Alpha and Omega

It was brought to my attention that the end of April marked 100 years of marijuana prohibition. Prohibition of alcohol didn't even last 15 years, and that stuff can actually kill you. Marijuana actually cures cancer - YOU HEAR THAT, YOU FASCIST GOVERNMENT, IT CURES CANCER - and yet it's been illegal for a century. What does that say about us as a people? What does it say when we willingly keep pouring poison down our throats, yet keep a life-saving plant illegal?

In my own life I have used marijuana as an analgesic, anti-depressant, anti-histamine, anti-nausea medicine, creativity stimulant, and have seen - via real blood tests done by a real doctor - the number of anti-bodies causing my Hashimoto's disease decrease by marijuana treatment alone.

There is even strong evidence that the anointing oil used by Jesus and his disciples to heal the sick and perform miracles was actually a very concentrated hash oil with a few other mystical plants like nutmeg and cinnamon, similar in concept to Rick Simpson's Phoenix Tears oil. In which case, yes Jesus really did cure the lepers. And we could do it again.

I have a theory that I like to call my Theory of Alpha and Omega Drugs. An Alpha is one at the top, in charge, leader. An Omega is used to refer to the lower, the less significant. In a wolf pack, an omega wolf is probably the runt, the one that gets picked on, and the last one to feed in a pack setting. They always defer to the alpha wolves.

The government likes to keep legal and endorse drugs that promote this Alpha/Omega relationship - i.e. drugs that encourage you to produce, reproduce, and shut up. Xanax and Adderall are perfect examples of these drugs. On the flip-side, the government fears and criminalize anything that breaks the Alpha/Omega relationship and encourages creativity, free-thinking, harmony, and brotherhood. Acid, MDMA (ecstasy), and weed are all prime examples.

The DEA schedules drugs into 5 legend categories, and non-legend or over-the-counter drugs. Schedule 5 is the lowest and mostly available over the counter, but also probably monitored or kept behind the counter for safety reasons. Schedule 2 is the highest legal scheduling and generally reserved for the gnarly stuff you get in the hospital. Schedule 1 drugs by definition have no medical usage whatsoever and are illegal no matter what.

Cocaine is schedule 2. It can be used as a vaso-dilator (dilates blood vessels to make blood flow easier, like in some headache and blood pressure medications), and is used in hospitals in emergency cases. It also kills people when dosed too high. Heroin is schedule 2. It's used in hospitals for extreme pain management because it targets opiate receptors better than morphine (technically once it hits the opiate receptors it breaks down into morphine, so heroin is really just the vehicle form, but a very efficient one). It also kills people when dosed too high.

Marijuana is schedule 1. It cures cancer, lowers my anti-bodies, and a million other health benefits. It also has no real toxicity level. That means you can ingest as much as you want and not die. Theoretically I guess it is possible to overdose, but you would have to smoke pounds upon pounds upon pounds in a matter of minutes to achieve it, so unless you can circular breath your way through a whole harvest in under 10 minutes . . . you'll probably just pass out, get distracted and walk away, or decide that a box of Cheez-its and a nap are a better idea.

The DEA says that one factor that determines how a drug is scheduled is based on it's addictiveness and potential for abuse. Marijuana, at schedule 1, has no physical addictive properties. I won't say people can't get mentally addicted to it, but you can mentally get addicted to anything - video games, cheating on your boyfriend, chocolate . . . it's a sign of something else going on, not a property of the plant.

But other drugs including most benzodiazepines (Xanax, Klonopin, Valium) are schedule 4; a lot of available opiates (oxycodone, oxymorphone, etc) are schedule 3; anabolic steroids are also only schedule 3. These drugs are abused so vastly that I can't even begin to describe it, and very very addictive.

And then there's how these drugs make us feel. Most trip reports of people taking psychedelics or using marijuana detail how amazing the person felt, how much creative work they were able to get done, and how much their relationships with friends and family improved through open communication fostered by these drugs. Reports of those using legal (by prescription) benzos and opiates detail loss of creativity and initiative, a general pulling away from their friends, and hours, even days lost in a mental fog.

And don't get me started on drugs like DMT and GHB being schedule 1 - they are naturally produced in the human body on a near daily basis! We are all walking drug labs, so should we all be arrested and thrown in prison? Did you dream last night? Well you have more DMT than usual in your system, guess that's a life sentence for you!

You can't help noticing a trend. The DEA likes drugs that keep us quiet, un-rebellious, solitary in front of our TV's, and they don't like drugs that encourage you to be creative, to dream, be social, loving, and effervescent.

So is the DEA really looking out for us, or are they just out to maintain the Alpha/Omega status quo?