Alabama Woman -- Blogger Interview

One of the things I have really enjoyed as a writer has been getting to know other writers. This interview is my "Getting to Know You" interview for Alabama Women Bloggers. It is a group of women bloggers from all over the state.

  

1. Name & Birthday

Regina Pickett Garson.
Born June 12, a Gemini, which just about sums up my life. I am into everything, and even I don’t have a clue how many personalities I have.   

2. How long have you been blogging?

I started blogging in 2005, but I’ve been involved in the Internet and online publishing for right at 20 years. Blogging came later and suddenly it was the thing, I started my first blog to provide a discussion area for Magic Stream, my first web site, which is a self-help and holistic wellness literary zine.

3. What is your favorite part of being a blogger and why?

I’m a word smyth. I like reading and writing and I have been a writer in some way all of my adult life. I’ve written articles, poetry, web sites, news reports, political analysis, technical papers, it’s a long list. I’ve covered everything from social issues to rocket science. Blogging is its own style though and it lends to more personal discussion of everyday life than some of the other writing styles. That is what I love about blogging, as both a reader and a writer both, I like the more personal aspects of blogging, the connectedness in the writing that makes us all human.

4. Why did you start blogging?

I had been involved with online publishing for a while when the blogging craze hit, I hate to say I jumped in because everybody was doing it, but I jumped in because everybody was doing it. Not to be flip, but if you are active at all in online publishing, you have to keep up with the trends and what is going on in the industry. If you work online and you spend too much time blinking your eye, you are toast. Since then though, blogging has been a whole lot more than -- well I really need to do this. Blogging is here to stay, if fills a need for readers and writers both.

5. Tell us a little about your family.

My family is from Alabama. At least some of them have been here since before the state became a state. Like many Southern families I have a very rich and diverse heritage. My mother’s family, the Cashs, were from Scotland and my Dad’s, the Picketts, were from England. The Picketts were among the early colonial settlers. Members of both families married Native Americans along the way, Cherokee on my dad’s side and Choctaw on my mom’s. So when I say my family has been here a while, we go way back. Like most Southern families, there is, of course, a lot more, I’ve got Jewish heritage, a strong French influence, and a few Dutch, but that is just a nutshell and I am certain I have left something out. I have a very mixed and wonderful heritage, a large extended family on both sides.

6. Where are you from?

I was born in Birmingham. My parents moved out in the country between Montevallo and Pea Ridge when I was three, and that is where I grew up. The area was so remote when I was a child, my dad put in the first running water in our area. There was no city supplied water service back then, so he dug a well and put in his own water system, and did the maintenance. When I was a child, I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, reading those books, I always felt like my upbringing was kind of like being a pioneer. And it probably was. The closest community was Pea Ridge; they only had 650 some people at the time, and we were out in the country from there. I always loved that area, the people and the land, beautiful.

7. What is your greatest achievement?

That is a hard one. I think every phase of our life we have to have something that we are working toward. Goals are important in many ways. I was very serious into the piano for the first half of my life. I remember hearing the “Warsaw Concerto” and the way people talked about it, I had to play that song. I don’t remember how long it took, but I worked on it until I could play it. The thing is, it had nothing at all to do with a great love of that particular song, it had to do with the way people talked it. Like that was something if you could play that song. And I wanted that something. I wanted to be able to play it too. If I heard it this instant, I am not certain I would even recognize it, it was a pure “I have to do this” kind of goal.

Then it was like, been there, done that. But the thing is, it taught me to set a goal and work toward it, and that is why I think it was so important. Somewhere in us all, we have to have something we are working toward. That is important our whole life, every minute of it. That makes life worth living, it is not the destination, it is the journey. And that is why I rate that song as among my greatest achievements. It wasn't the song itself, it was what I learned by learning to play it.

MagicStream.org

Other accomplishments, my website Magic Stream has been in publication for twenty years this spring. I am pretty happy with that. At the time, I was aware a lot of people got rich and famous online and I was off building what amounted to a mission, providing self-help information. I don’t have a clue how many times I started to just fold it up because I never made anything on it, but people were still coming, and how do you build a mission and lock the door while people are standing there. So I keep it up. I feel like in some way, I was supposed to do that and I am glad I did and I still maintain it.

