By Wes Annac, Culture of Awareness

After a short run, I’ve decided to discontinue  weekly Cannabis Writings segments. Instead of a weekly column, I’ll simply write about it when the inspiration arises, which will probably be often because new things are being discovered about it every day.

Marijuana legalization is long overdue.

It’s time to stop prosecuting innocent people for the possession of a plant that was clearly put here to help us; it’s basically the same as prosecuting someone for having tomatoes. Cannabis is a crop that’s meant to be utilized and shared, and we have to stand up for it if we want to change the laws.

Legalization is happening at a decent pace, but we can’t wait around for the government to do it when they’re finally ready.

Until politicians know they can profit from it without exposing their hypocrisy in keeping it illegal, they’ll stall its legalization and tell us it’s because of their religious beliefs, the funding of terrorist organizations or our children’s safety; all while imprisoning the innocent and making loads of money for the private prison industry.

For this and plenty of other reasons, the cannabis enthusiasts of the world need to rise. They shouldn’t be embarrassed or ashamed, and instead, they should break through society’s propaganda with facts, logic and common sense.

They should remind people that cannabis only became illegal in the U.S. because of racist and wildly erroneous propaganda, and they should encourage people to look at the plant from a new perspective.

It’s not the devil it’s made out to be. It’s a highly medicinal plant that can help society in countless ways, and it’s here to be used and defended if necessary.

We can no longer stay silent about something that matters so much.

We can no longer sit idly as propagandists influence public opinion on a plant that could save humanity, and we can no longer put up with ignorant laws that make criminals out of normal citizens and heroes out of the politicians and police who lock them away.

We can’t let Big Brother stop us from utilizing this gift from the earth, and we can’t tolerate the denial of our freedom to experiment with our consciousness without alcohol or other dangerous legal drugs.

It isn’t easy to take a stand for something controversial even if you believe in it with all of your heart and soul, but it needs to be done. We can’t be passive while people suffer and die over a plant that should be legal, and the countless lives lost in the drug war make it clear that we need to do something.

The cannabis community, and subsequently the world, needs a revolution of knowledge. If we can make it happen, we can replace propaganda and close-mindedness with honesty and openness to anything that can potentially help our species prosper.

The first step is to stand up for what we know is right.

It’s easy to hide in the shadows, but that’s not what we’re here to do. We’re here to shake up the system and make something new that reflects the values we’ve come to cherish, two of which are freedom and prosperity for everyone, and we can only do it if we have the courage to say something now.

We’re here to take risks and change the world, and however rough it is in the beginning, we’ll know we did something meaningful when we look back on it. We’ll have made something happen, even if it seems insignificant, and it’ll be worth the struggle.

The point is that we have to try, and to remain complacent is to enable the chaos caused by the drug war.

There are rich, powerful people who get richer from the chaos, which is why we probably won’t see national or global legalization any time soon. We can’t rely on those responsible for the ridiculous drug laws to make a change that reflects the people’s needs, because they profit at the expense of the public.

Despite what they want us to think, they don’t care about us. They care about themselves and the money they make from our ignorance. We have to make this change together, and we can do it if we collectively commit to the cause.

To stand up for cannabis is to stand up for freedom.

Let’s stand up for the freedom to use it as medicine; to use it to expand consciousness and explore the spiritual side of life; to use it to make a sunny day or a beautiful piece of music even better; to grow it organically and share it instead of letting cartels or corporations control it.

Our freedom to use this plant is being denied to us by governments that serve their corporate masters. To rely on them for a fair change in the law that doesn’t give big alcohol and big tobacco free reign to make the plant less healthy and more physically addicting is misguided at best.

We have to take responsibility for changing something we know isn’t right, and in this case, the responsibility is shared by everyone who sees through the lies and knows that the cannabis plant is here to help mankind.

Depending on how hard we work now, future generations will freely grow a ‘new’ and invaluable crop that’s been around since ancient times but its uses only recently rediscovered.

Our dedicated activism will allow us to create the kind of world we know is possible, but only if we work hard and take risks for the common good.