CANNABIS

We’re gonna talk about cannabis.

Relax, settle in, it won’t be that bad. You’ll barely cringe. We’re going on a journey. Taking a little walk. Let me set the scene for you…

You just had a nice big meal. Everyone you love is off in their respective corners of the house. Things are even. They’re just as they’re meant to be. No nagging task in the back of your mind. No sudden urge from the pit of your stomach reminding you of that email you forgot to send. I’m sitting next to you at the dinner table, and I look at you from the corner of my eye. Your phone dings.

Juliet: wanna go for a walk?

You laugh. Look up from your phone. And say to your mom, who is also somehow in this made-up scenario:

You: Hey, Mom? I’m gonna take a quick walk with Juliet. Ya know, work off the dinner.

She nods, suds foaming on her hands. We stand, grab our coats - they’re light jackets really - and walk into the night. It’s the bluest hour of the day, the sun just cresting past the hill behind your house. There are birds singing (cuz I like birds, OKAY!?). The breeze gasps its last breath against the back of your neck. You feel light, calm, your steps steady, your feet sure in their directional pull towards places you’ve walked your whole life - you’re just hangin’ with an old pal.

K. That little 3-second “life hiatus” it took you to read that? That’s how a lot of people feel about cannabis.

One of the biggest conversations happening online right now is not around the insane actions of the Chinese government’s rights abuses

(of which there are many, read more here). No. No no. LOL NOT AT ALL! No, the internet is obsessed with the fact that a 15-year-old figure skater was allowed to compete in the games despite testing positive for illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Kamila Valieva is a Russian athlete (also plz watch this Netflix documentary on the Russian doping scandal) who tested positive for trimetazidine. This drug is typically for older patients with heart conditions but it aids in the metabolism of fatty acids. Alright, so whatever, yadda yadda yadda she tests positive and she’s allowed to compete. Some people are saying “It’s really not that big of a deal…” Really? Not that big of a deal? Let’s rewind a little bit, remember Sha’Carri Richardson? No? Yes? Ok, well lemme remind you.

Cannabis is legal in Massachusetts.

In fact, I can walk down the street from my apartment and buy 5-mg edibles easier than I can find a place to park my car. In fact, cannabis is legal in 18 of the ~United~ States. And there have been ZERO reported overdose fatalities of cannabis...ever. You know how many alcohol-related deaths there have been? 95,000. Every year. But again, that’s a convo for another day. Let’s be more pointed than simply “health” - the ACLU found that of the 8.2 million cannabis arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simply having cannabis. They also found that despite equal usage rates, Black people are 3.73 times more likely than white people to be arrested for cannabis. In 2004, there were about 40,000 people incarcerated in prisons around the country for cannabis-related crimes. And that number is outdated because it takes our archaic criminal justice system YEARS for accurate prison population numbers to be updated so it’s probably more.

So you can walk down the street, and buy some pot, and come home, and get stoned with your friends, and take a load off, and eat a bunch of Funyons dipped in queso then dipped in parmesan cheese - while THOUSANDS of people, most of them Black, are in PRISON for the same thing. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!

But let’s get back to Sha’Carri Richardson.

This is a double standard. Regardless of the fact that there are other things that could POSSIBLY be at play here (but not even that likely) - like oh, idk, a substance abuse problem - one illegal substance IMPROVES performance (probably not so cool when you’re going to the effing OLYMPICS) and the other just sort of blunts the edges of a particularly hellacious day (not necessarily “the best coping mechanism” but also like… LIFE IS HARD PLZ BACK OFF).

So really the only conversation we should be having right now, online, and in person is simply:

1. Legalize (also while we’re here, let’s talk about how Skechers hired Willie Nelson for a Super Bowl spot that ENCOURAGED legalization. Well not really “encouraged” but...the point was made. But Amazon publicly supports legalization. And Ben & Jerry’s. There are more. This conversation is being had. Get involved. Learn about why we should legalize cannabis in our country and why the war on drugs is a racist ploy to put Black people in prison)

2. Cannabis is a medical treatment in many cases

3. Addiction is a disease, not a crime

And my last lil’ push here - addiction and the pervasive struggles that go along with addiction are a very real part of many people’s lives. But the conversation in our culture surrounding addiction and cannabis needs to be uncoupled. There is no such thing as a “gateway drug.” The conversation in our culture around the use of cannabis needs to be de-racialized. And the conversation in our culture around how people “unwind” needs to be more critically discussed (last week we didn’t even touch Mommy Wine Culture).