Whatever we do in life, I think it is important to give something back to the community, as we are able and whatever our talents. We are all different and we do different things. Magic Stream is my contribution. People come there for information on addictions, mental health, various emotional issues, how to help somebody who is suicidal, aging, depression, end of life issues and the list goes on, if it has to do with some kind of emotional or mental health issue, I have probably either covered it on Magic Stream or I can refer you to somebody who has.

8. If you could live anywhere -- where would it be and why?

Alabama, hands down, it’s my home. My family is here and has been for a couple hundred years at the very least. It is my home and my families’ home, I have no desire whatsoever to live anywhere else.

9. Favorite Movie?

Beetlejuice. If I am going to watch a movie, I want to have a good time, none of those tear jerkers for me. I totally love Beetlejuice.

10. Favorite Music/Song?

I love all kinds of music. My early piano training was in the classics, and for years I was totally fixated on Mozart, I didn’t want to play anything else. This was in the years of rock and roll, and more than one person has been dumbfounded that I didn’t know much of anything about the major groups of the time. But that wasn’t what I was into then. I totally love the blues too, not the loud new electronic blues, it’s not bad, it is just not what I am saying I like when I say I like blues, I like the old stuff, like B. B. King, music so mellow, you can hear the smoke.When I listen to the blues, I want to hear the smoke. And if you love the blues, you know exactly what I mean.

11. What are your hobbies?

Continuing on from the music, in the last few years, I discovered Sacred Harp music, and I was hooked on that too. I should have put this under my greatest accomplishments, I think the more you know about music, the harder it is to get your head around Sacred Harp, it’s a good time, participatory music. But I really had a hard time learning it. You don’t go somewhere to listen to Sacred Harp music, you get together with other folks who love it, and you all sing.

Also, as to hobbies, I am only two hours from Nashville, I love country music too. After all the years of music, only in the last few, I got interested in writing it, so if I had to list a hobby, I’d probably list writing music, not that I’m any good at it, that’s just what I do when I want to kick back and do something just for fun. And for all my early years in the classics, I have now gone country! Totally love it, there is nothing better than getting together with a bunch of country songwriting musicians, or any other kind of musicians for that matter.

12. What inspires you?

People inspire me, everyday people. Friends and family. I love to see what people do and hear the stories of their life. Their families, their dreams, their work, things they do, their projects, and their pets, their kids. Their ailments, dealing with their ailments. Life is not easy for much of anybody, but the sharing of the journey is awesome. I love it all. Politics inspire me too, I love getting out there and trying to work toward making things better. I guess what it boils down to is life – life inspires me.

13. Favorite Color?

I have a new favorite color every other year. Right now it is red, it makes me want to move and get things done.

14. What is your dream job?

I am a word smyth and I love my work. I write and edit both. I’ve been writing long enough and have enough bylines, I love helping others along to their writing dreams and ambitions just as much as I do fulfilling my own. Sometimes I think if I had it to do over, I might do something else, I'd probably pick mechanical engineering, but the thing is, I am doing the work that I love now and it allows me the opportunity to support causes and efforts that I think are important. Especially political and social causes, I definitely get political at times.

Also, word smyths never stop learning. The hardest part about college was I wanted to take everything and learn everything. I love that about my work, especially with my editing, I work with a lot of different people in a whole lot of different fields, learning about their work while I help them with their editorial needs, like even when I was over at NASA writing, I got to learn about rocket science, now that is something, I totally loved it. My editorial work has given me the opportunity to learn a lot different things that I would have not been exposed to and learn otherwise. And I love to learn. It gives me a good solid background in knowing what is going on in the world around me too,  but I have a good time too. I also take an occasional creative binge, and that too is part of the word smyth business.

Available on Amazon

15. What are you looking forward to most in 2014?

Speaking of creative binge. Of all the writers I know, it probably took me the longest to finally come out with a book, and I’ve been writing all my life.  I am on it now. This past April, I debuted my first fiction on Amazon Kindle, that was really exciting to me. It is part of a series of short, stand along stories, like the saying “art for art’s sake.” They are all very different in genre, mood, and style, a painting if you will in words. The first, “Journey,” is a mashup, a surrealistic excursion into madness. Everybody who reads it comes away with a little something different, reads it different, kind of like an abstract painting. What do you see in it? It's available on Amazon, but I leave the interpretation up to the reader.

My next upcoming is back to my Southern hill country roots, “Moonshine Revival or Justice in Possum Tree Gulch.” What could be better than a good strong drink on a hot summer night? It will be out in the middle of the summer and I can't wait.

