogmas ."