Walking In Another Mans Shoes

[Dragonfan]

Canna Zine UK

 

The British Cannabis Lobby

 

As the British government ignores all of the experts and continues with its irrational war against Cannabis it begs the question "what’s it all really about"?

Is it as the government would have us believe? That Cannabis is a dangerous drug which is harming literally millions of people around the world?

No its not. If that were the case the US, which is head and shoulders the largest user of Cannabis products in the world, and a country where almost 50% of the population admit to experimenting with Cannabis, would be in the grip of a mental health epidemic. So are they?

No they're not. In fact the news today shows the state of Michigan, which is about to go to the polls to legalise Medical Marijuana [the thirteenth state to do so], currently shows a 2 to 1 lead in favour of legalising Marijuana for medical use and I think its fair to suggest if the British press were to ask their readers what the general consensus of opinion was concerning cannabis the outcome would be similar.

In light of this disparity between what the British government are telling us the voters and what the actual evidence from around the world would suggest, the British Cannabis Lobby is inviting its members to speak out, over what it sees as a "disinformation campaign" being run by the very seat of legal power in the UK [The Home Office] to protect its major financial partners in the alcohol and tobacco industries.

And it would seem the government is merely using Cannabis as a "smoke screen" to hide the true facts that Great Britain is in the teeth of a mental health epidemic, an epidemic of Dementia and other mental health issues, not as a result of Cannabis use, but because the nation is being force-fed on a diet of alcohol.

In this the first of a series of articles written by British Cannabis users, Norris Nuvo from South Wales explains how using Cannabis allows him to walk in another mans shoes, and also why the British government don't want him to do it.

As a regular smoker of many varieties of Cannabis for over forty years I feel that I may speak out as a voice of experience and calm amongst the furore of fear about Cannabis use spread by misinformation and political manipulation. First I have to talk about the idea that psychotic states and Cannabis are linked, it may take me some time to explain all this so please bear with me . . .

Cannabis is a psychoactive drug in that it changes perception. The varied substances in Cannabis can affect the world-perception and interpretation of information in the user. Now think about this, the information on which we make decisions can be altered and therefore when we act upon this information the way that we react will be altered, as would any resulting action.

Wow! That’s sounds scary!

And maybe it is! However, this is nothing new - alcohol acts in a similar way in making us think and act differently, but the similarity stops there. The psychoactive effect of alcohol makes us loud and uninhibited, it makes us more brutish and self-centred and it makes us more predatory. Cannabis in my experience is almost opposite in its psychoactive effect. The user becomes more introspective, thoughtful and has a desire to share with others. So is this a bad thing?

Well a lot of words have been spewed across the media about mental illness and psychosis, but what is meant by this? What is this paranoia? When I say this I mean the paranoia that is supposed to accompany Cannabis use, not the long-term illnesses such as schizophrenia or extreme bi-polar states that make up the vast majority of psychiatric patients.

Any experienced toker will know of the short-term so called paranoid feelings that sometimes accompany a spliff, [depending on mood, location, peer-group and so on], but is this a mental illness, is it truly paranoia? Of course not, it is a mild and temporary state of mind which will go away pretty soon after the spliff has gone out.

I do not think that this state should be labelled as a mental illness but rather as a temporary mental state brought about by a level of self-actualisation triggered by Cannabis.

This awakened state can be frightening to the inexperienced or emotionally heavy users, but is the state of mind sought by the experienced user.

Now us human beings all do things at some time which we are ashamed of, selfish things, unfair things and things we would not like made public: from simple acts like unfairly blaming a loved one for something they did not do, or secretly guzzling chocolate while supposedly dieting to real heavy stuff like stealing and violence. We all carry these guilt-inducing secrets in some degree and equally guilty thoughts too; who has not revelled in thought of revenge or had secret dark desires.

So, on a day to day basis we walk around with this unconscious burden, this knowledge that we are not really the nice stable and confident person we pretend to be, let’s face it, we are all scared and worried about so many things, the pressures and guilt that we carry would drive us insane if examined without the normal cushion of forgetfulness and self rationalisation, a self imposed censor if you like. Cannabis bi-passes this censor and opens doors to a different perception of world and self.