If you'd like to connect:

• Regina Garson's Author Page 
• Amazon Author Page
• Social Media Page
• Facebook Page 
• Twitter: @ReginaGarson 
• Share books on GoodReads 
• Google+ -- +ReginaGarson

“Fight Hitler While You Still Can”: An Interview with Screenwriter Arik Bjorn

Arik Bjorn

Arik Bjorn is a friend and Forward Progressives writer colleague. Given the political nature of so much of our writing, and his own personal interest in/and everything related to The Viking World, I was very interested to learn that he also has a purely creative side, as if the other isn’t creative enough. This is different though, one that digs deep into little known histories and issues of social historic interest. 

It also surprised me to learn that Arik was also a screenwriter, and was actively marketing a script. But more than that, the story he was trying to tell is that of Hans Litten, one of the first prisoners in Hitler’s concentration camps. At that point, I had to know more. I didn’t honestly know a thing about screenplays, and even less about Hans Litten, nonetheless, he agreed to the interview. First, take a look at the teaser clip from the screenplay and then, we will proceed into the interview.

Litten's Passion: a screenplay teaser from Palmetto Pictures on Vimeo.

Can you give us a little background on the story?

The tagline we’ve decided upon for Litten’s Passion is “The Forgotten First Victim of the Holocaust.” Litten’s Passion is one of those stories, kind of like a snake nut can—the second you pop off the narrative lid, this unbelievable story emerges. It’s one you can’t put back in the can once you’ve heard about it.

In short, Hans Litten was an intellectual German attorney who interrogated Hitler in court two years before he became Fuhrer. Litten humiliated Hitler during the trial and nearly changed the course of history by exposing the criminal activities of the Brown Shirts. In the end, however, the Nazis ducked and dived and forced their way to power. And Hitler arrested Litten (and several other main political threats) the night the Reichstag burned down in February 1933.

Hitler still hated Litten passionately for being humiliated before the entire nation in court. Remember, this was years before the Final Solution, and he told Litten: “You were the first to be arrested, and you’ll be the last to be released.”

But that’s just the beginning of the story—a story almost altogether forgotten outside of Germany. The book Crossing Hitler was published two years after we registered the screenplay, but I’m fine with that. The story should be remembered in multiple ways and from multiple perspectives.

Anyway, even though the general public now has some broader access to information about Litten’s life, there’s much more to the story than even has recently been divulged—which certainly adds to the recent publications about Litten’s life.



How did you come up with the idea or even learn about the first Concentration Camp victims?

We often forget that Hitler came to power in 1933 and that the Final Solution was a plan—I hate to use such a benign term to describe it—that evolved over time. World War II itself didn’t begin until 1939, remember.

The first wave of political prisoners, which included Litten, were originally held in Spandau Prison in Berlin. (Spandau was finally razed in 1987 after Rudolf Hess died there.) To my understanding, the camps evolved over time as Germany ran out of prison space to hold all of the political prisoners—then became almost a macabre cottage industry of ridding German society of “undesirables.”

Litten was a famous political prisoner and was transferred to many different camps, including, if I remember, Brandenburg, Papenburg-Esterwegen, Lichtenberg, Buchenwald, and finally to Dachau. I think there were others. At Dachau, he was finally made to wear the “yellow spot,” he was Jewish. He was murdered at Dachau on February 4, 1938.

As to how I learned about Hans Litten, well, that’s the catch. I came upon Litten’s life accidentally. At the time—and this was back in the early 2000s—no one outside of Germany knew who Hans Litten was. Then I stumbled upon this buried archive. I contacted some famous historians who were shocked to learn what I had discovered about Hans Litten.

I immediately realized I had discovered a narrative lost treasure. My background is in history, but ancient history. I had been to Yad Vashem and had done some reading on the Holocaust, but World War II and Holocaust Studies were an ocean of unfamiliar literature for me. Nothing to do but dive in and sink or swim.

At any rate: the catch is, once I make public what the “secret” part of the story is, it’s fair game in storytelling land. So I’ll have to hold that somewhat close to the vest for now while we shop the script to studios.




So you learned of this story and you decided to write a screenplay?

Yes, I immediately started researching the story. I had just finished a novel that I had spent seven, eight years writing. So I was ready for a new project. I created an outline and storyboard and started building scenes and crafting dialogue. Then, almost by miracle, I stumbled upon two screenwriters in Louisiana who were also writing a screenplay about Hans Litten. I introduced myself to them, my project—and, most importantly, the “other” part of the story that no one else knew.

