Gout #9, The Gateway (Drug)

I include this in my gout series, as a contrast between the great gout giver so revered in society, alcohol, and the plant which is so reviled in society. This is relevant because through my research I have found that alcohol and cannabis are opposites. Hmm, a gateway is both a door and a path. To where does this path lead? What if cannabis is actually the gateway back to sobriety?

According to mainstream “science”, cannabis, THE gateway drug, leads into the depths of hard drugs and drug debauchery. But what if it the term is correct and the interpretation of that term completely reversed? In other words, what if cannabis is the gateway back to sobriety? This would fit in with other examples of mainstream science embracing the exact reversal of the true mechanism and then pushing it daily in the mainstream media. At the minimum, it is another straw man that gives the parents and preachers some abstract notion to get angry about.

Cannabis is non-toxic to say the least. Not one person has died from a cannabis overdose in the recorded history of the human race. In fact, the oils in cannabis are extremely important to health, with cannabinoid receptors strewn throughout the human nervous system, and apparently, hemp seeds have ideal ratios of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. As a non-toxin and perhaps a powerful medicine, it cannot create irrational cravings as I identified in my previous reading, #8.

The California Highway Patrol introduced drunk-driving laws based on scientific tests of impairment after consuming alcohol. What is often omitted is that they did the same tests with cannabis, but could not find evidence of driving impairment (and some people became better drivers). And this has been replicated in many other studies. Cannabis users underestimate their driving ability and drive slower and safer with greater following distances; alcohol users are reckless and overestimate their driving ability. In fact, the effects of cannabis are the exact OPPOSITE to the effects of alcohol. Cannabis users are more likely to sit at home doing nothing, become more risk averse and cautious and keep out of trouble. Alcohol is the cause of an epidemic of violence, fighting, and death. Apart from logging, fishing, and mining, the most dangerous jobs in society are those that are subject to the actions of victims of alcohol (taxi drivers, police, bar staff).

But what are the common perceptions of cannabis? The first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics Harry J. Angslinger said in describing the most dangerous drug of our time, in 1930:

“…the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms…. Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him….”

Methinks that thee doth protest too much! The more things change the more they remain the same. But don’t worry about a thing, ‘cause every little thing gonna be alright (click link to hear background music with an alternative interpretation of cannabis). 

I went to a presentation at a university about “Marijuana: the Gateway drug.” Using detailed survey data from a Nordic country, there were two main results. First, use of cannabis increased the chance of hard drug use. Second, cannabis was the second most frequently used drug among all types of drug users: users of alcohol would have cannabis as the second most used drug, as would users of heroin and users of methamphetamines and so on.

For the first “gateway” finding I asked a very pertinent question, particularly to those who have ever studied statistics, “did you ever do the same statistical procedures that you used on cannabis for a placebo or other “non-gateway” substance to calculate a baseline result which should be used to compare against the results for cannabis?” Researchers must have a "control" to compare against. Because of the complex pathways to serial drug use, the statistically significant results gotten for cannabis could equally apply to toothpaste, or . In other words, researchers make a lot of assumptions so cannabis should be compared to other substances to make sure that the results for the particular substance are unique and that it is not simply the researchers statistical assumptions are giving the results for cannabis. She needed to test if anything else would come out as a gateway. I further said that alcohol was the prime candidate to be used as a baseline/control since I did a lot of things I wish I hadn’t while drunk. The response was fantastically revealing, I got a laugh in my face and the statement, “I wouldn’t get any grant money for doing that.” Hmm, so the grant money comes with particular strings attached, and these strings will not be revealed in her writings.

I can see how cannabis could be viewed as a drug that leads to other drugs, but because of the goodness of cannabis and not because it is evil. I had a friend who tried cannabis and he told me that the lies about cannabis were obvious in about 5 minutes. How could something so gentle that brought laughter to the room, be such an evil drug? Discovering the lie about cannabis, he went on to try every drug and told me years later that apart from mushrooms all other drugs were lies themselves. So this is a crafty position. Lie about something good, and the lie will turn the world upside down and lead to personal use of other drugs to determine if the statements about the other drugs are also similar lies. Meanwhile, the establishment makes one of the worst drugs accepted and legal, which implies to the inexperienced that all illegal drugs are worse than alcohol.

