The miracle of cascading marijuana legalization across the country has led to an awakening of its seemingly endless physical and mental benefits, but something else has happened that has gone too little noticed: the decades of Drug War propaganda instilled in our minds from an early age has quickly vanished. People much older than I am, who were more than likely subjected to the far more militant prohibitionist propaganda than I ever was, are now experimenting with CBD oil, with some even going whole hog and getting their medical marijuana card. The stigma did not linger, despite the billions wasted on Drug War propaganda. In a way it’s even more tragic to think on the countless lives ruined over the decades by the foolish, reckless war on cannabis, now that we see how quickly attitudes have changed. It’s as if one day, people began waking up to realize that, yes, it is just a plant, why support totalitarian diktats against its consumption? A medical revolution is now underway, as more and more people are finding that a relatively inexpensive plant provides far more effective relief that a jar of pills.
And with the decriminalization of magic mushrooms in Denver heralding the dawn of legal psychedelics, we are about to see something truly astonishing in terms of not just medicine, but humanity’s re-connection with substances that are bound so closely with our mental/spiritual capacity.
Oakland may decriminalize ‘magic mushrooms’. What are they, and will California follow?
I no longer feel any impulse to write about the War on Drugs. It’s coming to an end. Everyone now sees the insanity and tragedy it left behind. We feel ashamed that it was allowed to endure for so long, but we’re finally stepping out of that madness and into the light. If there’s any evidence of our ability to truly evolve into something better, it’s marijuana legalization, along with incipient legalization of psychedelics. When we evolve into something more compassionate, more humane, we’ve moved closer to our potential as a species.
We are entering what could be deemed the Psychedelic Renaissance, or Psychedelic Awakening. If the market is allowed to operate unchained, then we’ll see entire industries restructure, with some collapsing entirely. Their stranglehold on shaping public narrative regarding their products will vanish. Children will cease to be given amphetamines for “hyperactivity”, senior citizens will similarly trade Pharma’s addictive pills for marijuana. Veterans, trauma survivors, and people generally looking to feel better or in search of safe stimulation will eschew Pharma’s poison for the myriad mind-healing psychedelics that will be far more available in the coming years, as more and more people come to learn that they are equally as safe as marijuana.