It was a leap of faith. But we were all shocked that there could be two such projects in the world. We decided to join forces and united my screenplay to theirs. It felt like fate.

What kind of research did it take to write this?

Well, I’m a librarian by training. This was the easiest part for me. Or at least the most fun.

I read everything, from Mein Kampf  to biographies of all the political prisoners Hitler rounded up in the aftermath of the Reichstag burning. Men like the socialist playwright Erich Muhsam. Carl von Ossietzky, who actually later won the Nobel Peace Prize while a concentration camp prisoner. Human rights leader Kurt Hiller, all of these knew each other. Most of them were severely tortured and murdered in camps.

I also spent a lot of time just staring at period photographs and reading news clippings. It’s important to know things such as, in 1937, Snow White was released, The Hobbit was published, Chamberlain became the British PM. And in the same year Litten was transferred to Dachau. It puts the story in a narrative context.

I have this remarkable Picture Post newspaper clipping that I acquired, with a photo of Hitler in the courtroom the day he was interrogated by Litten. Hess is in the background of this photo.

Source: Picture Post. Hitler during the 1931 Eden-Palast Trial.

I also spent a lot of time emailing historians and archivists as well. We credit one of the researchers at the Holocaust Museum in Washington who helped us wade through some tricky information labyrinths.

One of the early hard decisions was limiting the number of physical sites in the film. Litten was in so many camps, but for a film, you have to narrow down scene sites. It’s just a part of that craft, but the researcher in me hates things like that.

I like your question, though. I look back on that period now—I was definitely obsessed with the subject. I could do that kind of work forever.

I notice there are several other writers involved in the project. Can you tell me a little bit about the other people involved, your cohorts?

Sure. My two co-writer colleagues are Debi King McMartin and Evelyn “Lyn” Morgan. They’ve been working together as a screenwriting team for years. Debi and Lyn have partnered on several optioned and produced screenplays, including the book and screenplay titled Stone Justice, the true story of the only woman ever executed in the electric chair in Louisiana.

At first, I wasn’t certain what it would be like to write with other writers. Writing for me is a very private—almost hermetic—craft. But they’ve been a pleasure to work with, and they both sure know a heckuva lot more about the film industry than I do.

Is there anything else you would like to add about this project?

Wow. There are so many things. But I can probably narrow it down to one.

Early in my research, I purchased a book by Irmgard Litten, Hans Litten’s mother—it’s one of the few books ever published about Hans Litten. It’s entitled A Mother Fights Hitler. While the rest of the Litten family fled Germany after Hans’ arrest, she stayed behind to fight for her son’s freedom. Irmgard is one of the main characters in the film, by the way.

Anyway, when the book arrived, I removed the dust jacket to place it in a preserving wrapper, and I noticed that the endpaper was inscribed by Irmgard. The inscription reads: “Fight Hitler while you still have time. Irmgard Litten. July 22, 1942.” (That Picture Post clipping of Hitler I mentioned earlier was in the book, too.)

It’s little moments like that that make you feel like a story is simply destined to be told to a broader audience. Irmgard did everything a mother could do to keep the story of her son alive. It felt like a message out of time to me.

And in 2014, with the world as it is, the story of Hans Litten remains incredibly prescient.

  

A description of Bjorn’s manuscripts, including Litten’s Passion, may be found at his website The Viking Word.

420 to the Blackboard: It’s Time for a Lesson on Cannabis (Medical Marijuana)

By now, most people in this country are starting to have some kind of awareness that there have been some serious misspeaks when it comes to marijuana/cannabis/hemp/weed/pot, whatever you want to call it. 

However, with the way the media coverage goes, it is not surprising that some areas are not yet aware of the misspeaks. At this point, 29 states and Washington DC have legalized the medical use of marijuana (number updated April 20, 2017). 

We are not talking about getting high. We are talking about doctor prescribed, cannabis based medications. It is typically prescribed for things like cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, arthritis, gastro-intestinal disorders, movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s, also HIV/AIDS, and conditions related to aging (Americans for Safe Access, ASA) and dementia, such as Alzheimer’s. 

