The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'cannabis closeup.'
As of today, cannabis is officially legal in the state of Minnesota. Ours is the 23rd state to legalize it and hopefully more states will follow suit. In Minneapolis where I live, Hemp-derived THC edibles have been legal for a while and it's totally normal to see people smoking cannabis at the coffee shop. At the same time, retail sales of flower won't be happening for at least a year except on reservations. So the change is legally significant, but in practical terms, we'll all still be buying our buds on the black market for now.
One of my great hopes for legalization is that it encourages more people to begin substituting cannabis for alcohol and other more dangerous drugs. Alcoholism and hard drug use has killed several of my friends over the years and contributed substantively to the deaths of several others. While it's true that some people experience unmanageability around cannabis use, they're not overdosing and dying.
All of the bars in my neighborhood are already offering THC alternatives to alcoholic drinks. And I'm sure there are cannabis-focused non-alcoholic establishments preparing to open up here in the near future. This seems like a great way to challenge Minnesota's culture of alcoholism while honoring the common need for intoxication. I look forward to seeing how that develops.
On a personal level, legalization means that I'm no longer regarded by the law as a criminal for possessing essential medicine. I live with cluster headaches, an horrific and incurable disorder. After trying countless treatment and prevention methods, I found that regular cannabis use decreased both the frequency and the intensity of headache attacks. The plant won't stop a headache attack in progress, but it does greatly reduce my recovery time following one.
My last headache cluster involved daily attacks for five months straight. Cannabis made it possible for me to keep working through this medical nightmare. And it's an irreplaceable part of the wellness plan that's kept my condition in remission for fourteen months and counting. For me, it's been a miracle drug for brain health.
My relationship with this plant hasn't always been so healthy. As a teenager and into my early twenties, I was as stoned as possible as often as I could be. This caused me to waste a bunch of time and sometimes run afoul of the law. In my mid twenties, when I was first figuring out my headache disorder, I cut cannabis out of my life entirely. When I eventually picked it back up again, it was very reluctantly, out of sheer desperation for any measure of relief from my brain condition.
These days, I smoke every day. I've found that more is better in my situation, but I don't like getting too stoned, so I usually do tiny amounts spread across several hours. Unlike many people I've talked to, I don't find that cannabis enhances my creativity at all. But it does greatly enhance my cognitive stamina, making it possible for me to work at the computer for longer than I'd otherwise be able to.
Cannabis never should have been prohibited in the first place. And it sadly remains illegal at the federal level. But Minnesota has done a good thing by legalizing it. The move is a clear step in the right direction.
Read my novels:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is available as a web book on IPFS and as a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt.
- The Paradise Anomaly is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Psychic Avalanche is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- One Man Embassy is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Flying Saucer Shenanigans is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Rainbow Lullaby is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- The Ostermann Method is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Blue Dragon Mississippi is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
See my NFTs:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt that goes with my book by the same name.
- History and the Machine is a 20 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on my series of oil paintings of interesting people from history.
- Artifacts of Mind Control is a 15 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on declassified CIA documents from the MKULTRA program.