Anyone who has ever smoked a joint will recognise that feeling of reflection after the first joint of the day; that moment when you think, “Was I really that rude in the supermarket”, or “there was no need for me to be so argumentative with my partner this morning” or, “I really was a selfish bugger over that issue”. That moment of self insight that makes us more connected to others, that little bit of truth maybe, I mean lets face it we all spend our time in a world of lies most of the time, from the little white ones we all tell, to the wonderful illusions of the ad-men, to the dark massive lies and deceit of government and corporations. It is so commonplace that we hardly notice, it is enmeshed into our daily lives, but our subconscious takes it all in.

To the inexperienced user this can be terrifying. Self-consciousness and a confused ego can generate a mild level of fear and make inconsequential molehills into towering peaks. The minor fears may fill the mind, and/or a genuine fear maybe magnified beyond belief, in my case it used to be the fear of getting busted and losing my job.

You light the spliff and conscience is awakened. Yes, a conscience. Now imagine a society with a conscience!…….. Wow!……. Good isn’t it!…….The weed kicks in and we now filter the day’s events without the veil of lies and begin to see it through the eyes of conscience.

Now I know this sounds scary to those who have not imbibed of the plant but believe me it is not that bad at all, you just have to learn to ride it and control it. If you have little to be worried about, little to be ashamed of and an open mind to psychological experience then you will get past these early and often off-putting effects, they are mostly produced by inexperience and using too much weed in a toke, or by uncool events or bad surroundings while using. Most of the bad feelings aroused by Cannabis are due to inflexible thought habits and too rigid a hold on the so-called normal world.

However I do suggest that if Cannabis makes you feel too frightened or you feel that you are ‘losing it on weed’, to quote FRANK, then just stop smoking it. Yes it’s that easy, if weed makes you feel bad then don’t smoke it!

Then there is another level to all this isn’t there? Don’t you think? The ones who fear the weed most make most noise about keeping it illegal, and yet most of them have never tried it, or will not admit to it.

The conventional, the conservative, the ignorant and the ones who live by a rigid order, in fear of chaos. I think that the people who lead the most rigid of lives, dominated by a lot of rules and guidelines, those to whom order means everything, people for example like the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Jobsworth Brigade, those people are the most terrified of self examination and the most worried about losing inhibition or control. They fear the weed!

These are often the same people who rant in fear about immigration and sovereignty, about ‘out of control youth’ and about the ‘drug epidemic’! They fear ‘the different, they fear change and do not like confrontation or people acting ‘out of the ordinary’.

Conformity is their king-pin, it dominates all that they do in the belief that conformity equals predictability and if everything can be predicted it can be controlled. They have created our world to their controlled patterns by making us all competitive on every level, everything in its place, a natural order of things. But what happens if people become unpredictable? Or, god forbid, begin to care about each other rather than the created imagery and psychologically imposed racial, religious and ideological differences drummed into us by the press and media corporations [who also fear change]! What then? What if we all took a toke and listened to that conscience that is awakened, what if we stopped competing and began cooperating instead? What then?

How could they control a society in which the individuals actually cared for each other, how could they manipulate a country full of people with a conscience? How would they fool us if we put the prejudices they feed us to one side and talked to each other with the blinkers removed? They fear the weed!

Cannabis changes how you view the world around you, it changes the way you think and if you think differently then you are more likely to act differently and be less likely to conform and therefore be less predictable. The whole political and socio/economic structures of western capitalist societies rely on human predictability to function, if people become unpredictable then how can the ad-men and politicos target them in so many ways. The non-conformist frightens the controlling factors of state and is viewed in a negative way.

Forces such as a national curriculum and ‘family values that uphold and enforce social normality are built in to our culture to try and sell the idea of individuality to the population while all along other forces are in place to homogenise the people so that they all think and act in an orderly way according to the script of the ruling body.

The city landscape has been moulded to a ‘norm’, which has resulted in most towns in the UK looking the same, same shops, same goods on sale and a population of identical people buying what the ad-men tell them to. They want to do the same to the people, and to their minds too.

As I became an experienced toker I allowed changes to take place. I let the mental barricades fall and I viewed the world with a different mindset, began to take notice of my conscience. The feelings of paranoia faded away and I began to enjoy introversion and self-evaluation. I lied a little less to myself and therefore became a better and more real person; I began to consider my impact on other people and became less of a loudmouth, I learned to listen to others and became able to ‘walk in another man’s shoes’.

[samboo]

Good read.

I just wish this could be published by a mainstream news source over here.