Cannabis is also regarded as one of the best anti-nausea treatments in the world, including the nausea from invasive medical treatments such as with cancer. In addition, for some children, suffering from some forms of childhood epilepsy, nothing else seems to work. It is also effective in end of life palliative care. That is merely a start.

So what’s the deal? As informed as I pride myself in being when it comes to the War on Drugs, I didn’t know much about medical marijuana until very recently (Garson, 2013). If people who make an effort to inform themselves on the issues are relatively uninformed on medical marijuana, it should come as no surprise that there is still a dearth of information in the general public.

This is not about getting high, this is about the fact that for thousands of years before marijuana prohibition, cannabis based medications were an important part of our pharmacopeia, as in a valued and trusted doctor prescribed medicine, and it is time to bring that doctor prescribed medical option back to our people.

Background: Marijuana Prohibition 

Marijuana prohibition was a combined political/money grubbing maneuver by Harry J. Anslinger, who made his career enforcing alcohol prohibition, and thought marijuana prohibition would be a good replacement when it ended, and William Randolph Hearst, the media/newspaper magnate, who was also openly racist and thought that it would be financially beneficial if instead of making paper out of hemp, it was made out of timber, of which he owned much land and stood to make quite a fortune. Andrew W. Mellon and the DuPonts were in on it as well. Just about anything that could be made from hemp could also be made from petroleum, and they stood to make a whole lot of money from that (and you wonder why the environmentalists keep wringing their hands, much less what our soldiers have been really dying for). 

Somewhere in the process of ensuring job security for Anslinger, coming up with a new form of prohibition, with new laws to enforce and more people to arrest (most especially Blacks and Mexicans, the KKK was lightweight in comparison to Hearst), creating a viable market for petroleum by taking hemp off the industrial map of the country, cannabis was also, pretty much coincidentally, made illegal (not much worry about those medical patients either).

The weed scam 

Hearst pulled the scam off (and continued to implement it) via a massive public relations campaign, which he was easily able to implement since he owned a large number of the major newspapers and magazines of the day. While much of the general public depended on his publications for news and information, he published a steady stream of what came to be known as reefer madness propaganda, with the sole intent of convincing the American people of the evils of marijuana and the people who used it. Never mind, that at the time, cannabis was one of the most commonly prescribed medications in the country (the fact that they were in the same family of plants and would also be made illegal under the new prohibition was somehow swept under the media rug along with the use of different words at different times and in different contexts).

Anyway, cannabis medications were very affordable, very effective at treating a number of ailments, and had fewer side effects than just about any other medication ever in the pharmacopeia of the world. Its use was so common at the time, chances are good that if you had ever been to the doctor and brought home a prescription, you very likely had at least one bottle of cannabis-based medication in your medicine cabinet. In addition to its other uses, it was a common prescription level painkiller, and in comparison to most of today’s counterparts, it was safe, effective, non-addictive, and had very few side effects.

So what happened? 

When they passed the new prohibition laws, marijuana, hemp, and cannabis were all made illegal at the same time. Whereas they are all in the same plant family, and the words are frequently used interchangeably, different strains are used for different purposes. Until the law was already passed, most people did not have a clue that it was also going to affect the availability of certain prescription medications on which they relied. The doctors of the day were in for a big surprise as well.

Bad news for the medical community 

The American Medical Association had a conniption fit. Even though it was already a well-known, proven, and beneficial medication, many in the medical community felt that with additional research, they would learn that cannabis had even more uses and more benefits than was then known. For thousands of years, cannabis had been just about as close as it comes to being considered a miracle drug, and the consensus of the medical community was that the future would prove it even more beneficial than was already known. There is no doubt, its use was well regarded and well respected.

In response to the change in the laws, “In 1937, the U.S. passed the first federal law against cannabis, despite the objections of the American Medical Association (AMA). Dr. William C. Woodward, testifying on behalf of the AMA, told Congress that, "The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marijuana is a dangerous drug" and warned that a prohibition "loses sight of the fact that future investigation may show that there are substantial medical uses for Cannabis." (Americans for Safe Access, ASA)

The damage done 

Needless to say, from the prospective of medical care, this change in the law was a big problem for a lot of people, and it continues to be a problem to this day. In the meantime, in the ignominious tradition of the Hearst legacy, we have been inundated with generations of blatantly false and misleading media spin to convince us that what was once considered the miracle drug of the ages was actually an evil weed. In the process, seriously ill individuals have been denied access to doctor prescribed medications, and others, who were just as seriously ill, have been imprisoned because they dared to reach for the cure.

