June 14th, 1940, the day the Germans marched into Paris. Folks who witnessed that event probably felt a lot like many folks have felt like since Election Day. I am still in shock. My partner worries for me. I am close to cancelling my New York Times newspaper subscription and to swearing off of Google News. Monitoring the daily news feed has just been too freaking depressing!
It's not as if I haven't lived through a Republican administration before. I have and I survived. I managed to live through the presidencies of Nixon, Reagan and two Bushes. The world slid into a recession with the last Republican in office but this time it feels as it we have a lot more at stake. More than just losing our position as leader of the free world. I feel basic freedoms are on the verge of slipping away and I worry that there is not to much we can do about it, not in the normal sense. Marching in the streets is just not my style but who knows? Fashion sense changes regularly and rapidly at times.
What worries me even more these days is the nomination of Jeff Sessions for Attorney General. Just Googling that man you can see that we have a lot to worry about. I am concerned about many things that could go south if that man is appointed...civil rights, voters rights, immigration, sexual orientation rights amongst many. But even more, to think that we could have a hard liner in the AGs seat who could roll back, with the stroke of a pen, all the gains we have made in cannabis legislation, makes me very sad and a hard man to live with.
Fuck. I have already said no to Just Say No policies and mindsets. I have willingly smashed all beakers set before me that I would unwilling place my piss in. I have already put away my paranoia and have said "no more" to unreasonable searches and seizures. I gave away my reefer madness, I have driven around the road blocks, the pat downs, the fear that my life was made up of for so many years.
Maybe I put away those things too soon. We will see.
Sure, the Donald said during his campaign that he would let the states continue on with their cannabis experimentation but then again, Mr Trump said many things during the campaign that he has flip flopped on endlessly. This could yet be another one of those things.
Taking the bigger view of life, being a responsible partner and dad, sometimes means having to set aside personal needs and interests. The fate of marijuana legislation on both state and federal levels is just one more thing that we, as free, libertarian thinkers, have to be concerned about but it is, in the end, just one more thing. I will try to take the high road, no pun intended, these next few months and like everyone else in the industry, take a breath and wait to see what happens. My dreams of joining the merry ranks of folks who are currently serving the needs of MMJ patients and happy everyday tokers may have to be put on hold for a bit. I was poised and ready to do something else with my life and that may have to wait awhile, maybe even through another presidential cycle. In the meantime I will still be here at the library dispensing information and hoping for the best, all the while keeping a weather eye out for the loss of liberty here in the Republic while I anxiously put my pen to a passport application.
Vancouver, BC, is such a nice city. Legalized cannabis in Canada in 2017, anyone?
Salud!
A different take on the Trump/cannabis world view:
http://mjbizdaily.com/rep-rohrabacher-optimistic-on-future-of-cannabis-under-trump/
Scary man!
http://www.thecannabist.co/2016/11/18/trump-attorney-general-marijuana-legalization-enforcement/67892/
Another take on the Sessions debacle!
http://www.thecannabist.co/2016/11/22/marijuana-legalization-suddenly-in-danger/68065/
The state of cannabis in the State of California:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/us/medical-marijuana-is-legal-in-california-except-when-its-not.html
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