Returning to the researcher's results, the second point was that the most frequent second drug in the list was cannabis. That would make perfect sense if cannabis was some form of medicine that healed the drug user’s battered nervous and immune system. Apparently that point is in the literature, but it was summarily dismissed. Again, not worth the effort in destroying grant applications, no doubt.

There may be exceptions in this infinite world, but where are the Cannabis addicts? WE don’t see them slouching over bar stools or on skid row. In my experience, a self-proclaimed “cannabis addict” is hiding another drug, for it is easier to admit to cannabis and keep the other demon drug hidden from your grandparents and family. There was a cannabis addict on the Dr Drew drug recovery  tv show (5 deaths and counting) but she didn’t go crazy or cause any friction, and was the most boring addict ever. I watched her closely and I think she had a money problem, not a cannabis problem.

Further, most people I know choose not to use cannabis because it makes them paranoid or it makes them feel like they are dying. Sure doesn’t sound addictive. A friend was talking one day about how he resolved his paranoia problem with cannabis. He decided that the paranoia was real and not something to be avoided. He came to believe that this is how his mind actually worked, and cannabis was a disinterested observer who showed these things to himself, an observer who won’t let you run away, as if you do it gets worse. If one chooses to get emotional about the problem shown and fall into despair, cannabis will double and triple it. Stop the malfunctioning mind loop and the paranoia will disappear. He further said that the resistance to paranoia was the same as that generated by the meditation process, and cannabis does not interfere, but can be helpful for the practice of meditation.

As for the experience of dying, they are dying, at least part of them.

I have observed some seemingly disturbing effects from cannabis. I got a call from a friend in my building. He needed help to take his girlfriend to the emergency room of the hospital because she had gone insane and thought she was dying after eating a cannabis cupcake. (Apparently, eating makes it more difficult to control the correct dose). I went down there and talked him out of visiting the medical establishment – don’t do a Charlie Sheen! It was clear to me that her mind had fractured, but I recognized the similarities between her condition and mine in the previous reading, #8. She was one minute a policeman who was going to arrest me, then a dirty old woman, then a professional banker, and so on. All these personalities were doing everything they could to get me mad and angry, with surprisingly bad language and untrue accusations, but I knew that score. So I stayed with her and tried to distract her into the current moment, and projected some calm into her. I actually ended up having some pretty interesting conversations with these personalities; it was a game, perhaps a deadly game, but a game nonetheless. A big worry she had was that she was going to be found dead in this apartment with someone she shouldn’t be with. I told her how no-one had ever overdosed on cannabis, she was completely safe, that it would all pass in an hour or two. It did. (Reckless me, playing the almost 100% chance!) She has a new appreciation for what is inside her head, and she became a keen student of Master’s meditation on my recommendations (reading #7). She says she will never take cannabis again and has not in 2 years, so where is the addiction?

So, my observations from these accounts, is that cannabis will reveal some uncomfortable truths. That sure sounds addictive! Apparently, other plants are not so magnanimous and fair. I spent one afternoon on the www reading submitted accounts on the effects of belladonna/deadly nightshade. Talk about delusions and believing things that aren’t there! This could be a very dangerous substance in the hands of someone who wanted to do you harm, yet it is not prohibited by the Misuse of Drugs Act. Go figure.

In any case, cannabis which may not be wise for everyone to use, may be wise for someone who already has a problem with another drug -- at least, that's how people appear to use it -- as a secondary drug, to alleviate the symptoms and help heal the effects of their primary drug. WHICH GATEWAY SHOULD WE CHOOSE? Well I would never recommend an illegal action, but if you are a “recovering addict” some type of opposite action may be needed to restore your humanity.

Notes:

The website www.whale.to claims that cannabis is a “deprogrammer” and that methamphetamine and alcohol are two drugs which greatly aid a take-over by an external presence. Certain illuminated musical acts like Rush and Roger Waters/Pink Floyd sure have a lot of cannabis smokers in their audience.

Always follow the money. There is a strong economic incentive to keep a product which God (the sun and earth) grows, out of mainstream. See Silvershield’s always wonderful analysis by clicking on this link.

An attempt to connect to past ways of thinking: Cannabis is a restricting drug, an air agent ruled by Saturn, of no discernible sex, and a neutral observer consistent with Be Still and Know. Alcohol is a fire agent, ruled by the Sun, with the disposition of a tempting seductress, and with excessive consumption can manifest that fire with gout.