These laws have done major damage to communities, families, and individuals across this country. There has been so much needless suffering. Countless numbers have lost their lives because effective treatments were deemed illegal, and not made available to them.

As active and involved I have been in so many issues, for so many years, until very recently, I flat didn’t know what was going on when it came to medical marijuana (Garson, 2013).

I too thought these medical marijuana folks were a bunch of stoners looking to have a legal high, and if they couldn’t get it any other way, they were going to go the medical route. Anybody who knows me is aware I am on the liberal side of things, as in who cares anyway, but on this one, my liberal attitude really got in the way of me seeing the truth when it comes to the medical use of marijuana.

Whether we are liberal with good intentions or conservative with good intentions, both sides of the aisle have been fed some serious misinformation when it comes to marijuana, most especially when it comes to its medical applications. On a certain level, that can be life or death serious.

 

Nonetheless, when it comes to marijuana and the news, we have had such a constant, one-sided story, for so long, a whole lot of people don’t know up from down on this one. 

We get a constant stream of arrest numbers, and reefer madness hype, and little mention of how many lives these laws are destroying, or how many of these media portrayed criminals are either seriously ill patients or have seriously ill family members who seriously need a cannabis based medicine.

A while back in Georgia, a seriously ill man was convicted for growing his own cannabis, the catch was, although he had been prescribed Marinol, which is a cannabis derivative, he could not afford it, and so he was growing his own, natural form, which is marijuana. He got probation instead of jail time, which would seem like a good thing, except he is not going to get by with growing it now, and in this case, I am not sure it is a blessing at all.

Why is this even such an issue? Why is it illegal? Why do we bother to call this country free? This seriously ill man was convicted of growing a plant that was bringing him some level of relief. He can’t afford the medicine either. So where does that leave him? Define torture. He would have been better off and suffered less if they had sentenced him to waterboarding every day, because then he would have at least been able to keep his food down. Exactly what is cruel and unusual punishment? How the fuck can this country continue to get by with doing this to good people. Denying a sick person the medication that would bring them relief is about as heinous a crime as I can imagine. But they are torturing sick people, and doing it in the name of the law. Call it what is it.

Marijuana prohibition laws have destroyed more lives than marijuana ever will. Despite the damage of marijuana prohibition, in the course of human history, marijuana itself has saved many more lives than these very recent laws have destroyed. So what is going on here? Where is up and where is down?

Why don’t we hear more about this? Things are changing, but things like that guy that was just convicted, he was past the point of too sick to make a lot of noise. And we seldom hear their story. 

We are starting to hear more though, and even Alabama recently passed Carly’s Law, but there is so little coverage of the medical uses of marijuana, people don’t even know it is there. And that law has the supposition that the only ones suffering who would benefit from the cannabis-based medications are children with epilepsy, and that is nowhere near the truth. Progress is progress though.

Mostly if we hear about it at all, it is likely a joke some stoner is making because they really would rather be getting high. Although that was a big so what to me, it really was part of my own problem in not understating the bigger picture on this one.

Things sure look different when the truth starts coming out.

Dr. Sanja Gupta made some major news and then he made it again when he came out with a very public proclamation that he had got it wrong when it came to marijuana. He issued a very public apology because, in his writing, media work, and medical reporting, as have so many others before him, he had played into the same media cog that Hearst started and that he too had helped to spread the mis-information. He is a surgeon among surgeons, one of the most respected medical professionals in this country, and he too had been mis-lead when it comes to cannabis and its medical applications. The point is not to blame people, but to educate them. It takes some doing to get to the truth. When Dr. Gupta realized that he too had been duped, and he too had believed the lies, he had a few things to say about it. He also set out to set the record straight (Garson, 2013).

Dr. Gupta did a documentary in an attempt to start correcting some of that mis-information that we have all been fed for so long. Then he made another one. Since then, there have been hearings on state’s rights when it comes to medical marijuana laws; there have also been other hearings on the sentencing and what these laws have done to our people (Garson, 2013).  

