Cannabis Option: a Spiritual and Pragmatic Case for Marijuana

Cannabis, or marijuana as it is mistakenly called today, has without-a-doubt received a lot of highly unwarranted “bad-press” over the decades. This bad-press has inhibited the once valued medicinal effects of cannabis from the freedom of public use for much too long now, and it is high time (pun intended) to get off the soap-box which stands diametrically opposed to this very innocent and highly curative herb. It’s time to allow the public their personal freedom in making their own health choices. This is America, is it not–the land of the free? Now it seems that the more we allow our government to display its renown care for us, the less freedom we eventually have; or better stated, the more freedom is covertly removed from our lives.

I’m not just an older fellow who remembers this fabled American freedom in my own personal past; in a time when the social order had little interest in such invasive control over the population. I’m now an older fellow who has been clinically diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and I’m an older fellow who has recently made an in-depth, nine-month study to discover the most effective and, in comparison to our modern medical society’s stringent alternatives, the most gentle homeopathic remedy for my very troublesome condition.

I read through many of the professional medical reports about cancer and cannabis; reports that I really couldn’t fully understand for the technical language involved. I really couldn’t understand the medical jargon but I could understand the conclusive statements toward the end of the reports disclosing the definitive results of cannabis’ curative qualities in plain language. I also read many reports from individuals that made fervently claim to having benefited from these curative qualities of cannabis as well. I even had the opportunity to personally talk with a few individuals who also claimed to have had benefited from the remarkable healing properties of cannabis.

As I first read these medical reports and personal stories, I thought to myself, “This is way too easy!” Now, I was a young pot-smoker in the 70’s, so I thought to myself, “There’s just no way that merely getting high could cure my cancer!” Nevertheless, I did make a decision to give it a try since I’m now living in Colorado, a state that has legalized it for medical purposes as well as recreational desire. So, why shouldn’t I at least give it a chance before submitting to the apparent brutality of chemo and radiation therapies? Well I did try it. And the results were quite dramatic in my case.

At sixty-one years of age, feeling like I was eighty I took the cannabis leap of faith. After some months of treatment I suddenly had more stamina, more strength and vigor, as well as a much clearer and more highly responsive mind. What really amazed me was that I began to physically feel much younger, like I was in my late thirties again. I even enjoyed a very welcome increase in libido to top it all off. I personally thank the Lord God for making this flourishing herb available to me and many, many others who suffer from similar maladies.

I was working for an electrical contractor near Denver Colorado at the time, a company that, through contractual necessity, had adopted the zero-drug tolerance policy. I made an appeal to the management, and more importantly to the owner himself, asking them that in some way they might graciously allow me to use this innocuous herb for the treatment of my leukemia. Little did I realize, the owner’s mother had suffered radiation and chemo therapies earlier, so he already knew about the misery and sickness that must be endured through these long and arduous treatments. And I am also grateful for the management’s apathy toward our illustrious government’s stand against cannabis as well. Most of the people in America are apathetic toward the government’s hard-hearted and inflexibly callous stand against this innocent herb. But that’s our government; “of the people, for the people and by the people,” right? Thank God for the wonderful state of Colorado and environmentally open-minded human beings who reside here.

Now, it has been discovered that cannabis shrinks brain mass, which on the front-end sounds terrible. But, in truth, this healing herb shrinks the parts of the brain that are associated with fear and the renown fight-or-flight reactivity, which is incidentally being over-stimulated by the chronic stresses so prevalent in today’s time card-punching, microwave-based social structure. In the 70s we didn’t stress out like this, man! I have been a witness to the social crunch of the world’s increasing financial debt, the dramatic increase in homelessness and the wanton destruction of the family order–the very backbone of the true American society.

We now live; or rather, we are forced to merely exist, in a state of chronic stress that shrewdly depletes the production of the endogenous molecule referred to as anandamide operating in the endocannabinoid system. It has been recently discovered that the endocannabinoid system regulates a healthy homeostatic balance between all of the body’s natural systems. In truth, it is chronic stress that is the true cause of cancer. It is not simply tobacco, artificial sweeteners, and not even the sun! It is the fact that we live in a chronic state of flight-or-flight because of the outrageous chronic state of stress precipitated by this modern society! All of the social madness that we must endure day-in and day-out is the very cause of this increase in our fear-based brain activity, therefore causing the size of the relevant brain structures to increase over time in these areas of our brains.

However, research also displays that the use of cannabis increases the effective connectivity between different areas of the brain, and also increases the structural integrity of the brain tissue. The question I must ask is this: “Does the chronic state of stress in our modern society cause this problem and is cannabis what is able to cure it as well? Does this stress possibly cause a reduction in the effective connectivity between different areas of the brain, and reduce the structural integrity of the brain tissue in our children as their brains mature and regenerate? What is it that we are doing to ourselves in this social madness? Why are we driving ourselves so hard to improve the human condition when we now clearly see the results are so terribly detrimental, obviously offering no improvement in the human condition at all? Or is it what we are doing to ourselves?

Having said this, I return to the theological implications of the matter–I return to my discussion of our heavenly Father and his intimate role in our individual lives. What is the Lord doing for each of us in all of this? Could it be that, owing to the existence of an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God, and an intolerably malicious enemy at work against us, that our loving Father knew that our social structure would come to this level of chronic stress? Could it be that our Father in the heavens knew the coming problem and instituted a viable solution long, long ago by providing an herb that relieves this highly disabling stress, thereby returning the operation of the homeostatic regulation of the endocannabinoid system to a natural healing state?

Whether the enemy is an evil being bent on disheveling God’s creation or it is only our own feeble human minds that we struggle against, the truth is clear. God gives us solutions and cures for all of these maladies that come into our lives and into our world. Seemingly in every moment we live we are faced with problems and dilemmas that seem to come out of nowhere challenging our peace and sanity. I myself believe in this Father, in this Most High God. I have a lot of faith in my higher power and his miraculous provision. And I will keep using his gift of cannabis for all of my illnesses; whether they come as physical, mental or spiritual assaults. #CannabisOption

The work of our contributing writers are not necessarily the views shared by Ghion Journal yet we stand by our writer’s insistence on questioning dogma and starting dialogues that lead to a broader discussion. Dirk is a new contributing writer to the Ghion Journal, welcome him aboard, you can check out his profile and Facebook page below in the author box.

Below is an interesting video about the Pharmaceutical industry’s attempt to keep cannabis out of the public realm and the corrosive nature of the Big Pharma.