The 800 Pound Gorilla in the Medical Cannabis Room

I guess there is no easy way to say this, so it is best to get it right out there…..People think medical cannabis is a sham.

Well, it is not that they think cannabis being medicine is a sham; they think the fact that all of the sudden everyone is very sick and there are a million docs willing to authorize you to use medical cannabis for a lousy $50 fee is a sham.

Now, before you go flying off the handle about how, “All use is medical. My anxiety level is reduced and I sleep better. If cannabis makes me feel better than it is a medicine,” just know I could give a shit. I am not looking down my nose at you, or accusing you of anything.

I am just saying that people are no going for it; and the longer we continue to play the game of medical charades, the less impressed people are becoming and the more difficult it becomes to sell actual cannabis therapies to actual doctors who have practices that are not focused solely on cannabis.

I will be the grown-ass person in the room who decides to acknowledge that maybe we have overplayed that hand; and maybe new strategies are necessary for us to achieve our goal of ending prohibition.

Now, I know that is not everyone’s goal. There are plenty among us who deep-down have no desire to see cannabis truly legal ever. In our own reform circles, the amount of people who claim to be activists, but whose actions really represent those more of a prohibitionist, is striking. I used to think I was just tripping, and there is no way that this guy from NORML, or that dude who runs this big ass dispensary, would ever really be for extending, or delaying, prohibition.

But then you start seeing the patterns. The rhetoric spewed by one becomes the talking point of the next; and before you know it, there is a circular firing squad of half-hearted reform, and large groups of people who refuse to acknowledge reality. You can hear the hyperbolic bullshit intertwine itself into the lexicon of followers, and sooner than later, everyone is speaking in tongues and washed in the bullshit responses of those who could go for just another couple of years of the status quo.

There is no major internal acknowledgement that things are not working. None of these folks who make their money from the semi-legal market of medicalization are standing up and speaking the truth. They absolutely deny that there is a perception issue, or that the 19-year-old with the insomnia may be bullshitting his doctor. It is amazing to me that EVERY media story out these days questions the validity of this entire movement, yet from those supposedly leading the charge for medical cannabis remain utterly silent. Why? Because they know that their existence is dependent on things staying as they are. There is no effort to self-regulate the industry, or encourage some of the more flamboyant operators to slow their roll. You will not see the folks at ASA tell a doctor to quit writing questionable recommendations. When have you ever heard that? NEVER. Why?

Because of the 800 lb. gorilla called MONEY.

The doctors are making money hand over fist. Those patients then go to dispensaries, who make money hand over fist in a market that is inflated due to the semi-black market and risk. Those doctors and dispensaries donate to the reform groups, who in turn, do their bidding. So there in lies the reality…..It is hard to fight for cannabis freedom when it is in direct conflict with your paycheck…which is why the effort towards legalization is usually downplayed and discouraged by many “medical professionals” and organizations.

The next time a person says “Well, we need to get medical right before we can do adult use legalization” know that is code for “I could just use a few more years of making this money.” The absurd notion that we would waste our time and energy to pass more laws that regulate a medical market ,which will likely disappear after adult use passes, is tiring. Get a grip.

Medical cannabis is very real and powerful. It is a disservice to continue to stifle its research and integration into real medical circles because of selfish reasons to keep it bogged down by allowing doctors and less than seriously ill folks make a mockery of the term “medical.” Your big ass blunt is not a medicine…it does not matter how many times you say that it is out loud.

Until we begin to be honest with ourselves, we should not be surprised that others do not take us seriously. Because we fail to take a good hard look around and attempt to have an open and honest dialogue about the current state of affairs and were we stand as a community, we are doomed to mediocrity. We will continue to see half-hearted efforts towards reform, that are really efforts to maintain the current (and sad) state of affairs.

The 800 pound gorilla is definitely in the room, and he is getting pretty hungry.