Reframing Cannabis Stereotypes
How Cannabis Can Show us that Doing ‘Nothing’ is Really Something
“The plants know humanity is sick. Their longevity on this Earth vastly surpasses ours and they have seen the extermination and evolution of countless species. They see that humans are reaching a tipping point and they want to help us heal from our societal sickness.” -Jessica Baker, Plant Songs
As we all retreat into our homes during the pandemic and likely reckon with the unfamiliarity of going inward as a daily practice, we have a rare opportunity to examine the system that ushers us through our daily lives and asks us not to question how we’ve defined “achieving”. On top of that, in a world where weed is an essential service, there’s a potent plant ally sitting at home with many of us.
Being accustomed to a world of 24/7 consumption, production and industry, it can feel like doing “nothing” means that we are, in fact, nothing. Are we actually doing nothing when we are checked out from our structured and efficient work schedules? Or are we exploring some other part of ourselves, one that potentially threatens the foundation of a society built on keeping people busy, fearful and anxious.
Have you heard of Highway Hypnosis? That thing that happens when you’re driving on the highway and go into a zoned out state, eventually reaching your destination and not even knowing how you got there? I would argue that so many of the traditionally accepted means of “achieving”, “producing” and “succeeding” in our society often hypnotize us and cause us to check out, go on auto-pilot, and disconnect from our bodies. Funny that we’ve been fed a stereotype about stoned out cannabis users for so many years when, in fact, it can be such a powerful tool for checking in, not checking out. Meanwhile, TV, ads, cell phones, celeb culture, consumption, caffeine, sugar, alcohol and cigarettes, are all glorified and turning us into mashed potatoes. How curious!
Every time I think of a classic stoner trope, I pull up the image of Brad Pitt’s ‘Floyd’ in True Romance. He’s glazed over and tongue tied and going literally nowhere, ever. Aside from his biceps and bone structure and ability to rock a white T-shirt like a boss, this character doesn’t provide much to aspire to.
I mean, swoon. He really does make a white T-shirt and a Honeybear bong look like full on SEX.
When we got all wrapped up in this stereotype, we simultaneously passed judgement on cannabis as well as many lifestyles that didn’t have us dutifully packing our Tupperware lunches to clock in and keep the wheels of industry a turnin’. Whether or not we overtly ascribe to some version of this notion, our subconscious may carry a stamp that says that the worst thing you could do is sit still (and even worse...smoke the reefer!).
Cannabis as a Bridge to ‘Something.’
Cannabis has been used for centuries, possibly dating back even further than 2,500 years ago, not as a means of creating zombie-minded lethargic wastes of space, but as a bridge to creativity, compassion, expanded worldviews, connection, healing and to rise above what bogs us down. We don’t always use it to check out, we might also be using it to check in...to another plane, one that takes a bird’s eye perspective instead of a spoon-fed advertisement for what life should be.
This is not to say that I think we should all get ragingly stoned every day. In fact, I don’t really take anything with more than .3% THC. Working with any herb is such a personal and subjective experience. Many of us who already cope with anxiety feel the symptoms greatly exacerbated by being too intoxicated by THC. Under prohibition for so many years, the most potent strains of THC-laden weed became the norm, so many of us haven’t had the opportunity to find an ideal dosage of cannabis (marijuana and hemp are both cannabis).
Until I started working with hemp in 2017, my experience with cannabis was a tortured one. I found myself in a repetitive cycle, being constantly drawn to marijuana and surrounded by it, then having too much and getting stuck on a loud looping track of paranoia and hyper self-consciousness.
This is why education and intention play such a huge role. We are not all created the same, which means we don’t all require the same doses. And maybe the dose of THC needs to be so low for us that we are using a full-spectrum hemp product with below .3% THC, or a CBD isolate with none at all. For most of us, it’s somewhere in between.
FOR YOUR PEACE OF MIND:
ACCORDING TO A 1995 REPORT PREPARED BY THE WHO, “THERE ARE NO RECORDED CASES OF OVERDOSE FATALITIES ATTRIBUTED TO CANNABIS, AND THE ESTIMATED LETHAL DOSE FOR HUMANS...IS SO HIGH THAT IT CANNOT BE ACHIEVED BY RECREATIONAL USERS.”
MEANWHILE…
ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM, THE CHRONIC USE OF ALCOHOL IS ASSOCIATED WITH 35,000 DEATHS PER YEAR. THIS QUESTION OF WHY WE VILIFY CANNABIS WHILE GLORIFYING BOOZE IS EXPLORED IN DEPTH IN THE BOOK IN THE BOOK, MARIJUANA IS SAFER, SO WHY ARE WE DRIVING PEOPLE TO DRINK?
When we’ve identified an appropriate way to consume cannabis, it can offer a world of support that includes so much that doesn’t get credit when associated with an old-fashioned stoner trope. And let’s be real, that very trope was ultimately created by institutions that benefit from keeping us from questioning anything at all.
Consider some norms involved in almost any cannabis-consumption practice (hemp or marijuana)
taking the time to sit by yourself, or with a group of friends
ceremoniously preparing hemp or marijuana flowers to be smoked or taken in tea, or ingested some other way
spending time watching, reading, or listening to something with fresh perspective and heightened awareness
morphing your sense of time and space.
This is exactly what I would call doing something very important!
In fact, I would venture to say that my attraction to cannabis over the years, despite my anxiety being worsened almost every time until I found CBD, was the communal atmosphere, the gathering around a plant, something that came from the earth and which brings us together.
To close this cannabis appreciation moment, let me leave with this. I am 100% certain (which will maybe push your internal barometer of bull-shit detection a notch or two towards agreeing?) that plants have their own agenda, that we aren’t using them, but they are using us, or rather exchanging with us.
“Our very humanness depends on them, and in return, they depend on us... Their out-breath is our in-breath, our exhale, their inhale.” -Stephen Harrod Buhner
Cannabis has had such a storied history, of love, loss, death, social upheaval, appreciation, vilification and revolution. And each chapter of its story has crossed wide swaths of history including cultural boundaries, geographic areas, racial divides, socioeconomic status, legal parameters, societal vilification, propagandistic manipulation, all while withstanding and thriving in a variety of climates all over the world. It’s here to stay and it has something to SAY.
Like everything we engage in as a human species it has the potential to be twisted for personal power or to be embraced for expansion and evolution. It’s finding its voice through us and we are here to help it reach its maximum potential, which is just to say we are working with it to reach our own maximum potential.
And now it’s having a heyday through CBD, often highlighting women, people of color and intersectional feminism. Hooray!
Cannabis shows us in a pretty overt way the impact plants can have on our lives. It reminds us to do ‘nothing’ and do it well. All herbs offer this exchange and this relationship with the earth, some of them are just not quite as rowdy, stirring up drama on a global scale. When we buy in to the myth that sitting around engaging with plants is nothingness, we prevent ourselves from expansion in so many ways.
Make tea, or get blazed, but don’t worry because either way it’s really something!