Changes are most definitely being made (Garson, 2013). Despite the fact, it is still illegal at the federal level; state after state has been reaffirming their state’s rights and passing legislation to make these medicines available to their citizens once more. When I say once more, I do mean once more. Records vary somewhat, but some say that marijuana/cannabis based medications have been in use for as long as 12,000 years. It is one of the 50 fundamental healing herbs in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

There is no doubt that Big Pharma stepped in to fill that gap. As much as we all like to yell about them, on some things, they have truly done a good job. Many medical and pharmaceutical advances have been made in the last decades. However, on other things, medical science has reached a dead end. You can’t throw away thousands of years of best medical practices and make up for it in a day, or even a few generations. Marijuana/cannabis was one of the earliest cultivated herbs on the planet. For almost that many years, it was among the most frequently utilized medical herbs on the planet.

New studies, old ways 

New studies and transcriptions of the Old Testament books have led etymologists to believe that “kaneh-bosm” was accidently translated to “calamus,” when it should have been “cannabis” (Bennett, 1996). That is still being debated. Others question whether it was used in some of the healing oils that Jesus used in his ministry. Not to take a thing away from his miracles, but he was undeniably a physician, a healer, and at times, he sent his apostles out with oils and preparations to heal as well. Because of its wide range of uses in healing, the time-frame, and some of the things it was used for, questions are now being asked as to whether what we now know as cannabis was perhaps in some of those anointing oil preparations as well (Chris Bennett cited in BBC,2003). If so, that would surely put a different spin on a whole lot of things.

  

With the perpetual lies we have been fed about marijuana in the last generations, it is very easy to dismiss that notion. However, for the thousands of years before marijuana prohibition made it illegal, marijuana/cannabis was one of the most effective and widely used medicines on the planet.

The War on Drugs is not just about the right to get high, or that we have the biggest prison population in the world, it is also about the fact that these laws have seriously influenced what is available by prescription in this country. It was not an accident or a fluke of nature that this so-called evil weed has for most of recorded history, been one of the most widely prescribed medications in the world. Many times over, marijuana/cannabis has been shown to have been one of the most all around beneficial, for more medical purposes, with less side effects than any other medication known to humankind.

Changes are being made 

People are catching on to the truth. That is why, in state after state, the citizens are changing their laws. They have had enough. They are tired of watching their loved loves suffer while the cure is deemed illegal and just out of reach. Others watch helplessly as their loved ones die shackled to a prison bed for daring to have reached for the cure. Or, like Peter McWilliams, they die soon after being refused the medication that could have saved their life.

When we throw away the wisdom of the ages, we all lose. It has been a long time since the US had the best medical system in the world, and doing things like arbitrarily (it was all about the money) making one of the most all around beneficial medicines in the history of the world illegal to our people is just one of the things that is wrong.

People are working hard for change. But most people don’t honestly know the difference until a person in their own family has a health problem for which there seems no answer, and then, doctor after doctor, pill after pill, and the same story of hopelessness, nothing working, then they too hear a whisper, maybe cannabis will work. And sometimes it does. It’s not a guaranteed miracle. Like the base of so many other medications, it is simply an herb of the field, but it is also a serious and proven medicine, and sometimes it really does work.

All these things take on a completely different light when you realize there is a possible cure for you or your loved one, but the cure is illegal. What do you do when you realize that the real reason certain treatments and even cures are not available is not that we don’t have the medical know how? It is not even because of a lack of availability or difficult manufacturing processes. It is for no other reason than the greed of certain individuals that cannabis based medications were ever made illegal to our people. Too many people have already suffered and died to feed that greed. This is not something that good people in a good country will put up with for long. There is a growing number of people working for and demanding change on that one.

There have also been major migrations of families into areas where medical marijuana is legal, for children suffering from epilepsy, others with cancer, and other diseases. Clearly, more studies are needed, but there is also no doubt that there are already way too many cases of healing for it to be coincidental.

This march to legalize medical marijuana in the states is not a march of the stoners. People are fighting for their lives and the lives of those they love. 

Many look at the weed as evil, as if it were all a joke, as if it is evil to even suggest there might be a cure in the green leaf. It is not about the high, or maybe it is. But more than that, it is about healing, about ensuring that the people we love and the doctors who care for them have the option of a cannabis-based medication, if it is deemed, by their doctor, to be needed—on a prescription basis.

The things we don’t know about these laws have in some ways hurt us all. Until the need arises, or it somehow affects us or one of our loved ones personally, most of us don’t have a clue as to the truth. Medical marijuana is not about the high. It’s about the cure. Ending the war on drugs is about the most basic of our rights, it is about freedom; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Copyright 2014 Regina Garson

Updated April 20, 2017

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